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Should overweight people climb? If they want to, then yes of course they should.
I don't have any hard fact to back it up, but I do know a few climbers that are slightly overweight and have participated in guiding climbing days where some participants where seriously overweight (in some cases due to obvious medical reasons, in other cases I don't know why).
...
47
There are a few things that influence your body's ability to regulate heat. Nutrition, clothing, behavior, and practice are the big ones.
Nutrition is important as far as making sure you're properly hydrated and are replete with electrolytes. It's possible to become dehydrated even while drinking enough water. To fix this, make sure you consume salts such ...
43
Anybody who has severe allergies which could lead to anaphylaxic shock should carry appropriate medication with them. Typically, that would consist of:
An antihistamine (e.g. benadryll)
An epinephrine auto-injector (aka "Epi-Pen")
Benadryll is available over the counter and you should have it in your first aid kit. Epi is by prescription only (at least in ...
42
I don't think they ever do test bites.
If it looks anything like a dot surrounded by a ring, go see a doctor as you might have Lyme disease.
From the Centers for Disease Control
Tickborne diseases can result in mild symptoms treatable at home to severe infections requiring hospitalization. Although easily treated with antibiotics, these diseases can be ...
41
How much sea water can I safely drink? = None
If you drink sea water, how much fresh water do you need to drink to off set the sea water you drank? = 2.8 units of distilled water per 1 unit of sea water (to neutralize without adding hydration)
The "scientific" answer to this question involves a lot of complex math, human physiology and significant ...
34
Carrying less weight makes a big difference. My packing follows the "be prepared" style more than the ultralight one, but even I admit it's easy to carry too much.
Stepping cautiously especially on descents and trying to avoid dropping too much on one step are both important.
A pair of trekking poles is very helpful, and you might need to lengthen them ...
33
I'm fat, and I climb.
Now to be fair I climb indoors and not up the side of a mountain, but some of the problems I face would tend to be the same. Also I climb for fun. It's a much better workout than a treadmill. But I am by no means a serious climber.
Safety gear is harder to find. I am a big dude, not just fat (though I am that too). Finding size 16 ...
27
Yes it is possible to sunburn through clothing. Clothing does block some of the Ultraviloet radiation but not 100%. A lot of outdoor recreation clothing is now marketed with treatments that gives additional UV protection.
26
You could ask the similar question "Most runners I see aren't fat, so is it wrong to start running as a massive guy?"
Of course the good and really good climbers are most likely on the thinner side because of obvious and already denoted reasons. Besides that, as for runners, do the sport but don't start over-motivated. Often people who like to get 20kg off ...
26
As excellent as the previous responses have been (and they all have great advice), I'd add that you want to be FLEXIBLE. Stretching is crucial, and not just for your knees. Hip flexors are a very important part of the equation too.
Stretch all the muscle groups in your lower body. Your knees will be affected primarily by your quad (thigh) muscles, but all ...
25
IMO the best solution right now is not to go. I live in the PNW, and I'm simply avoiding strenuous exercise until air quality improves. I wouldn't enjoy hiking with a mask on, and it's unhealthy to exert oneself with these air quality levels. I had a hike planned for this weekend which I called off due to the fire and air quality situation, and that same day ...
24
It takes about 2 years to fully get used to heat.
A ball cap is not good. Get a vented brim hat. The old straw hats are very good, they absorb moisture, and cool by evaporation. The woven reed cone Asian style hats are good.
Wear light colors. Cotton wicks moisture away to help cool. Tropical wool is the best there is. I recommend a 60% cotton 40% wool mix.
...
24
Theoretically, it might be possible to survive on fish, rainwater and desalinated seawater. In one 1930 experiment, two men survived for a year eating exclusively meat without experiencing any health issues. This indirectly suggests that meat (and therefore possibly also fish) contain all the essential nutrients, but this was a small and relatively short ...
23
Talked to my doc today during a visit for something else. It's Iliotibial Band Syndrome. The band of connective tissue that runs along the outside of the knee becomes irritated and inflamed. It's often caused by over-pronation and poor gait which is exacerbated on the weight bearing leg (not the landing leg) when going downhill. Once injured, the only ...
19
If it is clean, fresh snow, it is safe to drink. This is basically drinking rain water. It hasn't had time to pick up pollutants when it is newly fallen. I live in New England, and kids do this all the time. You get taught early to only do this with white snow.
Make sure that the snow is actually clean: the longer it sits, and the more urbanized an area is, ...
19
That definitely sounds like a tick bite from a lyme disease infested tick. Get to the doctor ASAP and they can give you an antibiotic that can kill the disease before it becomes a long term problem.
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The best way to melt snow is to put it in a bottle inside your jacket under your mid layers while you're on the move and let your body heat melt it. Do not place it against the skin, leave a layer or two between you and the bottle. It's advisable to always leave your bottle in your jacket in subzero temperatures, it can freeze if left in your bag.
Melting ...
18
Was there any logic behind this practice (rubbing frostbite with snow)? Is this method encouraged /
discouraged by modern medicine?
According to Hypothermia, Frostbite and Other Cold Injuries: Prevention, Survival, Rescue ...
By Gordon G. Giesbrecht, James A. Wilkerson, the treatment gained popularity in the Napoleonic Wars because
rapid rewarming ...
17
For wounds with heavy bleeding or that are deep, the standard practice is to:
Apply direct pressure to the wound.
Elevate the injury to decrease blood flow.
In short, if the flow of blood is high enough that it won't clot then you want to impede the bleeding by whatever means possible. As mentioned elsewhere, tourniquets are a last resort, where the loss ...
16
First I will describe the stages of frostbite focusing on how to detect them and what are the implications of each. Secondly I will address handling frostbite.
Classification
Stages of frostbite are divided into two classes: Damage to the skin (first and second stage) and damage including deeper tissue (nerves, muscles, tendons) (third and fourth stage).
...
16
Ear popping is due to the difference in the pressure between the outer and the middle ear. Popping of ear occurs at high altitude to allow for the two pressures to equalize.
Now, there's no correlation between ear popping and altitude sickness in the first place. So, in case you are worried about AMS due to the non-popping of ears, it wont happen. Second, ...
15
Either option is acceptable, particularly since you aren't going very high. There are rare instances where people get Acute Mountain Sickness (AMS) or worse even at relatively low altitudes, and these are more common when there is no acclimatization. However, it is very rare for such problems to suddenly arise and not be fixable (through rapid descent). Each ...
15
Around sunrise and sunset, the sun is much less intense. You would get around 5 times less intensity in the first or last hour of sunlight than in the middle of the day.
Here is a graph of this effect (It's from a paper, though the paper itself is behind a paywall),
graph http://ars.sciencedirect.com/content/image/1-s2.0-S0960148108003091-gr4.jpg
and ...
15
Post-holing has very real risks due to the simple fact you have no idea what lies beneath the surface of the snow until you punch through and bang, scrape or wedge your leg under, against, between or in a hidden tree, log, rock, hole, creek, etc.
Some of the risks:
Barked Shins: Often you'll post-hole the deepest beside buried logs where the snow might be ...
15
As far as I know you should be able to survive for quite a long time.
I often hear about ocean racers who have just freeze-dried foods to eat and they live on that for more then 2-3 months at a time.
There are no side effects. They are in fact very healthy, so I see no issues, apart from a very dull taste, that you can't live on this indefinitely As far as ...
15
There is no documented scientific relationship between individual blood pressure and AMS. Furthermore, your guide appears to be completely mis-informed as to the mechanics of AMS. The most common symptom of AMS - a roaring headache - is caused by swelling of the brain as the body attempts to make up for reduced oxygen in the blood by pumping harder and ...
15
I'll be sticking to the "Descent and Knee pain" part of the discussion here.
Yeah, there is no doubt that a descent definitely makes knee-pain worse. (I am strictly sticking to the point that it's not caused solely by descending the mountain).
The intensity can vary person to person and that is depending upon habits one has developed over time. Habits here ...
14
Seawater is not itself sterile, in fact, it has all kinds of organisms. Salt in a wound is likely to hurt, and saltwater won't be a particularly effective antiseptic.
With wound cleaning, it's always a question of trade-offs. It might be better to use less-than-sterile water to clean an extremely dirty wound if infection is otherwise inevitable. However, ...
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