How Do They Do It?

[Mother Natures Son]

It's 105F +(Heat Index) today and yesterday it was 103F+. Someone was asking me, "How do through hikers walk in this heat"? Good question. Drink plenty of water, I guess. How do hikers put any type of miles behind them on days like this?

[Mother Natures Son]

Sorry for the misspelling. It's really hot here.

[peakbagger]

Depends where they are hiking

Its 56 degrees F on top of Mt Washington at 2:50 PM today, 70 degrees down to 2000 feet.

[The Solemates]

To answer your question, this hiker doesn’t ��

Anything above 75 is too hot for me, so I find locations where it doesn’t get that hot.

[PGH1NC]

Temp falls about 5oF for every 1,000 t. altitude. We did day hikes in Virginia last week and planned to be done in early afternoon with descents at the end of the hikes. Short breaks and electrolytes.

[rhjanes]

They hike at night.
Or they hike from say 4 AM until 11 or noon. then crash, rest, hydrate, nap, hydrate, crash. Some might hike from say 9 PM to..... Also, many of those temps are down in valleys where towns are. It might be 100 in the valley, but 85 on the ridge.

[LazyLightning]

In 2018 I knew a lot of people would hike until the the hottest part then take a good couple hour break and hike more to camp. Kind of what I'd do and always starting at the crack of dawn, most of my day would be done. Then just a few more miles after a big break or whatever I felt like depending on the camping situation.

[garlic08]

I've made it through a couple of 100F+ heat waves on bike and foot by starting at dawn, having a siesta in the afternoon, and continuing into the evening. Then find a breezy campsite.

Mainly, support your sweat. You're losing a lot of water and small amounts of minerals which must be replaced via diet. As long as perspiration continues and it can evaporate, you'll cool off and you'll live. And rate of evaporation depends on relative humidity.

Dangerous days on the AT were climbs in the hot sun on calm humid days. On a couple of those, I started feeling dizzy, and that's the brain shutting down. I'd find the first shade and stop. Life is easier on a bike--you can make your own breeze.

It helps to understand the physics of heat transfer--radiation, conduction, convection. And some chemistry--the delta T of vaporization of water.

[Tipi Walter]

I don't mind the heat when backpacking---and I stop frequently in patches of deep shade and avoid at all costs stopping in direct sunlight. What I hate is living in my tent during hot temps, even in deep shade. Plus there's the noseeums which get pesky in camp---sometimes I build a small smokey campfire to smudge them out. Or burn an incense stick inside the tent and zip up the doors---they hate it. I wish I had a portable floor fan for summer camping---light and without batteries.

At stream crossings I always soak my t-shirt and ballcap for cooling effect. Some say camping above 5,000 feet helps but I find it's better to camp next to creeks so I can go swimming at intervals. A long cold swim gives me relief for at least two hours in camp---"cooling the motherboard". After a couple hours I repeat the "flea dip".

Sometimes the worst part is climbing a 3,000 foot mountain hump in direct sunlight with no shade. Esp with a 70-90 lb pack.

Getting a very early start is also good---6am or 7am and stopping by noon (getting a good 5 hours of hiking)---thereby avoiding most rattlesnake activity in the afternoon as they love the hottest most humid weather.

[Falcon]

I agree with Tipi, I try to camp close to a creek in hot weather. I love night hiking and many times I would just remove my socks and shoes and lie down in a creek and then rest to cool off. I do not tolerate extremely hot weather while hiking however, staying hydrated with electrolytes is of utmost importance.

[LazyLightning]

The main thing is carrying enough water between sources. PA had some long sections in extreme temps with no water. Without the trail magic drops at road crossings where people leave jugs to fill up, there would have been 15-20 miles with no water, even with the drops they were over 10 and I remember one close to 15 and carrying a lot of extra water. Of course having extra bottles with you for these sections is key.

[RockDoc]

Many of the high temps, and "increasing trends" are related to heat island effects in big concrete cities. Many weather stations are located at airports close to huge concrete tarmacks. This has been known for a long time as a major cause of "warming" (at least in temp records), as areas have been built up during the last 50 years. But the media still jumps up and down to panic everybody. It's a plan...

[rhjanes]

Many of the high temps, and "increasing trends" are related to heat island effects in big concrete cities. Many weather stations are located at airports close to huge concrete tarmacks. This has been known for a long time as a major cause of "warming" (at least in temp records), as areas have been built up during the last 50 years. But the media still jumps up and down to panic everybody. It's a plan...

Our local news points that out, sometimes a few times a week. They show temps for all of NE Texas, out in the country, east Texas, 100 miles to the west (not much large cities, but often higher temps, depending on the location of the high pressure over Texas most of the summer).

[gravityman]

The science has clearly accounted for the heat island effect, and shown global warming data are clearly when correcting for this effect:

https://skepticalscience.com/urban-h...and-effect.htm

Scientists have been very careful to ensure that UHI is not influencing the temperature trends. To address this concern, they have compared the data from remote stations (sites that are nowhere near human activity) to more urban sites. Likewise, investigators have also looked at sites across rural and urban China, which has experienced rapid growth in urbanisation over the past 30 years and is therefore very likely to show UHI. The difference between ideal rural sites compared to urban sites in temperature trends has been very small:


Figure 1. Annual average temperature anomalies. Jones et al (dotted green and brown) is a dataset of 42 rural and 42 urban sites. Li et al (solid green and brown) is an adjusted dataset of 42 rural and 40 urban sites. Li (blue) is a non-adjusted set of 728 stations, urban and rural. CRUTEM3v (red) is a land-only data set (Brohan et al., 2006). This plot uses the 1954–83 base period.