The TUM module in mountain sports is now an established course for the Munich students of sports as well as health scientists. This module is a mixture of leaning theoretical basics on alpinism, practial training climbing, and scientific projects on exercise at high altitude. At the end of the module the students have to participate at the expedition to the Windspitze, the second highest summit in the Ötztaler Alps. This highlight was led by Gudrun Weikert, the first German mountain guide, and Andreas Thomann, a mountain guide and member of our faculty.
As every year, starting point of the route was in Venn in Austria.This year the expedition began in the rain, but time by time the sun won the fight against the clouds and we have got a wonderful view on the Austrian and Italian Alps when arriving on the first hut, the "Breslauer Hütte". On the second day the acent to the Windspitze started early in the morning at 4:30 a.m. and ended up after long kilometers of snow hiking in the evening at the Vernagt hut. The third but also the last day was closed with training in rock climbing as well as ia ferrata scrambling.
In gerneral, in this module, students attend lectures on topics that range from evidence-based training methods and nutrition for mountain sports to genetic variants that have been naturally selected in Tibetans and people that live on the Andean altiplano. The expedition also included student experiments to study whether fat or carbohydrates are more oxygen efficient, how much exercise at Munich level or high altitude affects oxygen saturation and to estimate 24 hour energy expenditure during the summit day. In addition to that, students learned mountaineering skills including via ferrata scrambling, glacier walking plus ice technique.