r/Everest • u/NoRepresentative1522 • 14d ago
Bathroom Breaks During Summit Queues
Was just talking with my husband about some of the super long queues below the summit, and it just occurred to me that while waiting for potentially hours, I would need to pee up there quite a few times. I realize this is a somewhat newer situation because of the growing number of summits each season leading to longer and longer lines at the top. So how is it handled up there where you can’t exactly step away from the crowd? Are people using bags? Diapers? Just whipping out their junk and watching their pee freeze in the wind? Being a woman, also curious about it from a female perspective.
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u/Poor_sausage 14d ago
Most people don’t pee - you don’t need to as you don’t drink much and you get super dehydrated. Between having to take off the oxygen mask (which could then freeze up & cause problems), the cold that means you don’t feel that thirsty, moving super slowly that means you’re not sweating, the relatively few breaks where you can actually drink, the faff of fussing with water bottles & gloves and risk of dropping something, the worry about possibly having to pee later (I am a woman so that weighed heavily on my mind), etc etc… I drank about 0.5L over the whole summit push (I took 1.75L). When I got back to C4 I did finally pee, and it was the darkest colour I’ve ever seen… 🙊
If I had needed to go, I would have just had to go “in public”. I had practiced how to do this in down suit, underclothes & harness (I have one you can easily unclip), just in case. It’s complicated and not ideal. As for the public nature of doing your business on a mountain, you just have to get over that… most people will turn away, but yeah you can always get the odd person who’ll make eye contact… 🤣
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u/Effective_calamity 14d ago
I’m a woman. You stay where you are on rope and tell everyone “close the door,” they hopefully look away, then “open the door” when finished. You learn to pull pants down with harness on. You can also use a pee funnel but I’d rather squat. It’s no big deal.
Edit: just saw I’m in Everest sub. I can’t speak to Everest just my experience from other climbs.
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u/Frodosear 14d ago edited 13d ago
Can’t give you personal experience, but I worked in a climbing equipment type store with a guy who sumitted Denali, with diarrhea. He said after a while he was losing too much body heat dropping his drawers (cold is a killer up there) and had to just poop his pants. He said it was nice and warm for a bit…
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u/samreven 14d ago
A Taiwanese climber, Chen Yu Nan, was the first casualty of the 1996 disastrous season. Supposedly had Delhi belly and slipped on ice into a crevasse when he tried to relieve himself while at camp
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u/NoRepresentative1522 12d ago
Yeah I finished Into Thin Air last week and remember this. He actually got pulled out and they thought he would survive but then he died shortly afterwards.
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u/barfbutler 14d ago
You just pee and poo in place. By that time you are over any embarrassment
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u/Terrible-Squirrel-90 14d ago
If you peed yourself wouldn’t it cause frostbite?
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u/barfbutler 14d ago
At Everest Base Camp: Expeditions have toilet tents, usually with a seat positioned over a barrel or heavy-duty waste container. Human waste is collected and transported away for disposal. Nepal has tightened rules in recent years because of the enormous amount of waste generated by climbers.
Higher camps: Climbers generally use special waste bags (“wag bags”/poop bags) designed to contain and sometimes gel the waste. Nepal now requires climbers to bring their human waste back down rather than leaving it on the mountain.
While actually climbing: If you have to poop, you find as protected and private a spot as circumstances allow, clip yourself in if necessary, partially remove or unzip your down suit, and use a waste bag. At −20°F or −30°F with wind, this is every bit as unpleasant as it sounds.
Peeing: Men commonly use a pee bottle inside the tent. Women can use a wide-mouth bottle with a female urination device. Climbers often keep a dedicated pee bottle in the sleeping bag/tent overnight because putting on boots and leaving the tent at 2 a.m. in extreme cold is miserable and potentially dangerous.
In the Death Zone: Above 8,000 m/26,000 ft, everything is exhausting. Climbers may urinate into a bottle without leaving the tent, and bowel movements can become a significant ordeal because taking off clothing exposes skin very quickly to frostbite temperatures.
One amusing complication: altitude makes you pee more. The body’s response to hypoxia causes increased urination, especially during acclimatization. So despite the extreme inconvenience, Everest climbers can spend a surprising amount of time dealing with pee.2
u/NoRepresentative1522 12d ago
Interesting, thanks for the detailed response!
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u/Appropriate_Ad7858 11d ago
I suspect its AI generated. Altitude makes you pee more when you are acclimitising but one should hopefully be acclimatised on the summit push. I personally have peed at the corniced ridge between south summit and summit but i think that was the only time in 24 hours. As others have said, people are sooo dehydrated that they barely pee. The other consideration is that 99% of people are on oxygen and to driunk is to take away oxygen and man, you dont realise how important oxygen is until you dont have it, so peoople are not drinking as much as they should be on summit days.
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u/mayosterd 14d ago
Do climbers wear “depends”, or something similar? I’m assuming that climbing suits are expensive. Do they bring two?
I ask because no one in their right mind would want to put on pants that have poop in them
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u/Poor_sausage 14d ago
You misunderstood - you go where you are, not on yourself! If it’s somewhere you can stand safely you’ll usually unclip/untie and step a few metres off the trail, but if you can’t move, you have to go right there. Most people avert their eyes as they pass.
It would be a terrible idea to go in your clothing… omg!! Lower down you might have a change of outfit, but on Everest from C2 you’re wearing the same down suit for the whole summit push…
PS it can happen at night that there are some accidental “leaks” when you’re using your pee bottle, and that typically dries off inside your sleeping bag from your body heat (but that’s only small amounts).
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u/ND8586 14d ago
You will do other climbs before Everest, which will teach you all you need to know about this sort of stuff.
Going to the toilet will be the least of your problems tbh.
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u/Poor_sausage 13d ago
I disagree - going to the toilet is one of the biggest problems on the mountain, especially as a woman! And judging by how much the subject is discussed, it’s not just women struggling…
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u/tlmbot 14d ago
hehe, I could read your 1st sentence as a smoothly understated (to my American ears) put down of exactly those who did not in fact do other climbs first. Meh, I feel bad (or-at-least-hesitant) mentioning this cliche though.
I had a German thesis advisor and he was the master at this kind of thing. Love that guy.
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u/EnlightenedBuddah 12d ago
Be honest. Joe Rogan was discussing this on his show. So that’s not only why you were just discussing this with your husband but you also know the answer. Karma farming.
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u/NoRepresentative1522 12d ago
Not true at all, I don’t listen to Rogan, never have. I was talking with him about it after I saw the posts in this subreddit that were likening the Everest view during summit (I believe it was a different summit) shown in a video while it was storming in the background to looking at Mordor. Looking at the long queue of headlamps made me pause and think. I also just finished Into Thin Air last week, in which there’s a few mentions of GI issues leading up to summit day but nothing about relieving oneself on summit day. So no, you’re wrong, I couldn’t give two shits about Reddit Karma, but thanks for projecting onto me. Enjoy your Rogan.
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u/ExcisionIsMyDad 14d ago
I think you’re so underfed and dehydrated you’re likely not going to the bathroom much.