Vinson blog part 3: Pee in this, poop in that and eat as much as you can!

This wee blog is more of an info session rather than thoughts and feelings. It’s more facts and figures and may be the odd slightly graphic(ish) description….sorry but I had to paint a picture!

Now, let's get down to the nitty gritty. Food and toilets are 2 of the basics on expedition and 2 of the things that most clients often worry about the most. Fortunately, these days I’m quite happy to eat what’s put in front of me, barring desiccated coconut which is the Devil’s food, and to use facilities as I find them, or go find my own.

Imagine the scene….it was autumn 2013 and we had reached Manaslu base camp at a lofty 4800m. Bhola, our Sirdar (Base Camp Manager) and all round great friend was giving us a tour of our tented home for the next month or so and took us down to the toilet tent. A very simple structure of a blue tent big enough to stand up in, just, and a barrel beneath surrounded by flat rocks posing as foot plates.

‘Didi, you can’t pee in the barrel whilst you are pooping. You have to aim in front’ I just looked at Bhola, he went bright red and we both moved on.

Now, I’m not sure about all of the ladies out there but controlling flow in a particular direction, unless you are using a sheewee (pee funnel), is a tad challenging at best. However, I had plenty of practice on that expedition and it has put me in good stead for future expeditions such as Everest, Denali and now Antarctica. When I read the expedition info they were quite specific about what you do at Union Glacier (UG), the hub of expeditions in Antarctica, and when you get off the vehicles which bring you from the runway to your temporary home, you are given a tour of definite do’s and don’t. Rolfe conducted our tour and it was quite entertaining to hear him explaining the importance of hygiene when he is usually quite averse to the use of hand gel! How people change eh!

At UG, there are porta cabins which contain the toilets with 2 seats in each cubicle. One for pees and one for poops and paper. There is no running water but a huge vat of anti-bacterial hand gel and plenty of instructions as to what to do. Absolutely fair enough. You see, all of the human waste at UG and the poop from remote camps are taken off this incredible continent. I witnessed it with my own eyes, seeing the pee barrels being loaded onto our Ilyushin for our flight back to Punta Arenas.

In the porta loos at UG you are surrounded by a sturdy floor, 4 walls and a ceiling. It’s a tad different at the 3 camps on Vinson. You can certainly sit and ogle at the views and fortunately on my rotation, the winds were not too high otherwise you’d go flying with your trousers around your ankles!

En route between camps there are a few yellow flags and these are the only places you are allowed to pee. If you want to go in between then the pee bottle is your friend. Great fun whilst connected to a rope….not! However, I love the strict nature of these rules. The environment is so clean and the pee spots are as few and far between as possible.

As for doing a number 2, well, that’s all a very simple do too. You are given a hygiene bag or two when you leave Vinson Base Camp (VBC) and reuse these at Low Camp and crack open a new one for reuse at High Camp, bringing down the bags when you head back to VBC, where they are then flown out. A modicum of comfort and modesty is given in the form of a bucket with a seat and a wall of ice blocks, cosy! At High Camp there were ‘his and hers’ facilities, not that anyone used both at the same time bar one married couple! Everyone was very considerate and left the facilities as they found them, bar the person who pooped into the bucket, covered it with paper and then left it there. Darren, one of the guides who was Rangering on my rotation, was not impressed when he cleaned it out…..eewwww.

It’s funny that during a lot of talks, one of the most asked questions is ‘where do you go to the loo’, especially at Primary Schools. So now you know!

And what comes out is made by what goes in and food is 100% fuel on expeditions. When I don’t have a choice of what I eat, I eat what I’m given because I know it’s right for the environment and will fuel me for the days to come. I’m not a fan of big plates of pasta or rice but if that’s what’s put in front of me, down it goes. You can’t run your phone on an empty battery or your car on an empty tank, your body is just the same. However, and I nearly didn’t tell you about this because I didn’t want you to think I’d gone soft or that it was all too luxurious but on the first night at VBC we had steak. Yup, you read that right, steak! Murph, our VBC chef, is an absolute genius in his basic kitchen. ‘Don’t get used to this Jo but make the most of it’ I kept saying to myself ‘We’re on dehydrated meals after this!’ so, if it’s put in front of me, I eat it!

To be honest, it all felt a bit Gucci. I expected to be melting my own drinking water and living on dehy meals for the entire expedition. I’m not complaining mind, just it was all a bit of a surprise! I’m used to good food at Base Camps around the world so why would this be any different, however….! Before we headed up higher, we were told to take a couple of meals from the freezer. Yes, there is a freezer dug deep into the ice! Food is cooked at UG or VBC, sealed in bags and then frozen (it doesn’t take long to freeze!) At Low Camp we stuck the bags in boiling water, let the contents heat up and bingo, freshly made chilli or lasagne poured into your bowl. I know, still a bit Gucci but I’m certainly not going to swap freshly made wholesome food with dehydrated meals. Those were to come.

En route each day we just snacked. You have a good breakfast of hot muesli or porridge, snack along the route to the next camp and then get stuck into whatever delights you have planned for dinner. At High Camp we had the pleasures of dehydrated meals which, for some reason, my body decided it was not so keen on. I’ve eaten more than my fair share of these bags of fuel in the past but have recently become accustomed to FirePot meals by Outdoor Food (which are awesome!) and I think my body went into rebellion! Calories are calories though, so meals of hot muesli kept me going for the few days we were up high. It’s amazing what your body is capable of when you put it through its paces and your mind is in the right place. I made it to the summit of Vinson and back, a 9-hour 14km return journey, on a diet of a bit of muesli for breakfast and then 2 x Twix bars en route. I knew that I was fit enough, despite some setbacks with my training, I knew on paper I’d completed bigger days on bigger mountains on a few jelly babies, but you never know what each mountain is going to throw at you. Fortunately, Vinson was kind enough to us weather wise and with me at the front of the rope on the way down, I got a wriggle on. There’s no point in hanging around on the descent and if you have the strength, go for it!

And did I lose any weight – hell no!! I’m fast approaching 50 and my body has suddenly decided to hang on to every ounce of fat, just in case the end of the world is nigh. Or, and I’m hoping it’s this explanation, my body is so used to being at altitude and in the cold that it adapts really quickly. Who’d have thought that this would be my new normal.

Hydration, hydration, hydration…..Maji ni dawa nzuri…..Water is the best medicine…..and every other H2O related saying that I usually come out with when guiding on expeditions! I definitely needed to practice what I preach and at altitude, water is so important. On a shorter expedition like this, even up to just below 5000m, it’s still key to keep on drinking the Sky Juice (a Jamaican BT Engineer described it as that years ago and I loved it!). The atmosphere is so dry and when the sun is shining brightly and you are not in a shadow you can get a bit of a sweat on whilst on the move, plus your body goes into automatic diuresis when it detects it’s in the land of limited oxygen so basically, if you don’t want to get a headache, drink!

Now, you’d think that as we were surrounded by frozen water in a variety of forms that making water wouldn’t be too much of an issue but there is most definitely an art. On our rotation, V3, and from the ALE side of things we were a merry band of 9 clients, 3 guides and 3 rangers (more about the rangers in the next blog). At Low and High Camps we sort our own water, at VBC it’s sorted for us by the amazing Murph the Mighty Chef.

In our large clam shell mess tent, you step down below ground level so that you can actually stand up. A large pit is dug and the tent popped over the top and a long shelf is carved out for seating and cooking. We use MSR stoves which, up on Vinson, are run on aviation fuel. Yes, it’s an odd one I guess as you’d expect a more normal form of fuel. They can run on spirits too (the alcoholic kind, not the ghoules!) if you are desperate, but with the need to cut down on the different types of fuel needed on this mountain, having one form of fuel cuts out the problem of cross contamination or worse. One is suitable for a variety of tasks and aviation fuel was our one.

The stoves are fired up early in the morning and are kept running for most of the day as long as someone is watching them. Making water is a constant task with the number of us in our rotation. If each of us drank as little as 3 ltrs a day, including use for the dehy meals, teas and coffees, that’s 45 ltrs of water, minimum. Snow (not the really fluffy stuff) is dug up and popped into a huge pan with a small amount of water at the bottom. You then wait, and wait. Flasks are constantly being filled, emptied and refilled. Stoves primed, kept at optimum, making sure the fuel doesn’t run out and that the tent is well vented so that we are not gassed out. It’s a production line of necessity but one of the most important on the mountain, each guide taking their turn and us clients getting stuck in too.

What I loved about this expedition was that there was a true team spirit amongst all climbers but especially amongst us ALE clients and guides. If someone is selfish it has a big impact on everyone else so ultimately, no one is ‘The One’. It was just brilliant.

Next up: 'The Big Day' Living in the moment but staying connected and remembering why I was there.

Climbing the 7 summits and supporting children's mental health charity Place2Be. 6 completed, 1 to go....in 7 weeks!

Climbing the 7 summits and proudly supporting children's mental health charity Place2Be because mental health matters 💚 1 summit remaining in 7 weeks! #findyoureverest
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