Category: Health

How do you get ready for 6,476 m (21,247 ft)?

Sep. 17 Health, Nepal, Trekking adventures 1 comment

We leave for Nepal in a few short weeks to climb a peak in the Sagarmatha Region of Nepal. Mera Peak is 6,476 m (21,247 ft) and while it is called a trekking peak and not a climbing peak, it wasn’t summitted until 1953, the same year as Mt Everest. To go that high means being prepared in new ways when it comes to equipment, clothing and fitness. We’ve had nearly a year to get ready, and here’s what we’ve done.

Acclimatization

Nothing will keep us from the top more than acclimatization and our fitness level. The acclimatization has to occur once we’re in Nepal and en route, as we live only 300 m (1000 ft) above sea level. Our last six months included:

These adventures were still far below where we’ll be going, so the only way to truly be prepared is to work on the things that can be done…strength, endurance and mental toughness.

Physical fitness

People put a great deal of focus on physical fitness and they should. If you aren’t fit, you will suffer from the problems that unfit people encounter when they push beyond their readiness…knee and back issues, muscle tears, cramps, stiffness, and blisters. There’s no substitute for getting out on the trail and putting in the kilometers.

Mental fitness

If you aren’t ready mentally as well, you won’t be able to tough it out when you reach the hardest parts. You may quit or worse, convince others to quit. Being mentally tough is the hardest preparation of all because you can only get there by pushing yourself beyond what feels comfortable and easy. How do you get mentally tough? If the trail is easy, go fast. If the trail is hard, go as fast as you can until your body makes you stop. Mental toughness is the reason the best riders in the Tour de France aren’t the 20-year-olds. Some of the best marathoners are in their 30′s and 40′s because the mental challenge is greater than the physical, and this takes time to develop.

Technical gear

People spend a fortune on technical gear and undoubtedly more than is necessary. We have things we bring for climbing, like harnesses, ropes and ascenders, but also things we bring for convenience, like lightweight binoculars and a good camera. We’ve developed a Mera Peak Checklist just for these items as forgetting something could be at a minimum, disappointing, and at a maximum, unsafe.

Clothing

Having the right clothing that allows a trekker to be in many climates within the span of a few weeks isn’t a simple matter. We are big believers in layering clothing so that every item has multiple uses and the ultimate effect is to have less weight to carry and much more flexibility. Anything that can be rolled, stuffed or folded into a small space needs very careful consideration.

  • First layer – Merino wool long underwear. Thin and useful in a broad range of temperatures. Doesn’t hold smells very well since it is a natural material. Wicks moisture away from your skin so you don’t feel wet when you sweat.
  • Optional long underwear – We have varying layers for wearing over the first layer as the temperature drops. Patagonia has a great system for labeling their long underwear by 1, 2, 3, and 4, with 4 being the thickest/warmest.
  • Warmth layer – When cold weather calls for more clothing, the layer above long underwear can be down. Warm, but not waterproof in our case, so we have another layer after that.
  • Waterproof layer – We both have the Patagonia M10 shells that are extremely breathable but also waterproof. This layer can be worn directly on the skin when you have warm rains down low, or over the down and long underwear when you are in frigid temperatures up high.

These four layers provide incredible flexibility for changing conditions, even within a day. It is a sort of ‘clothing system’ that makes hiking and trekking much comfortable. Heavy jackets and thick clothing in general aren’t useful as they don’t have a broad range of use, aren’t part of a ‘system’ like we describe, and take forever to dry if they get wet.

Footwear

This topic is well-covered in a recent post Why footwear matters so darn much.

Travel and its challenges

All the gear and fitness won’t make a difference if you aren’t ready to travel to your destination. We have gear bags that we check for air travel, and we have our essentials like passports, wallets and medication in our carry-on bags and never in checked luggage. We travel often and so it isn’t a difficult exercise for us. A part of the challenge is to have a great attitude and to be flexible when plans change unexpectedly. Every change is an opportunity to find an unexpected adventure, so when it happens, roll with it.

Poison oak!! Some advice on how to deal with it

Aug. 04 Advice, Health 2 comments

If you’ve hiked very much in Southern California, you’ve come across poison oak. We’re ‘blessed’ with its presence from Southern California down into Baja. If you’re allergic like most of the population, you’ve dealt with the miserable itching, inflammation and blistering. What makes it so tough is that our most beautiful and drought resistant tree, the California Oak, has a similar leaf and often grows side-by-side with its nasty cousin. To complicate matters, poison oak only requires water once per year to survive, and truly thrives when we have a wet Spring or Summer as we had this past year. Lastly, it has different looks in different environments and can be ground covering, a climbing vine, or a free-standing bush. Yikes.

Our friend Dennis Pikop describes the darkness of this plant as, “Almost a dichotomy; ‘oak’ is marvelous, strong and beautiful while ‘poison’ invalidates all that is beautiful and creates fear.” Well put.

Avoid it

The best defense is to know what the plant looks like and to avoid coming into contact. In early Spring and Summer, it appears green, as you see in this photo. This is its most evil phase, as it blends in perfectly with nearly everything it grows near. Poison oak is the the original Transformer. In its green phase, the only defense is to stay on the trail.

Later in the year, it changes color and becomes the brightest, most colorful plant along the trail. Though the leaves eventually dry out and fall to the ground, they don’t lose any of their effect just because they look ‘dead’. Avoiding this plan means keeping your shoes away from all surfaces that could transfer the oils. There is a theory that everyone is allergic to this plant and it is just a matter of time and exposure…so don’t let anyone tell you, “I’m not allergic.”

There are stories of poison oak branches used to toast marshmallows ending with a trip to a hospital. It would be hard to overestimate the importance of knowing this plant.

Our preferred methods for avoiding poison oak are to wear pants when we know we can’t avoid contact, and to rinse with water when we think we’ve had contact with our skin. Since we hike often with dogs, we wash our dogs any time we think they’ve been in contact because they won’t be affected, but they’ll certainly pass it to us from their fur.

How it works

Poison oak has urushiol oil in both its leaves and bark. Once they come into contact with the skin, they bind within minutes or hours (depending on what you read) and can be washed off with a stream of running water and soap. If you don’t have soap, running water is better than nothing at all. Alcohol, contrary to much of the advice on websites, is not a good idea and can make the reaction worse by speeding penetration into your skin.  While contact with the oil is necessary to have a reaction, the oil can become airborne due to fire, lawnmowers and weed trimmers. Of course, inhaling the oil can have severe effects.

Treatment

If you’ve been unable to avoid poison oak and you now show the unmistakable watery blisters, don’t panic and be patient…it may take time for it to go away and only after you start the process of drying out the affected area. If you do nothing, you can expect to have the effects for one to two weeks. One danger of doing nothing, however, is infection of any open skin. The treatment of the rash is essentially the same as any other skin rash…through the application of topical cortisone. Severe reactions require medical intervention and may result in oral steroids or a cortisone shot.

Poison ivy

Poison ivy is a similar plant that is found in the Eastern United States that works the same way. Our advice for avoiding poison oak or treating its effects would be the same.

Note: We hope you found this information helpful. The advice here comes from personal experience and is no substitute for the advice of a medical professional.