Throughout my expedition to Everest, I kept on with my memory training. Some strange things happened to my memory up there; things that I will not go into yet, but stay tuned - a blog post about this has been long over due. What I wanted to mention though, was that I attempted to memorize a deck of cards at 26,000 ft (also known as the Death Zone). In the Death Zone, there is about 1/3 of the oxygen in the air as there is at sea level. It is one of the harshest environments on earth; a place where the human body can no longer acclimatize and where your body basically wastes away every minute you spend in it.
Yeah, it's pretty brutal on the lungs and the brain. Definitely a tough place to keep your mind straight. Even with supplemental oxygen, it's tough to stay alive. On top of that, you get to cram yourself in a cozy little tent, looking like this:
So anyways, I gave memorizing a pack of cards a go. Actually a few goes...to no avail, unfortunately. I came close though, which to me still seems pretty impressive. The closest I got was memorizing a deck in 54 seconds, with only 3 mistakes (which was really 1 LARGE mistake that alternated 3 cards), other than that it was perfect. I think this shows that there is definitely something to be said about memory techniques and visualization - that it can push the brain even in places where it shouldn't be functioning properly.
Keep your brain active, guys!
I'll be posting a video of me doing it, later today. Stay tuned!