Tayson: So here's the big question, how do we live a life? Full of Adventures travel and memories on our terms without being millionaires without previous experience? And without unlimited amounts of time, that's the big question and this podcast will give you the answers. I'm your co-host Tayson and I'm Dave and you're listening to the live ultralight
Dave: podcast powered by Outdoor Vitals. Hey what's up? We'll be trying. Thanks for joining us today.
Tayson: Today I wanted to take a brief moment to do a video slash podcast type setting where we just kind of a Roundtable discussion of camping hiking and just enjoying things above tree line. I think a lot of followers of ours aspire to go back some Peaks and do some of that. But it is, it's a different animal. If you've never done it before, we definitely learned that. As I started to prepare for this one, I was asking these guys, hey, like how much water do you have? And they're like oh two leaders. I was take two leaders and you know we had to just to go through some of those things. So I want to talk about that particular piece. And get some takes on on guys, that haven't done it some guys that have done it and just kind of Go Round Table discussion with this. So I guess the start, I just wanted to ask some of the guys that had not done it. Maybe maybe Jordan and Kate here. You know what what surprised you guys about doing doing a peak? Like, what did you not expect from other hikes that you've done? for me, I I'd say the It's not I think probably Peak hikes are probably shorter hikes just because of the elevation and stuff like that. But but just the the scenery is what really? Overwhelmed me. It was just I was not expecting it to be that green and that Lush. And just I pictured Peaks to be just Rocky and just kind of you're on top of this mountain just to have all that grass and Greenery and that was That was not expecting that. Yeah Jordan I mean I've hunted before I mean most of my life. So
Dave: I've been Close to the tops of Peaks, but I've never
Tayson: actually been on top. but, once you get to that, 1100 1200. Thousand 12,000 12,000 feet of elevation it. it gets harder to breathe your lungs, definitely burn a lot so that was something that I wasn't as prepared for but, It was still overall a great experience. Let's go through. Yeah, let's go through gear here for a minute. So, gear wise, fortunately on this trip, we didn't know if we'd have water, but as we got to the trailhead, we could see there's snow up there so we could get some water. So, a lot of us dumped out water, but I know that me and Brigham. We've both hiked Peaks before and we had, like, six, seven liters of water like each for us. Because we know once if you get out there and there's no water it gets really painful, really fast because you got to drop sometimes. Thousands of feet to get water. But gear wise as far as other piece of gear. What did you guys find interesting? That that I don't know, maybe you wouldn't have thought of for a regular trip or things. You're really glad you had or wished you'd have
Dave: I mean, I'll start, I There's a lot of stuff that I don't want to say I did wrong but I think I was more experimental so we get a lot of people asking about Bibby saps and things like that. So that's something we've looked into a little bit more so I got some good footage of Dave in a baby
Tayson: sack.
Dave: Yeah. So I took a busy sack. Sock with a foresighted tarp and it worked, but I don't think I was prepared for them on a condensation that we got up there. I personally didn't like the baby sacks about wasn't for me, I probably wouldn't use that again. but, It did the trick. We also had a prototype sleeping bag, and I really enjoyed that. So, I stayed warm. I definitely brought enough clothes. One thing that I would have done differently is instead of wearing Trail Runners, I would have brought boots a little bit, something a little bit more sturdy. But besides with that, I feel like I brought enough water food, warm clothes, I anticipated it raining. So I did bring a raincoat, and things like that. So I think gear wise, I brought I was prepared but I was just experimental.
Tayson: Yeah, let's let's talk a minute about your shoes because I wore Trail Runners when we bagged a peak last year and it was pretty miserable. Because typically by the time you get to the sum of those Peaks, it's getting real steady, real rough. And so this year, I brought a pair of boots, but three of the guys did not have boots. Any thoughts on that?
Dave: I mean I would say I like the trail Runners 95% of the time but I would say saw the Alpine climbing for future reference. I wouldn't Wear the trail Runners. Just we were off Trail a lot and things like that. So going down the peak and things like that were a bit. Roughly the troll Runners that I have Ultra, that have the bigger football boxes. So Around a little bit in there coming down on the rock. What about
Tayson: trekking poles? A must.
Dave: Yeah.
Tayson: So Jordan didn't bring any. I ended up giving him one of mine. Did it help? Yeah, it was gives you more stability. I mean, if you're Favoring one side at all, when you're going down that Hill it helps stabilize you and kind of take some of the weight off you so you're able to go farther. Yeah, I find trekking poles. They make me feel like I'm in four wheel drive when I'm going up and then coming down they just take a lot of pressure off my knees and I I hike with them always, I
Dave: would say don't knock them until you try them. Like I was like that, that's like old people what used up, and then I use them in the Grand Canyon and they were a lifesaver. They also helped me on this particular trip with
Tayson: pitching my
Dave: tarp. The way I did, and letting the rain and hail come off of it. So I definitely. I love my trekking poles, like I use them all the time.
Tayson: Yeah, let's pivot and talk weather here for a minute. So typically when you go high, some of the things you don't think about is the sun is more intense. I knew I should have stopped and put sunscreen on and I did not Um, and I, I paid for that on the back of my neck, but we were up on one of the Peaks and we saw in the distance, the storm rolling in, and we decided to go get set up for those of you haven't experienced the storm, it high elevation. What was that? Like, That was my first high elevation storm. I've been on Peaks before, but not, not during the storm. I think the most significant thing for me was The. How fast it rolled in after seeing the clouds on the horizon, how fast it got with all the wind that's always up on top of the peak. I think that was something to always be aware of how quick it can get to you. Yeah. What about intensity? I'll have to throw some clips in here that I just pulled on my phone, but I like stuck my fingers out of my tent to try to get a shot through the Flop, and they was already like getting pummeled. Just on my fingers, I had a river running, past my tent, in the matter of minutes. Yeah. I mean, it was hail like, it was hailed. Yeah. August. And it was hailing right now, that I was making snowballs after it was that I had a pile about four inches deep from all the hail collecting from my one side of my tent and just leaving it on the ground. It was about that big around about four inches deep and pale. Yeah, so I mean, weather wise, always be prepared. Always know that everything Ohio Vision is just, it's just more intense. Yeah,
Dave: I'd say like just onto like you don't realize how high up you are. You're close. Obviously, you're closer to the Sun but the temperature is cooler up there. So you don't feel like you're getting sunburned like that for me. I always like to wear long sleeves but just take that into consideration when you're in high elevation that that song is brutal.
Tayson: Yeah, it definitely was that's It felt so good up there. As I was like, I don't feel like I'm getting burned. I think I'll be all right. It's only is a shorter trip. So I wasn't too worried about it, but definitely definitely got burnt because of that thought process. One other thing. I wanted to cover on this was we only went about two and a half, three miles yesterday. But in high elevation I mean what it what would you guys compare that to as far as like the feel of how far we went? It was more intense than my half marathon. Yeah that's 13 miles more intense than that. I mean, it's like we we even, I, I always try to like, understand elevation and like map, trips perfectly and stuff and we, we didn't complete our route. I mean, we got up there. We got hiking storm was rolling in by the time we stopped set up camp beside. We were gonna do Camp there. We're gonna keep going, but by the time we were set up, we were just kind of like, I don't think we're gonna go to the next Peak. I mean, it's it's It was real intense. We've been hiking for, I don't know how many hours but just just that elevation really slows things down. So when you're mapping out of Trail, if you're like, oh yeah, I do 10 miles, every day of every hike that I do, you know, a high elevation that's going to change drastically.
Dave: I'd be curious, too. Like you guys. What gear do you like? What didn't he like like what I really happy. You brought her something. Maybe you could have
Tayson: Left. I like pretty much all of my gear except for my top quilt. I like it in some sense like I kept me warm. It was definitely a good temperature. You were on the ground with your quilt. I was just on a pad. I was just on a insulated pad using a top quilt and I didn't hate it but I didn't love it either. I like top quilts in a hammock. But on the ground, I decided that I move around enough that there's just always draft that will get in because I wouldn't be on top of that opening anymore. Wouldn't have a quilt bundled under me.
Dave: Does anybody know what the temperature was the low? Last time I could check? And I'd say two, we weren't sleeping on the most level surface either. So when you have a top quilt like that, I think it kind of hurts a little bit when you're rolling one way or the other.
Tayson: What one side against the mesh?
Dave: Yeah, I would say what about you guys? Like what? What did you like? What didn't you like about?
Tayson: No way. I pull it out. I had numbers and I must have jiggled something. Yeah, there it is. Yeah, I don't know if I can believe this is 11
Dave: 10
Tayson: know, I don't know. I think it was cold as I thought it would. As soon as I woke up, I turned on my Castro and it was 45. Yeah I was I would guess we got 30s. Yeah, not freezing.
Dave: That was my guess in the third, I anticipated the low thirties but I don't think it got that.
Tayson: Yeah. Yeah I think but with the wind like that added some chill for sure. Yeah you weren't holding in much heat or what not just because the wind was always circulating things at that elevation.
Dave: I think my windbreaker was probably the best piece of gear that I brought like, windbreaker slash raincoat.
Tayson: That help. Yeah, I think the, as far as gear, I didn't like, I don't know if I had anything that I just was upset that I brought or didn't use, but gear that I really, really liked was definitely just having boots on this trip and trekking poles, like without those, the trip would have been a lot harder and a lot worse. I mean, I forgot my titanium spoon.
Dave: I
Tayson: brought a pair of titanium Chopsticks that were gifted to me. He got to eat rice with chopsticks. Yeah,
Dave: right.
Tayson: Anything else before we shut it off? Cool. Wow, I had some thoughts about
Dave: about
Tayson: elevation and how some of us were feeling the headaches or or just some of that. And my thoughts on that. I always hear about those guys that are climbing up, you know, higher mountains, like, Everest and have camps. And they just do a bit of a time. And I was just thinking about how I felt this morning as a post to yesterday. I mean, I didn't feel too bad yesterday after the peak. I had maybe a little bit of a headache, but not hardly anything, but by the time I woke up this morning, I felt 100%. Yeah, 100% gray and I think that's something to also be aware of if you're going above the tree line, you're summoning. Peaks is, you know, you're tolerance for elevation. And then how long you want to take to climatize before you? Something yeah, definitely hydrating and small bursts rather than like one bottle. Every two hours is is massive, your body just can't hydrate and lump sums like that. And then I personally, I bring salt, I bring not like, Morton salt. I mean, like like a mineral Rich salt. So, like a Himalayan salt. I bring that. And I just take pinches of that as we go because you're losing so much through sweat. So me, I lose a lot. Through sweat, not really helps me. Try to keep headaches away and keep your body running efficiently. So I know that you can get like salts pills and stuff like that. But they're going to be a little bit more expensive than just buying a packet of Himalayan, you know, mineral Rich salt, and taking that with you. I like to make it. I mix it into a water or sometimes, I'll take pinches, whatever I can do. I just thought of another thing that I might be. Worth talking about is. So we discuss how everything is more intense. above three line way up high like that just means everything that you have and do is more critical, and so, It was really beneficial that like we're a group of people that have all set up our tents before because that storm when they roll in fast. it's no place to be experimenting like setting something up for the first time or like blowing up your pad for the first time because that's the difference between your gear getting soaked, while you're struggling with it, and then I'll sleep and then or good night sleep when everything stays dry. So if if you know somebody is planning something like that I would definitely say Do lots of trips ahead of time in a more gentle environment or just practice setting things up in a park or something. Just so, when the time comes and do you need to hurry, you know, exactly where everything is and you can get your things set up and button down. Boy. Yeah, uncomfortable. Having having gear that, you know, and having gear, that's light. Becomes just more and more and more critical to hire. You go. I mean when you're when you're packing it up thousands of feet of elevation everything gets heavier, everything gets more intense. So I think that's that's a good piece of advice. You don't want to be figuring out your gear on the top of a mountain where. I mean, the one thing about being up there was it was always windy. I mean, it's always windy up that high and so, Setting up your tent, you're setting it up in the wind setting up your tarp. You're standing up in the wind and knowing your gear, definitely helps, you know. Okay instead of doing it this way, I'm gonna stake my corner, as my tent, then put my poles up, then, raise the tent, you know, just just little things like that, definitely help from from some experience. So that's good. We'll go ahead and close it off here you guys, you know since it's either inspires you or if you're headed out soon you pick up some ideas and Have accessible trip. Next time you had above tree line
