the himalayas
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- vespa
anyone climbed? i'm going in 3 weeks. advice appreciated!
- ********0
wear a coat.
;)
- vespa0
you're a man of towering insight moth
- tomkat0
my girlfiriend has been to this place "Mcleod Ganj" that she reckons as one of the most beautiful places ever.
- ********0
that's a big step! woohoo, nice good luck.
- ********0
are you actually going to climb, or just look?
- sherman0
I would like to check out any words or pictures once you get back. Its always been a place i wanted to visit.
keep us posted
- vespa0
climbing to 15,200 ft! oxygen required apparently...
i wonder if i need to be a a state of semi-fitness to do this. hmm.
- ********0
uhmmmmmm, yeah you might want to be fit for this man. :)
- -leah-0
WOW coooool!!! are you gonna get a donkey and some sherpa's? man, i hope you take pictures! good for you!
- lowimpakt0
i wonder if i need to be a a state of semi-fitness to do this. hmm.
vespa
(aug 31 04, 09:53)
--------------------------------depends on how long you are taking to climb and if you are carrying all your equipment etc. I do a little bit of hillwalking with the girlfriend (to get away from it all ye know). I did a 3 day walk on my own 2 weeks ago and carried my tent, food, clothing, cooking equip etc. even though the walk was relatively flat the weight on my back was tough going so that can affect the difficulty level a lot.
man, i am jealous of you, Id love to go to the himalayas. :(
- kld0
coupla stair master sessions might do the trick
- ********0
climbed to 13,770 last month in the tetons, i've been living in NYC(sea-level) and got throttled. i was so beat. fun though.
- vespa0
well we are taking 10 days and i think there will be mules for a fair bit of it to carry some of the weight.
basically i'm going to be helping lots of old people up the mountains on a pilgrimage, so it can't be that bad. (cut to a shot of a 70 year old sprightly indian woman bounding up the mountain in sandals and a sari, with me gasping smokers' lungs' curses at a stubborn mule piled high with the extraneous mountaineering equipment of 20 old people)
- kezza_20
When I was in the Andes a couple of months ago I climbed a volcano in Equador (http://www.andes.org.uk/peak-in... which took me up to 17,500 ft (just over 6000m). I stayed above 4000m for the week before hand, which had me waking up in the middle of the night to throw up from the altitude sickness. It fucked me up properly for 3 days (both ends kinda stuff).
By the time we climbed I was ok, but Jesus it was hard. Like I'm pretty fit (ish), but fuck me.
Altitude though has nothing to do with fitness though as such, its the amount of oxygen you can carry around your body, i.e the higher amount of red blood cells and wider veins the better. So really you won't know until you get there.
If you have ever given blood and you take ages to fill a pint, be warned, you'll struggle.
Other than that you'll love it. I'm thinking of heading that way when I leave Australia, so tell us what it's like.
- vespa0
damn that's making me nervous kezza
the last time i did any climbing was as a teenager - mount kinabalu in sabah, e malaysia, (13,455 ft) and i remember we went up with my uncles athletic team and one of his fittest athletes got altitude sickness and could hardly walk...
i guess you'd recommend i bring lots of wet wipes then
- kezza_20
It really has nothing to do with fitness...
I went to a place called Colca Canyon on a tour in Peru... about 4,200m up and it was a really mixed group... a couple of oldies, fatties, etc.
everyone else was walking about and myself and this Aussi surfer guy, the 2 youngest and fittest people, had to lie on the bus with Oxygen. Really it has no bearing on your fitness, other than the ability to walk up a steep hill.
If you go to the gym or something like that at home you'll be fine.
There is a drug which a doctor gave me...you can get it from pharmacies in the UK. Basically it masks the effects of altitude sickness, which gets you though the day. But you dont want to take it a lot for various reasons.
I can find out what it's called. What ever you do, take some re-hydration salts (get them in Boots) they are invaluable. and some bananas for natural blockage...
- abstrakt0
I clibmed Mt. Shasta (14,179 feet) a couple weeks ago. My advice... TRAIN. i figured i was generally fit so I'd be alright, but I didn't take into consideration the pack. Now, the pack weighed about 70-80 pounds. You know when you do squats at the gym? Imagine doing squats with 70 pounds on your back, up a 40-45 degree angle in the snow, with EVERY step you take, for 2 days straight. it was not easy to say the least. i started getting a bad headache towards the summit, but i toughed it out and summited. When I got back down to around 9,000 feet I felt better. also keep in mind that water is the most important thing. i'm sure the snow there is pretty clean so you may not need a filter, but we definately needed it.
- 2cent0
damn.. i'm jealous, some of you have been on some amazing treks and vespa, man... thats gonna be amazing.
i can only imagine how wind bagged i would be, i feel like falling over after the climb from Whistler Mountain to Flute and thats probably only a 500-750' vertical over a distance of maybe 2 miles at 7500' elevation.
i gotta stop smoking... have a blast man.
- kezza_20
abstrakt right...
Water bottle
Water purification tablets
re-hyration salts
High energy bars
well fitting pack
first aid kityou'll be fine
just take it easy and climatise.
I had coca tea in the Andes which worked wonders, but Im not sure if they have it in Nepal.
The locals always have a remedy and it normally works.
- kodap0
hehe
..
nose protection definately