Driving home after climbing

[YocumRidge]

How do you deal with those long drives after high endurance climbs that take everything out of you? Anything to increase the mental alertness except caffeine?

 

I have just recently survived the car crash after ending up in the ditch but oh man, that was scary...

 

 

[kevbone]

Short naps on the side of the road. Always worked for me.

 

[YocumRidge]

Staying awake is not the problem for me, Kev, but the ability to concentrate is.

[billcoe]

Whoh, glad you're OK, you might try napping like Kev says, it works for me. Even 10 min and I'm alert and good to go.

[JosephH]

You're lucky, we've lost a couple of climbers in recent years to just that kind of accident - take the naps...

[Water]

on highway 401 that goes along the length of southern ontario from Detroit/Windsor up to Montreal they have big signs every 20 minutes that say something like:

 

Fatigue Kills

Pull over and rest

 

it is all flat as hell there so...kinda better. One time in high school after too much sleep deprivation driving an hour home at 1am I woke up in the grass on the side of I-75 in SE michigan doing 65mph... managed to be back on the road and enough adrenaline to get home. when i woke up the next morning I swore it must have been a dream, but I went out and my car looked fine, until I looked under and it was just a big mat of grass and dirt on the underside.

 

glad you are okay! yes, the rests are worth it. Even 10 minutes. I think they are a stop-gap measure but i think the best choice of everything.

[rob]

+1 for napping.

 

BUt, I read somewhere that if you nap, you should nap for under 20 minutes, or for over 90. Something about sleep cycles...sleep cycles take about 90 minutes or something and if you awake in the middle of a "deep" stage, you get that "sleep momentum" thing where you feel even worse than you did before napping. But if you wake up before or after it, you feel (relatively) refreshed.

[Cobrien1125]

Why is this even a question? If your unable to concentrate you need to revitalize, most humans do this most efficiently through sleep. If this isn't something you can do for yourself then how bout for the rest of us you may run into on the way home.

 

Edited August 6, 2012 by Cobrien1125

[yellowlab03]

I ran more asleep at the wheel wrecks as a fire fighter than I did drunk driver wrecks. If you are having a hard time concentrating or staying awake, it is best to pull over and grab some sleep. I wish I was better at making myself pull over and take a nap, most of the time you convince yourself you can just power through though and you just keep driving. I woke up after my truck took out a corner post of a barbed wire fence once, that sucked and woke me up real quick.

 

[max]

Why is this even a question? If your unable to concentrate you need to revitalize, most humans do this most efficiently through sleep. If this isn't something you can do for yourself then how bout for the rest of us you may run into on the way home.

 

 

I know it's not very cool to say what people should, but I'd have no problem saying "If you're drunk, you shouldn't drive regardless of the inconvenience it may cause you." Seems to be a similar situation.

[genepires]

screw naps. have lots of friends along the i5 corridor and sleep for reals at their house instead. that way you can be social in the mornings. I got a tacoma and a bellingham connection.

[billcoe]

I'd love to crash at your friends house's Gene, but find that the zonking occurs too quick. I'm usually happy to make it as far as the next pull over spot where I won't get hit by the next tired driver. When I was younger, gutsing it out was fine, and could drive the 22-24 hours to Joshua Tree via will power. Now, getting the 24 miles home from the farside at days end can entail a pull over in Vancouver, a scant 5 miles from home. But I feel much better:-) The before and after difference for me is huge.

 

regards:

 

Bill

[genepires]

was thinking more about pre planned stop overs between J-burg and portland. Like staying at Pat's house in seattle.

 

yeah, there is not much time before onset of tired and time to pull over, especially after 40. Maybe that is why older folks have RV's.

[markwebster]

I've had great luck using talking books on my smart phone to stay awake. They are a free download at the library and they last for up to 8 to 12 hours. Some have been so good we fight over which chapter to listen to, since each driver gets to a different "page". You can put a dozen on your smart phone no problem. If it's a droid, they don't expire.

 

Driving barefoot can help, or rolling down the window. If my wife is with me, she does this thing where she scratches my right arm very lightly like a rotisserie massage or something.

 

Beyond that, chocolate covered coffee beans are cool because you get the buzz without the liquid.

 

And, of course, slow down. When you find yourself going 40 on i-5 it's time for a nap.

[Off_White]

You know, when I die, I want to go peacefully in my sleep, just like my grandfather. Not screaming in terror like his passengers.

 

I too have become a big fan of the shallow dive through the dream pool. Hell, I did it just a couple months ago on the half hour drive home in the late afternoon, I was feeling a little pinball eyeballs syndrome and took a ten minute nap at a gas station.

 

I've survived a couple crashes in decades past, one just a brownout that led to hitting a tree with three passengers 4 miles from home after skiing at Rainer(everyone but the car was fine), and the other a full on wake up in the median in Southern Idaho after leaving Joshua Tree that morning. The latter resulted in me taking out the driver side window with my shoulder and breaking the windshield by hitting a snow stake, and left me driving to Pocatello for x-rays wearing goggles to keep the swirling glass shards out of my eyes.

 

Fortunately, in the 30 years since that event, I've become a big believer in the old adage, "Always go to bed before you go to sleep."

[selkirk]

Sunflower Seeds, plain salted ones still in the shell. I always have a bag in the car. Throw a handfull in your mouth and shell them/eat the seeds a batch at a time. It seems to take just enough attentiveness to keep me focused and awake without taking my full attention. Plus after an hour or two the salt starts to eat a whole in your cheek and that hurts like hell which also helps the attentiveness thing

[YocumRidge]

was thinking more about pre planned stop overs between J-burg and portland. Like staying at Pat's house in seattle.

 

Not J-burg, Gene.

That was after Rainier when I got a plenty of sleep on the summit the previous night and was driving home at a very reasonable 5 p.m.

Hence the question, but sounds like I should have made myself stop and take naps anyway...

[rob]

so you're saying you ran off the road NOT because you were tired but because you just couldn't pay attention for long enough? They have other drugs for that, you know.

 

[tvashtarkatena]

FYI: Remodel Hell did not prove to be eternal, so there's now a decent bed available for those passing through Seattle in need of shelter.

[YocumRidge]

FYI: Remodel Hell did not prove to be eternal, so there's now a decent bed available for those passing through Seattle in need of shelter.

 

The sheep couch was very comfy as I recall...

[Crillz]

Here are a couple good methods:

 

1. The long blink method on strait sections of the road

2. Alternate between resting eyes - close one eye at time for a few minutes of rest

 

[tvashtarkatena]

We had to eat the sheep. Damn this economy!

[KaskadskyjKozak]

How do you deal with those long drives after high endurance climbs that take everything out of you? Anything to increase the mental alertness except caffeine?

 

I have just recently survived the car crash after ending up in the ditch but oh man, that was scary...

 

 

Metallica and/or Rammstein on full blast.

 

And cold air in the face.

[keenwesh]

Pack a lip of chewing tobacco, impossible to sleep with something that disgusting in your mouth, and it also really hurts after a while. The cancer risk is worth the level of alertness. I've driven from sundown to sunup and I credit my life and the lives of my passengers to that nasty shit.

[max]

 

Nicotine is a stimulant just like caffeine. If you're familiar enough with it to not get the pukes, and use it infrequently enough to not have built a tolerance, this is a pretty good method.

 

A chewing Primer for the aspiring alpinist-spitter:

 

Get mint, it doesn't taste so bad. DO NOT get any other flavors; their sick!

 

To acclimate yourself to it, try a peanut m&m sized dip placed squarely in the lower lip. When you start to feel dizzy/light headed, immediately remove the plug. If you take it out right then, you most likely won't get sick. If you ride it out... get ready. But continue this several times and eventually you'll tolerate it enough to use at your convenience.

 

If you're already a smoker, you may still need to acclimate yourself; I've known smokers who've really got their ass kicked by their first chew.

 

Figure out a "spitter" method for your car. Go disposable: mMost people are satisfied with an empty 16 oz pepsi bottle, but you may want something less see through! Don't try a pop can as a novice, you'll get slobber everywhere. As much as you may be tempted, don't use a water bottle because the flavor is hard to remove. Don't try spitting out the window; you'll get chew all over yourselves and your car.

 

Be ready to take a shit. It is a stimulant, after all. Finding a good place to take a crap at 2 in the morning can be stressful.

 

In my opinion, chewing is gross/inconvenient enough you likely won't use it enough to develop an addiction. Use it, don't abuse it! It really can be a useful drug.