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So this weekend's trip to climb Wolf's Head in the Cirque of the Towers in the Wind River Range turned into a bit of a challenge. We left Gillette at 8am for the 6hr drive to the Big Sandy trailhead. Due to this being a 3day backpack trip combined with climbing a long route on a 12K+ foot mountain, my pack with the technical gear and water needed for the hike in weighed in at 75lbs. This weight wasn't a problem for the 1st 6.5 miles, but the last 2 miles I was working. Really steep switchbacks, huge boulder fields at the edge of glacial lakes, and giant passes really bogged me down. I didn't watch my eating and water intake as I should have, and this led to some problems later on. Despite being slowed down due to the weight, we still made the 9 miles trek into the cirque by sundown and setup camp as the sun was going down behind the Overhanging tower. That night I had a couple of leg cramps and knew something was amiss at 5am that morning when we woke to get ready for the climb. My legs felt like jello and I was gassy. I walked into the bottom of the cirque by headlamp to fill our water bottles for our morning hot drinks/meals, and the walk back up to the ridge plateau where we were camped felt way harder than it should have. I decided to inform Levi that I was feeling way more tired and "off" than usual and we decided we'd make the 1mile walk into the upper cirque at the base of Wolf's Head, and then make a decision based on how I was feeling. So we loaded up all of our technical gear and headed up. It prob took us an hour moving up the pass in the upper cirque. Once there, we decided we'd start climbing the 5th class ledges to the top of the fin and see how I handled that. At about 200ft up, I started feeling sick to my stomach and my legs were really weak. I prob could have made half the climb, but this climb is an all day 10 pitch climb that you can't get off of once you get past a certain point. We decided that due to me deteriorating, we'd set up an emergency rappel off of a boulder, and rap off where we were. After a rappel, and a short unroped down climb on some lower slabs, we were back on the trail headed back to camp. We relaxed by Cirque lake, talked to climbers we ran into, and then went back to camp after filtering some water. We relaxed, took pics, and ate lunch. Levi went down to Lonesome lake and I stayed back and rested while reading the map. I was progressively feeling worse and was dreading the early wakeup and 9mile slog back in the morning. My sickness had progressed to a slight headache and the runs. Sat night things went downhill in a hurry. I woke up in a drenched sweat, upset stomach, the runs, and leg convulsions that were freaking me out. I'd say I had to "utilize the treeline" at least 6+ times that night......I lost track. I slept MAYBE 2 combined hours that night and came to the realization that I had let dehydration and over exertion turn into my first episode of Altitude Sickness. For some reason I just never felt "right" for the entire trip. I was genuinely worrying that I wasn't going to be able to make the trek out. At 6am Sun morning, we rolled out and started tearing down camp. I was very shaky, but thankful that my stomach was mostly empty. I drank a bunch of water, ate some breakfast, and we headed out. Levi had taken my metal climbing gear, so it lightened my load by 20lbs. The start of our hike back out was the steepest.....back over the nearly 11,000ft Jackass Pass. I surprised myself and actually handled that pretty well. We stopped at Arrowhead Lake on the other side of the pass and filtered about 9 liters of water. I pounded 1 liter while were there and took some electrolyte tabs with it. From that point on I just kept getting stronger and was back to feeling like myself, albeit tired self, by the time we got back to the truck. We're definitely going back for a rematch.

What's the consensus (if there is one) around here on electrolyte tablets? Always have them on you in case you start really feeling like crap? Take them pro-actively on longer/higher climbs? Or don't bother?

I like Nuun electrolyte tablets. They seem to work well, better than straight water without the carbs in other sports drinks.

I use Elete drops because they have no taste. I think they make a difference.

WyomingSummits, sorry you didn't tag your objective! And did you actually carry 9 liters of water out?!

same as ExitableBoy.

Nuun tablets work extremely well for me and taste great (not a great taste for many other products, I tried them all). I have not used anything but water for years, but lately, I found my legs were getting cramps here and there during hard activity. These tablets, one (sometimes two) in a quart of water seem to completely stop that and make me feel a bit stronger, again, during long hikes or long climbs. I take them everywhere now.

ywardhorner wrote:I use Elete drops because they have no taste. I think they make a difference.

WyomingSummits, sorry you didn't tag your objective! And did you actually carry 9 liters of water out?!

Lol....no. It was 9 liters between the 3 of us! The thing that kills me the most is that we had 3 days of bluebird skies, no mosquitoes, and highs in the 60's......and I get my first bout of AMS. I'm just glad it wasn't REALLY bad. I was wanting to get maybe Wolf's Head and Overhanging Tower done.....instead I was squatting I the bushes for 24hrs. I look back and am very glad I pulled the plug on the climb when we had a reasonable retreat. Sometimes all of your choices in alpine climbing suck....I was glad I had a good option. Sucks not to have climbed it when the conditions were so optimal.....but there will be another time. Having the runs on tower 3 would have been no fun at all!

asmrz wrote:same as ExitableBoy.

Nuun tablets work extremely well for me and taste great (not a great taste for many other products, I tried them all). I have not used anything but water for years, but lately, I found my legs were getting cramps here and there during hard activity. These tablets, one (sometimes two) in a quart of water seem to completely stop that and make me feel a bit stronger, again, during long hikes or long climbs. I take them everywhere now.

I like the lemon flavored Camelbak Elixir tabs.....I'm nuts about lemon flavored anything. I was the same.....I could go all day on very little water and food, and never get cramps. I'm much more susceptible now, and the electrolyte tabs really help. I sweat a lot more now, and I've noticed my sweat is extremely salty....much more so than in the past. The tabs are the easiest way for me to replace them, although I haven't tried the chews yet. I completely forgot to hit the tabs on the hike in until it was a bit too late. I notice that I'm much better off being pre-emptive with electrolyte replacement. If I allow myself to get too depleted, it's really hard for me to get caught back up. Much better to just keep the tank topped off so to speak.

toxo wrote:Wow, why did I read this shit?

Don't know....don't care......

asmrz wrote:same as ExitableBoy.

Nuun tablets work extremely well for me and taste great (not a great taste for many other products, I tried them all). I have not used anything but water for years, but lately, I found my legs were getting cramps here and there during hard activity. These tablets, one (sometimes two) in a quart of water seem to completely stop that and make me feel a bit stronger, again, during long hikes or long climbs. I take them everywhere now.

+1, use them on every trip