Competitive ski mountaineering (SKIMO) has achieved great popularity within the past years. However, knowledge about predictors of performance and physiological response to SKIMO racing is limited. Therefore, 21 male athletes split into two groups (elite: VO2max 71.2 ± 6.8 ml· min-1· kg-1 vs. sub-elite: 62.5 4.7 kg-1) were tested analysed during a vertical race simulation (523 m elevation gain)...

This article systematically reviews epidemiological studies on sports injury from 1977 to 2005 in which ankle injury was included. A total of 227 studies reporting injury pattern in 70 sports from 38 countries were included. A total of 201,600 patients were included, with 32,509 ankle injuries. Ankle injury information was available from 14,098 patients, with 11 847 ankle sprains. Results show ...

To the Editor: On January 28, 2014, a group of 26 trekkers (aged 29 to 65 years), under the supervision of the authors, ascended one of the world’s highest mountains (Mt. Kilimanjaro, 5895 m) in 48 hours (Figure 1). While doing so, the group appears to have broken new medical ground, utilizing a new method to largely prevent, and as needed, reverse, symptoms of acute mountain sickness (AMS). Se...

a r t i c l e i n f o Recreation and wildlife observations occur often in hiking trails. In terms of recreation planning, few studies have combined ecological and cultural features to assess ecotourism potential of hiking trails. Seasonality has been also neglected in tourism research. In order to disperse tourists over the year and alleviate the negative impacts of mass tourism events, we prop...

It has been clearly recognized that a low barometric pressure, when first encountered, may interfere with the normal workings of the human machine, but that later by compensatory responses the body may become adapted to the new conditions. The outstanding variable encountered in ascents to high altitudes by airplane, dirigible, free balloon, or mountaineering is the tenuousness of the atmospher...

that was killed and cannibalized in a single event, some 49,000 years ago. This makes it a unique opportunity for investigating intragroup diversity, kinship structure, mating behaviour or reproductive patterns that are not going to be approachable anywhere else in the scattered fossil record. Carles Lalueza-Fox is a researcher at the Institute of Evolutionary Biology (CSIC-UPF) in Barcelona, w...