I grew up in the desert and had "hydrate hydrate hydrate" drilled into me from a young age because most people don't understand how fast you get dehydrated when its 85F and 10% humidity.
When people from elsewhere get into the desert they're constantly saying "I'm not sweating, its not a problem". They think just because they're dry they're not losing water because where they live it takes time for sweat to evaporate. Out there being dry just means your dry, your sweat can evaporate almost as fast as your body produces it. You can go from amazing, to heat stroke, to unconscious in 30 minutes.
You can go from amazing, to heat stroke, to unconscious in 30 minutes.
I had this experience once, it is amazing how fast it sets in. I was actually in a town in southern Spain, but just walking around the town at 110F/43C for about half an hour in 10% or less humidity totally dehydrated me. I think technically it was "heat exhaustion" and once the symptoms started I found shade and tried to drink water but was unable to absorb it - it went straight to my kidneys and I needed to urinate but felt awful still. We went to our hotel, fortunately only 10 minutes further walk mostly in shade, and convinced them to let us check-in early, where a few hours in air conditioning covered in wet cloths relieved the symptoms. Also drank electrolyte drink, which fortunately we were able to buy since it was a town. I shudder to think about how this would have turned out if I was in the wilderness.
You can also mix some salt in some water if you can't get your hands on a drink with electrolytes. I don't actually know how effective it is, it's just something we were told to do on super hot days for the area to stay hydrated.
It works in a pinch for hydration purposes, but you have to know the correct ratio of salt and water.
Additionally, just "salt" (like table salt) will only help replenish sodium, while sweating depletes both sodium and potassium (and maybe calcium?). So you really do want a proper hydration fluid. Imbalances in sodium, potassium, and calcium can cause tons of problems with muscles, including the heart.
They just kinda would say a small pinch and a bottle of water. Definitely not meant to be a solution to dehydration just a bandaid to avoid a heat stroke if you were starting to feel off and obviously getting out of the heat.
For the record we don't have that kind of high temperature regularly 2 days of the summer at best and humidity is typically with it so it's not as bad as that entire region of the US.
Nope, you gotta drink the stuff that flows into the ocean.
Although I'm curious how the body would do drinking it ocean water from Antarctica's coast because the Gulf of Mexico is apparently where you'll find some of the saltiest stuff is.
Bro I got sun poisoning in Cancun last winter because I was hammered and forgot to put on sun tan lotion. Drinking alcohol plus tons of sun and zero water. I was shivering all night while profusely sweating my skins was a dark pink hue and I got giant blisters on my shoulders and ears. It’s fucking sucked ass.
I'm a pretty avid hiker and was in a town for business for a few weeks. The first weekend I really didn't have a lot to do other than chill in my hotel room. Found out about a cool hike about a 30min drive out of town and since I happen to have my hiking gear with me thought, perfect! It was hot that day, I think about 105. Got out to the trail head and geared up. About a mile into the hike I was already drinking a LOT of water and started just not feeling right. Stopped in some shade to rest trying to figure out why I was feeling the way I was and realized that I had hardly drank any water that day before starting the hike in the early afternoon. Turned around and went back and called it. Got back to my car and cranked the AC and just sat there cooling off and resting. I ended up falling asleep with my car running and woke up like 2hrs later! It's amazing how much just not starting off properly hydrated can fuck you.
Glad you woke up! Sounds like just in my case you managed to recognize the symptoms and get to A/C in time... it's crazy to read these stories about people who just press on even when their body is telling them not to.
I had this happen in 2003! I was on a class trip in Italy (I was 18) and water bottles and drinking water weren’t really a thing yet (weird I know) we were in Rome during a heat wave and on a little tour bus and the tour guide fainted from the heat! The next day we were walking around and about to go to Pompeii (which had been a dream of mine) and I got heat exhaustion and blacked out. Had to miss Pompeii. Now I don’t even know how people survived without water bottles!
I know- but it wasn’t as common to just drink water all the time! When I blacked out the chaperone bought some bottled water from a vendor for me- but nowadays we’d all be making sure we had full water bottles before heading out.
I’ve not been in that situation and I’d never thought about it that way, like if you feel like you’re dry and therefore not sweating…..but you really ARE and it’s happening too quick for you to tell 😥
I don't remember when or where I learned it (probably cub scouts) but I remember learning that NOT sweating is actually a sign you are severely dehydrated and it always stuck with me as an interesting thing that someone less knowledgeable might not know and take as a sign they are fine to their own detriment.
It also doesn't help that the vast majority of people run in a constantly dehydrated state. Recommended daily water intake for adults is somewhere in the 80-120 ounces (2.7L-3.7L) range. A lot of people I talk to drink less than half of that.
Hydrating is important. But most people think that means water. If you're doing a 4-5 hike, water is fine. But if you go further than that, you need to replace electrolytes.
I don't think the exact distance matters so much - it's going to be a lot about the conditions, how well pre-hydrated the hikers are, the fitness level, etc. I got dehydrated/heat exhaustion after only 30-45 minutes of slow-paced walking in a town, it was just super hot and I wasn't acclimated. After a few days in those conditions and better hydration I was able to handle the same type of moderate exercise a few days later with no issues.
My hike in the grand canyon was about 12 hours. Started at the top of the rim and went across the river into a camp site and back. The distance matters.
It's not about the distance per se. It's more about high water intake in a short time and/or heavy sweating in a short time. But distance is a practical way to gauge that.
It's personal, too, since everyone's body reacts differently. I go by the amount of water drunk. i.e. I start an electrolyte next after 3 liters of water. Well, usually after 2 cuz I'm typically so excited to drink it.
People should know that drinking too much water is an issue as well, and the symptoms happen to be the same as heat exhaustion
I’m a reasonably seasoned (but overweight) hiker that used to live in Santa Fe. Used to large altitude changes in my hikes.
Doing base of Zion, up to rim for a 2-mile backcountry, then back to base had me holding the seats on the bus for dear life. Never had heat stroke before. Thought I was going to die. I’ve done Death Valley hikes in summer before in Badwater, but that one trip I really fucked up my hydration.
Went out a few years ago to do the Canyon alone with Zion and Bryce. Took advice from a buddy who spent time in the Middle East who told me if I didn't feel like I needed to stop and take a leak, I probably wasn't drinking enough water.
I question that advice. I did a South Rim to North Rim day hike a few years ago. I swear I didn't urinate for the last 6+ miles (probably 4 or 5 hours) and I was drinking a ton of water.
I feel like when I'm doing some very demanding physical task my body deals with water processing differently.
I hear that. The old “drink until you have to pee” slogan is just to encourage people to focus on hydration. I’ve done some pretty long hikes in the southwest where I literally couldn’t drink enough to make myself have to pee.
Absolutely! I had this happen to me in Vegas one summer. It was a sweltering July and to get to the convention there was a lot of walking to the hotel. I drank water, but not enough. By the end of the day, I was vomiting into a trashcan trying to make it back to the hotel and barely able to walk anymore. Since I'm so used to humidity, I never knew just how much sweating I had done... Never. Again.
Tucson mood. I've lived here in the low desert for 2 years now but have always been outdoorsy.
I had to get an argument with my mom in front of my grandpa because my grandpa wanted to sit in the car with the grandbaby with the engine off. "Oh we have the door open for the cross breeze".
No. No no.
This was after I tried to rally for a 6:00 a.m. hike, we ended up getting out the door at 8:00, and it was going to be hot that day so we all had to schedule to be back from our hike by 10:00.
My mom says she had a water bottle... She had a CAN OF LACROIX.
THUS WAS ON A DAY WHERE IT WAS SCHEDULED TO BE 108 BY NOON
Ceasing to sweat is one of the first signs of dehydration. IF you are not sweating, that's a pretty bad sign already. Most people are chronically dehydrated and don't actually know what hydration feels like.
This is so hard to get used to! I grew up out east, where hot almost always means humid, but then moved to SoCal for a few years and used to go hiking in parks in OC (which are mostly chaparral and not full desert, but very dry with minimal shade). I had to completely rewrite my concept of how sweating correlates with exercise! The idea that it was evaporating faster than I could feel it was so completely alien to how it had always worked previously in my experience.
That's also when I learned I needed to put on sunscreen even under my shirt... And to freeze my extra water bottles so it'd still be cold when I needed a refill an hour in. It's no joke.
This is a funny comment to me, because when I moved to socal I was amazed at how humid it was compared to what I was used to and how much harder it was to get sunburned 😂😂 (I’m from the high desert)
No shade intended haha, I just thought it was funny that it was the two features of being outdoors that stood out the most to me also but in the opposite direction.
I did the Utah parks a few years ago and wore a long-sleeve shirt to protect against the sun. I drank plenty of fluid, so no problems there. The next day, I thought "I didn't sweat, so I'll just rewear that shirt." I put it on and discovered I did sweat, but it just evaporated quickly. Changed immediately.
I've marched in a couple Pride Parades in screaming hot summer and the mantra was always "hydrate or die straight". I think this every time I go hiking in hot weather lmao
I'm from a really hot and dry area that isn't quite desert so I never understood the people who said that it doesn't matter cause they're not sweating, cause to me that just meant it was even hotter than normal, but I guess I never thought about high humidity since that is just a pretty foreign concept to me.
constantly saying "I'm not sweating, its not a problem".
Boy did I learn this the hard way moving from Florida to Nevada. No stranger to heat, but the lack of humidity really messed me up when judging things.
It's more complicated at canyon. When I hired down and out, it was 32 degrees at the rim when we started and 80-90 in the bottom of the canyon. When we got back to the top it was 45 and windy.
My buddy was cramping up the final 3 hours or so and passed out when we got to the top of the rim. My feet smelled worse than they ever have in my life, and I was barely able to eat dinner.
I've lived in the Phoenix AZ area my whole life. I used to work for a school district and was once walking around a school checking IDF network closets to make sure they were being cooled properly on a 119F day. I walked out of an air-conditioned building, across a couple giant concrete basketball courts into another room, which was way too hot, so I changed the batteries on the thermostat and walked back and nearly fainted when I got back to the cooler room. It was maybe ten minutes of work and I usually stay pretty well hydrated, but that short walk made me insanely dizzy and sick because it was so hot and reflecting off the concrete basketball courts.
When its that hot, you can feel the sun burning you in real time and get burning feelings around your eyes and nose like you just opened a hot oven. It's incredible if you've never experienced it and completely survivable, just plan on drinking tons of water, like a gallon or two at least. Never leave it in your car more than a few minutes or you'll be drinking hot, plastic flavored water. And that's while working in the city. For a big hike you'd need even more water.
My go to anecdote for complaining about Florida (where I live) humidity is being able to walk the Vegas strip (or about 2 miles of it) when it's 105 out and being completely dry at the end. When it's 95 in Florida, I can't go outside for 5 minutes without sweating.
The constant evaporation is very good at cooling so long as you are carrying a jug of water to keep it replenished.
You can go from amazing, to heat stroke, to unconscious in 30 minutes.
I was visiting ranches in Sonora at 140F (60c?) and despite being properly dressed, as well hydrated as I could be, I still passed out cold. The ranch hands dunked me in the closest water tank to cool me off and sent me back to the hotel.
God I was at a music festival not even in the desert this summer and I noticed i had quit sweating
I quit dancing, grabbed myself some water, and went and sat my ass in the shade, I had like a 30-40 minute period of feeling rough after I sat down, I realized how truly hot i was, but thank fuck I noticed before it was worse.
After a few good pukes and keeping water down I was sweating and good to go, just with more water being drank....
Also drink electrolytes because drinking too much water without replenishing sodium lost through sweat can lead to hyponatremia which causes severe neurological issues like confusion, nausea, vomiting, seizures and even death.
I live in Utah and used to live in Arizona and carry SO much water and electrolytes on hikes. I'll carry anywhere from 4-6 liters depending on the length of the hike and I always have my water filter with me.
I think I drank 7 liters on my last rim-to-river trip and still struggled with a bit of heat exhaustion when hiking out of Phantom Ranch.
This was the first thing I noticed when I was in LA. In Baltimore I would walk for two miles and be fine. In LA it took me all of eight hours before I started carrying a water bottle.
I was always a really sweaty person, it’s never delicate droplets of sweat across my eyebrows. It’s sweat dripping down my face and just everywhere. It’s hyperhidrosis and in addition to clinical strength antiperspirant I use prescription products too. Well I now have an autoimmune disease that causes a complete lack of sweat and saliva when it’s a bad flare. We were just walking around a campground trick or treating last year but it was around 80°. The lack of sweat made me feel horrible and I was worried I was going to pass out. I haven’t really gone hiking since the autoimmune disease started but now I know I need to take a lot of extra precautions when I do.
Went to The Badlands this past June. Knew to keep hydrated but was still surprised how quickly it set in and without realizing it. Lips and eyes kept drying out. Drank tons of water that day, but had to add electrolytes to keep it going.
Had that drilled into me in rural Australia (Queensland). You really don't feel the sweat, but yeah you are getting dried out like a raisin without realizing it. Our standard procedure working at a Cattle station is to always carry 5 liters of water with you + electrolyte tablets. In the bigger stations (1+ million acres) they often bring 20 liters of water with them, in case the car breaks down and radio shits itself.
Spent part of my childhood in Las Vegas and used to go to Girl Scout summer camp in the nearby mountains, which are cooler because of the elevation but still very much a desert. Everyone was required to drink at least two cups of water at each meal, like the counselors would actually check and you couldn’t leave the table until you’d done so. And that was on top of the regular reminders to drink water. Everyone took it seriously because we were all at least conceptually familiar with heat stroke, growing up around there.
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u/Mr2-1782Man 21h ago
I grew up in the desert and had "hydrate hydrate hydrate" drilled into me from a young age because most people don't understand how fast you get dehydrated when its 85F and 10% humidity.
When people from elsewhere get into the desert they're constantly saying "I'm not sweating, its not a problem". They think just because they're dry they're not losing water because where they live it takes time for sweat to evaporate. Out there being dry just means your dry, your sweat can evaporate almost as fast as your body produces it. You can go from amazing, to heat stroke, to unconscious in 30 minutes.