There is an enemy when you’re climbing mountains. The enemy
is the cold. Cold is the biggest enemy and maybe the only enemy in the Everest.
The enemy is not the strong wind, thin air or avalanches because they could be
predicted or avoided. But the cold, people do not even recognise as one. Cold
is constant, cold is everywhere you cannot avoid or run away from it. To fight
this enemy we need to understand the enemy.
We have the third law of thermodynamics which says the heat in
a system will run out if not replaced. This is called entropy. Cold takes over
when heat is not there. Cold wins over heat. Heat is expensive, it needs work.
Cold is free it does not need to do anything. Earth is a system, Human being is
a system, the universe is a system. You can have system in a system. Earth
being inside the system of the Universe or human being inside the system of
Earth. The heat in a system will eventually run out and replaced by cold. The Earth
will be colder too if the Sun is not there. The Universe for example was hotter
in the beginning 14.5 billion years ago, the heat is disappearing replaced by
cold, About 15 billion years later there will be no more heat left in the
Universe. The Universe can not get hear from outside and that’s why when the
heat run out, it will be the end of the Universe.
So Cold has the upper hand against hot. When you’re climbing
mountains usually you’re surrounded by cold. Cold will make you part of itself.
Everything in the cold is cold except you. Given time cold will win you over. You
have weapons against this enemy, you have clothes to block cold coming into
you. But even clothes a temporary measure. Cold will win over your clothes too
given time. What other weapons do you have? Where can else you get the heat
from? You might have hot soup that’s last 10 minutes only. You may have hot
shower but that’s only last max 10 minutes afterwards.
The biggest and the easiest heat you can get is that you
have your locomotive actions you can move. You are a living being you can walk,
run and generate heat inside you. If you feel tired and want to sit down. Do
not ever do that for long especially a place like Everest! You cannot sit down,
lay down for long or sleep in the cold you will lose the battle. Cold will have
you. You will be part of the cold in the cold. If you want to sleep in the cold
you have your tent to act as an extra clothing but that’s not enough you also
need another heat source other than you like a gas heater. Because when you’re
sleeping you’re not moving you’re laying down. You cannot lay down in the cold
remember even inside a tent. When you’re
sleeping there is nothing to maintain your heat so you have to rely on external
heat source like a gas heater. Even penguins having extra insulated fat layered
skin do move and exchange positions to maintain their heat in the Antarctica. You also have to maintain your heat in the
cold not to lose that battle.
I watched the Everest Movie I was shocked. A lot of climbers
just lay down there in the cold for hours. They all died. I was so sad. You
have more survival chance moving even tiredness killing you than sitting there in
the cold. You have to move even if it’s windy or you’re unable to see or too
tired of walking or too sleepy. You will have more survival chance when moving than
sitting or laying down. You can sleep in the cold it will be the last sleep you
will ever do. I was shocked about the Movie. Was it real? People really died
there? It was real. How anyone could not explain them about entropy? They had
to move, if they moved they would’ve survived, all survived. I do not like unnecessary
dying. It was not a disaster it was something that was like deliberate. Why
didn’t they move? Did they think that eventually somehow they will warm up by laying
down in the cold? Who’s going to warm them up? What’s going to warm them up? They
should have moved even it kills them. Everest is on Earth you know. They send a
man to the Moon with no oxygen and deadly solar rays and come back alive. You
cannot come back alive from a place on Earth like the top of Everest? And you
are with an experienced group, the best known route, with its best possible weather
conditions and with the high tech gear with you? Many men still cannot come
back alive? What’s is going on?
Consider yourself being a hot cup of tea. You put that cup
of tea in the Everest! What is going to happen to that cup of tea? It is going
to get colder unless something is heating it from outside or inside. So you
will be colder. Moving is what heats you inside and gas heater what’s heats you
from outside. You’re a 37.5°C being. If your core temperature becomes 35.5°C
you’re about to become gone. So you have very limited range of temperature of
survival. I remember there was a
documentary I watched about a man. He somehow got out of a train with bare
boxer shorts in cold winter Siberia. He had about 4 minutes chance of survival.
What he does? He runs do the next station for over 90 minutes and he survived.
He survived because he heated himself by running, he maintained his core
temperature. I do think whoever is going or thinking an expedition in the cold
need to be explained about entropy.
You do not have to be on Everest to see the effect of the cold.
It’s winter now when you go outside. Even with your coat on. Stay outside do
nothing. Minutes or hours later you will begin to get cold. But if you begin to
walk minutes later you will begin not feel the cold. Because you’re generating
heat inside you. You’re leg muscles moving that’s friction inside you
generating heat. Heat is a kind of friction and friction is heat too. This heat
heats the surrounding blood which circulated all inside you heating you
eventually. You may say I have my heat source. I have my heart pumping, cells
moving, I eat and it’s heating me. Well, if that was the case. Than you would
be perpetual machine. You can run on your own forever. Unfortunately that’s not
the case. You have limited heat inside you. You might have system inside you to
bring you from 25°C to 37.5°C but not from -5°C to 37.5°C.
So when you’re in the cold. Do move. If you’re thinking of
sleeping in the cold be inside a tent and get a heater and be safe! Have a nice
climbs!
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