Being Untidy – by Sheila

I was interested to read about the 10 year old British boy, Sam Irving, who got to the top of the Kilimanjaro with his Mum, Ros, on 15th June this year. Brilliant achievement for such a young lad, and we were very grateful to get advice from Ros in yesterday’s guest post.  Apparently by the time their group reached the summit, everyone was feeling the altitude in one way or another! Some of the symptoms felt by the team included nausea, headaches, dizziness and shortness of breath as the air is very thin at altitude.  Sam trekked at the front of the group and although he was encouraged by the mountain guides, he took every step himself to get to the summit, despite being sick several times during that night-time final push for the top.

I mentioned to Jae that poor Sam – and it seems very many people – seem to spend time vomiting during summit night; not exactly the best experience!  She blithely replied that all three of us are very rarely “untidy”, as Mary Plain (2nd June) would rather more politely put it, so we would be fine!

However, it did make me start along another line of thought. All the experts advise that you should bring high calorie snacks and bars to give you the necessary energy to keep going through the night – and Sam and Ros followed that recommendation.  Now I wonder, what other sort of extreme physical activity does one do, while munching on a Mars bar?  You don’t see marathon runners or Tour de France cyclists stopping for a quick nosh, do you? You don’t shove down a quick Milky Way while you are pushing out a baby! Hydration, yes, in all these instances, but food – no!  It seems to me that if your body is flat out trying to do something really important like breathing or giving birth, it is going to give short shrift to what it thinks is inessential. Your body knows it won’t starve during these few hours – it is concentrating on something else more vital to existence. 

I understand that digestive woes during long distance races are so common that they even have their own (deceptively benign) name: “runner’s stomach.” Most experts say this happens because, during hard races and on long runs, your body focuses on getting your muscles the blood they need and your lungs the required oxygen, consequently sending less blood to your digestive system.   One of the solutions for runners seems to be the use of sports gels – a sweet high calorie jelly in a tube, which is easily absorbed to give you energy.  However, it seems these are not suitable for use up high mountains because the altitude makes them explode when opened.  No-one needs a mass of jelly stuff splashing in their face – and in any event, I guess they may well freeze too.  Apparently even things like peanuts in sealed packets can become hazardous at such heights.

Ideally, I suppose, sipping on some sort of high calorie easily digested drink would be the answer – but that seems to be impossible too!  During the first six days of the climb, we are recommended to carry a hydration pack in our day sacks – a sort of bladder full of liquid with a tube attached – to suck from as we walk.  But on that last night climbing up the mountain the tube is likely to become frozen.  I have taken the advice offered by John (blog post 8th July) to cut up an old wet suit and use it to lag the tube of my hydration pack, but John said that this does not always work, depending on how cold it is.  

So what happens during that night is that everyone stops for a couple of minutes every hour or so to answer calls of nature, swigs some water out of a large bottle, which hopefully will not be frozen, and to wolf down some food.  It would be a better solution if it was possible to nibble small amounts as one walked, but if you are wearing your undergloves and your overgloves and are holding walking poles – not to mention probably having much of your face covered by a balaclava, worn under your hat and hood – you are not in a position to put anything in your mouth.  

Talking of overgloves, Stew bought me a fab pair for my recent birthday.  They are real state of the art equipment.  There is a very soft piece of fabric on each thumb.  It took me a little while to work out what special purpose that has.  It is to wipe your nose with, as you go, as getting a hanky out is just as impossible as eating, with all that kit on.  Isn’t that delightful???!!!   Now I wonder if I could adapt my super gloves to cover them with some little pockets on the backs to put in some Werther’s Originals (which I love), so that I could just grab them off with my mouth, to give me energy as I walk?  That would be the answer to the vomiting problem, possibly – just something to keep slowly sucking on as one plods on.  I am working on it, and any suggestions would be most welcome!