{"id":529,"date":"2009-05-15T11:04:12","date_gmt":"2009-05-15T05:19:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.billibierling.com\/?p=529"},"modified":"2009-05-15T11:41:18","modified_gmt":"2009-05-15T05:56:18","slug":"pee-bottles-and-other-toilet-issues","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/billibierling.com\/de\/2009\/05\/15\/pee-bottles-and-other-toilet-issues\/","title":{"rendered":"Pee bottles and other toilet issues"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"The<\/a>
The daily ritual of emptying the pee bottle<\/figcaption><\/figure>As we have yet another day in paradise without much happening climbing-wise, I thought I should enlighten my readers about how mountaineers cope with \u201ccalls of nature\u201d in the middle of the night, during bad weather, or just in general. <\/p>\n

I have been climbing in the Himalaya for about ten years and I have never made use of the so called \u201cpee bottle\u201d. I never thought I would be capable of using it as I am quite clumsy and I had always been worrying about messing up my tent or my sleeping bag. And on top of that I am actually quite fortunate as I normally do not have to go to the toilet in the middle of the night. However, when I was at Camp 3 on Everest and there was nowhere to go to relief myself, Ellen advised me to convert my fine Nalgene water bottle into a pee bottle. I felt a bit apprehensive about it at the beginning but after having had a look outside and seeing the precipitation and the wind that was raging around Camp 3, I decided that it would actually be safer to pee into my water bottle. Ellen taught me how to wrap my sleeping bag around myself (probably very helpful when I will be sharing a tent with a bloke), put the bottle in the right place and just \u2018go for it\u2019. I was amazed by how easy it was (I think I am quite a natural) and I cannot believe that it took me ten years and an American female climber to teach me to appreciate the beauty of the pee bottle \u2013 so, thank you very much, Ellen. It now also saves me having to get up in the morning when I want to stay in my warm sleeping bag for another half an hour \u2013 I just grab my bottle and do my business!<\/p>\n

Of course, the use of it is much easier for men (some of them claim they are \u2018liers\u2019 \u2013 others are \u2018kneelers\u2019), and if you are wondering what a pee bottle actually is, it is nothing more than a usual water bottle or other receptacle with a wide opening, in which people relief themselves when they are stuck in their tents. Every morning the men or our expedition crawl out of their tents with their differently shaped bottles containing yellow liquid in different shades, which they empty into the toilet. Of course, there have been many tales about people confusing their pee bottles with their water bottles, but I guess so far nobody has been killed by drinking out of their pee bottle – and if you consider that some people drink a liter of their own urine a day in order to fend off health problems, it cannot be so bad.<\/p>\n

Another great thing we have on our expedition, are the so- called \u2018Wag Bags\u2019. I am sorry to be focusing on toilet issues today but I guess these things are quite essential when you are climbing in the High Himalaya. At base camp and Camp 2 (we have not really used Camp 1) we have proper toilet tents, which are equipped with a barrel into which people do their businesses, however, higher up such facilities are impossible to set up. It is very important to take human waste down from higher up as it does not disintegrate up there due to the high altitude and the cold, however, most expeditions just find a rock \u2013 which is not easy up there \u2013 to relief themselves. If you consider that there are about 350 western climbers plus about as many Sherpas on the mountain, you can imagine how bad the situation can get up there.<\/p>\n

Russell and I spoke about this issue before the expedition and I contacted \u201cWag Bag\u201d and asked them whether they could provide us with their plastic bags that are actually biodegradable themselves. It may seem absolutely impossible to some people to bring down their own human waste, however, these bags contain some powder that breaks down the waste and stops it from smelling. I am very happy that we are using these bags as it means that the Himex Team will not contribute to the human waste problem higher up on the mountain. As the bags are biodegradable, we can just put them into our toilet barrel at base camp when we come down the mountain.<\/p>\n

On a different note, Russell told us yesterday when the different groups (he divided us into two groups) will move up the mountain. I cannot disclose the exact date, however, it is great to finally have a day we can aim for. We have been separated into two different groups and I am fortunate enough to be in the first division, which is the faster one and called \u2018the Yaks\u2019. After such a long waiting period it is weird to finally know when we will be tackling the highest mountain in the world and even though I am more than excited about it, I am also very apprehensive as I am feeling very humble towards Chomolungma.<\/p>\n

I am not scared of the mountain and I am sure it will be kind to me, however, the only thing I am worried about are my fingers and toes. I know I am very susceptible to the cold and even though I have been talking to experienced people about when frostbite sets in, all they usually say is that it is too late once your hands or feet stop being cold. Having a very high pain threshold I am not sure whether my body will tell me in time, however, one David Tait, who summited on 5th May and left the expedition over one week ago, gave me his battery-driven foot warmers and I hope they will keep my toes nice and warm.<\/p>\n

I may not have time to write another entry before I enter the icefall one more time to conquer the summit of Chomolungma, so if you do not hear from me for a while I will probably be on my summit push. Some of my team members are updating their sites during their summit attempt so if you click on the HIMEX sign on my website it will also lead you to my members\u2019 sites. <\/p>\n

So long!<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As we have yet another day in paradise without much happening climbing-wise, I thought I should enlighten my readers about how mountaineers cope with \u201ccalls of nature\u201d in the middle of the night, during bad weather, or just in general. I have been climbing in the Himalaya for about ten years and I have never […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-529","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-billi-bierling-everest-diary-2009","entry"],"acf":[],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/prVG2-8x","jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/billibierling.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/529","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/billibierling.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/billibierling.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/billibierling.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/billibierling.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=529"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/billibierling.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/529\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/billibierling.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=529"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/billibierling.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=529"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/billibierling.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=529"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}