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The closest I've ever come to getting a glimpse of what these two are going through is a 1100 mile trek through the Appalachian mountains one winter. It was fun
by jniedrauer 8y ago
The closest I've ever come to getting a glimpse of what these two are going through is a 1100 mile trek through the Appalachian mountains one winter. It was fun, but I don't think I ever want to do that again. When the temperature drops below about 0* F, there are only two things you can do: Move, or get in your sleeping bag. After a couple months of 14 hours a day alone in the frigid darkness, you start to lose your sanity a little bit. You start to forget what your body looks like. And when you do get a chance to check yourself when you cross civilization, you look almost unrecognizable from the weight loss.
And this is all in the continental United States, a few hours from civilization. It's almost incomprehensible to me to do what these two are doing.
- jshevek 8y agoHiking and camping in cold weather can be an extremely effective weight loss strategy. If done with good nutrition, enough sleep, proper gear, it can even be a healthy weight loss strategy. I'm surprised no one seems to ever discuss this, with so much of our culture seemingly obsessed with losing weight.
- xeromal 8y agoHiking and camping in cold weather requires a certain fortitude that most people don't have automatically. It's going to take a bit of willpower to subject oneself to cold and misery. haha. It eventually becomes fun though.
- pen2l 8y agoI was almost going to not ask this, but I think in a place like this it's more appropriate than inappropriate -- guys, how are the toilet-stuff dealt with? I want to do hiking/camping, but the confusion about this whole thing keeps me away. What's the normal protocol? Any books/guides you can recommend for someone who's never done this before? In particular, I'm interested in hiking an easy mountain in the northeast (I live in Boston)... one that takes somewhere between 3 to 6 days?
- leesalminen 8y agoFor #1- unzip and let it rip For #2- dig a hole, pull pants down, aim into hole, dispose of paper in hole, refill hole.
- jniedrauer 8y agoThe Appalachian trail really is a national monument. As I've hiked other trails over the years, I'm come to appreciate it more and more. The AT has alpine shelters along the trail, usually ~5-10 miles apart. If you have a good guide book, you can plan your route accordingly. And if you get lucky, there will even be an outhouse along a blue blaze, a quarter mile or so away from the shelter. If you're not on the AT, then you pretty much just find a place that's not up hill from a water source and go to town. I recommend carrying wet wipes of some kind. Definitely worth the extra weight. If you're on a moderately trafficked trail though, it's very important to "leave no trace." That means you dig a hole, and you hike out any used toilet paper. I usually use a gallon ziploc bag for trash. This becomes especially important when it's below freezing and you can't really dig holes.
- Erik816 8y agoOur culture is obsessed with talking about or thinking about losing weight, preferably with no discomfort or sacrifices involved. So the exact opposite of actually doing something really hard that will result in losing weight. That doesn't sell books.
- ryanwaggoner 8y agoHa, now I'm imagining this book: The Frigid Formula: How to Rediscover the Ancient Secret to Rapid Weight Loss Inside, only one line: "Hike the Appalachian Trail in winter, eating only what you can carry or kill."
- sterlind 8y agoDoctors hate this!
- RugnirViking 8y agoI would put it to you that trying to lose weight via diet tips etc is far harder than hiking through beautiful scenery, which is something that many people yearn to one day do 'when they get time off work' - but then maybe I am the kind of person that enjoys hiking and that colurs my opinion.
- jniedrauer 8y agoIt's stunning to me just how many calories moving over land in cold weather takes. Once you cross ~20 miles/day, especially on snow or ice, it becomes practically impossible to maintain your weight. 7000+ kilocalories a day, vaporized into raw thermal and kinetic energy.
- imesh 8y agoIf you need to be hiking all day for months to lose weight, you are ptobably going to gain it all back once you stop.
- legostormtroopr 8y agoThat's a rather defeatist outlook. I'd say that after all that hiking, especially on minimal food, your body would be accustomed to requiring less food decreasing your appetite and making it easier to maintain your weight over time.
- jniedrauer 8y ago> I'd say that after all that hiking, especially on minimal food, your body would be accustomed to requiring less food decreasing your appetite and making it easier to maintain your weight over time. Well then you'd be wrong. Weight gain is a very real problem for thru hikers after they finish. The way I managed it after I got off the trail is something that I've since heard called the "warrior diet." Just limit yourself to eating once per day in a very narrow window in the evening. That's it. Your body will be in ketosis most of the day, which it's already used to from thru hiking. Anyway, it worked for me, and I've stuck to it ever since.
- megy 8y agoGoing on a multi-day hike is just not feasible for most people.
- ghaff 8y agoIn winter conditions? That's probably true. Most people don't have the gear or know how to use it. I'm less convinced that at least a lot of people couldn't do a multi-day hike in decent weather if they wanted to.
- watwut 8y agoMuch better order is to loose weight first, train a bit to gain endurance, then try some one-day hikes and only then try multi day hike.
- ghaff 8y agoOh I agree. The claim was that most people couldn’t do a multi-day hike. Not that they’d find it difficult and perhaps not fun.
- watwut 8y agoDepend on hike obviously. You can find easy multi day hike. But it kills the purpose of dping something hard in remote place I think. And when you are about doing something hard in remote place, it is responsible to be at state where you know you limits before somebody has to carry you because you found them unexpectedly.
- oh_sigh 8y agoPeople would need to go camping for weeks on end which most of the population is not interested in or able to do because of external obligations.
- watwut 8y agoProbably two reasons for that: 1.) Unless you change livestyle after, it would work the same way as diet - meaning your chance to bounce back to previous weight would be very high. 2.) It would likely lead to many rescue needs. You need to know what you are doing and you need to be reasonably fit before you attempt it. Else you end up in situation where you cant continue due to lack of strength, being frozen and hurt by cold. Whether getting sick or frostbite. Specifically, in the mountains in the winter every year multiple people dies because he underestimates the situation or lack knowledge. Yes it can be done safely, but you need to know what you are doing.
- black-tea 8y agoIt's hilarious to me that people are that obsessed with losing weight. I figured it out years ago and right now I'm purposely gaining weight for the winter. Is it really so difficult?
- wl 8y agoThe types of fun seem relevant here. https://www.tetongravity.com/story/culture/the-three-and-a-half-types-of-fun-explained https://www.tetongravity.com/story/culture/the-three-and-a-h...
- hansbo 8y agoI am not trying to say that I was happy, during those weeks of hauling a sledge across an ice-sheet in the dead of winter. I was hungry, overstrained, and often anxious, and it all got worse the longer it went on. I certainly wasn't happy. Happiness has to do with reason, and only reason earns it. What I was given was the thing you can't earn, and can't keep, and often don't even recognize at the time; I mean joy. —The Left Hand Of Darkness