Firstly, some words about more “enigmatic” corpuscular radiation. It is a part of solar radiation that consists mostly of protons and electrons emitted by solar flares. These high-energy particles form cosmic rays which, in their turn, interact with Earth’s magnetosphere and cause the well-known magnetic storms. Their effect on humans is not fully known except that hypertensive people feel themselves worse on these days, have headache, tiredness, high blood pressure. Today, scientists are able to give quite accurate forecasts for magnetic storms so that meteopathic people could know about solar flares well in advance. What’s for electromagnetic radiation, it works indiscriminately in three ways:
– via sunbeams themselves;
– via diffused solar radiation (after penetration through Earth’s atmosphere and reflection from clouds);
– solar radiation reflected from the Earth surface.
There are three basic components into which the sunlight spectrum can be divided – infrared radiation, visible white light and ultraviolet. It is well known that UV is deadly for all living things, it depends only on organism size and radiation dose. It’s the UV part of spectrum that is most dangerous to humans as its threat is the greatest. Long-term exposure to the sun may result in both sunburn and malignant melanoma – the skin cancer.
The UV radiation power differs and depends, firstly, on geographical position – the closer to the equator the more power due to shorter distance after passing through the atmosphere through the atmosphere which serves as a natural “light filter”. Secondly, it depends on season due to the Earth’s axis tilt relatively to the plane of ecliptic and because of the snow cover presence (which reflects up to 70 % of UV rays). Thirdly, it depends on time of the day. When the Sun is at the zenith, sunbeams travel the shortest distance through the atmosphere to the Earth surface. At the 30° declination this distance is twice as longer and at the sunset the distance travelled is 35,4 times longer than at the zenith position. In the fourth place is cloudiness. And finally it goes the elevation of the irradiated object above sea level.
Passing through the atmosphere (including the notorious ozone layer) and especially through its lower layers containing a suspension of dust, smoke and water vapors, sunbeams are absorbed and dissipated to a considerable extent. Consequently, the longer the distance to travel through the atmosphere and the higher the atmosphere pollution level, the lower the intensity of solar radiation.
High mountains are the zone of high intensity solar radiation and UV activity. Bright daylight at high elevations can cause skin burns of first- and second-degree. UV induces skin irritation, redness and blisters. As a result, you may get discomfort, pain of different strength and if the sore is treated badly – blood poisoning and other grave consequences.
Of course, hunters don’t stroll around in thongs at 3000 m elevations, but still one should always take care of bare parts of the body – face and hands. The simplest prophylactic measure is a sunscreen. The more its sun protecting factor (SPF) – the two-digit number of no less than 30 – the better it is.
Another trouble is ophthalmia, snow blindness which is sunburn of the cornea and conjunctiva by UV rays reflected from snow, ice and water surface. During the most of the hunting season we are at risk zone because of the high intensity of UV rays in high mountains’ sunlight spectrum. It reflects manyfold from the snow and in a few minutes can cause burn of the cornea and if exposed longer to injure the retina.
The structure of the eyeball allows reducing the amount of incoming light by means of miosis, nevertheless the risk of snow blindness is always present.The situation is the most hazardous at cloudy weather. UV rays are able to pass through the clouds without any considerable loss, and while your eyes try to adapt to lower contrasts and blurred picture, your pupils dilate to let more light inside the eye chamber. That’s the moment when the ubiquitous UV radiation strikes the blow.
The basic symptoms of snow blindness include tearfulness, swelling of the conjunctiva, redness of white of the eye, “sand-like” irritation in the eyes, blurred picture and even total loss of sight.
The history of mountaineering numbers a lot of accidents due to the loss of sight. This problem had existed since the earliest times of humans when our ancestors used wooden goggles with narrow slits, eye bandages made of leather with small holes and many other devices.
Today, all these troubles are easily solved by sunglasses which can differ in the degree of UV protection. Sunglasses without UV protection can make the situation even worse because dark lenses cause pupil dilation which results in UV burn. By the way, the lenses may be totally transparent, not dark, and still be able to protect your eyes against UV. I use sunglasses with an extra polarized coating which blocks flares and reflections. I prefer warm-colored lenses (orange, brown) because they bring more contrast to the picture.
“All of us need the Sun, but the excess of it may be dangerous or even deadly, – fairly says the director of Health Security and Environment department of World Health Organization Dr. Maria Neira. – Luckily, most deseases caused by UV, particalrly malignant melanoma and other forms of skin cancer and eye affections are 100% possible to be prevented by necessary protective measures”.
Let’s summarize:
- use sunscreen with considerable SPF numbers especially if your skin is whiter than average;
- wear good sunglsasses when staying high in the mountains, especially near the snow fields, no matter how cloudy is the sky!
Some words on biochemistry and biophysics
Mountain hunters can remember those tears and despair caused by incredible efforts always needed for any move you make there (my personal experience says that the hardest of all is the “carrying-out” of the trophy).
How does our organism react to physical load in the mountains?
To answer this we have to be absorbed into the world of human physiology, biochemistry and biophysics.
All the energy sources of our organism can be divided into several groups:
- turbo-reactive, comprised by the molecules of adenosine triphosphate (ATP),
- reactive, consisting of phosphocreatine,
- fast, comprised by glycogen,
- slow – fats.
ATP is the most powerful source of energy which gives its maximum just for several seconds. For example, during the snatch in the olympic weightlifting. Then, the ATP reserves are instantly exhausted and human cells begin to synthesize new molecules from phosphocreatine and the energy made this way will be enough for 7-8 sec sprinter’s spurt. Then, power is down again and it triggers anaerobic (oxygen-free) metabolism of glycogen which is preserved in the liver and muscle tissues. Glycogen energy will be sufficient for an hour. The side issue of this reaction is the lactic acid, which increases its concentrations in muscles, which leads to painful sensations. The oxygen will be needed again to remove the increased lactate. So, the glycogen energy is an energy of the oxygen paid in advance.
Fats are the slowest sources of energy. To process them down to the heat the organism needs enormous (!) amounts of oxygen, which is hard to find in the tenuous air of the mountains.
The muscle tissues in their turn can be divided into fast (phasic) and slow (postural), and they work (contract) respectively to their names. Fast muscles need anaerobic metabolism and, correspondingly, fast sources of energy. Slow muscles are more hardy and use the products of oxygen metabolism. Ordinary people living in the cities have equal rate of fast and slow muscles, whereas in well-trained sportsmen, like skiers, the rate of slow muscle may reach 90 %. It means that any of us, given proper training, has the chances to increase the rate of slow muscle tissue which is crucial for the mountains. There are, however, the opponents to this theory who think that only genetic background will determine whether you’re a sprinter or a long-distance runner. I think that truth is somewhere in the middle.
So, where does the energy come from? Phosphocreatine, one of the ATP predecessors, is a product of protein group (if you want to be strong – eat meat!). Glycogen is a carbohydrate derivative (if you want to be sound – eat carbohydrates!). You need both vegetable oil and animal fat, you can’t become hardy consuming just one of them! The weight ratio of food for the mountain-lovers should be as follows: 1 part of protein, 1 part of fat, 4 parts of carbohydrates. The classic ratio is 1-1,5-4,4 but for mountains it is highly recommended to eat more carbohydrates which give glycogen – the best fuel for the ultimate physical loads.
Another activity regulator of our organism is the adrenalin. Secreted to the blood flow it increases heartbeat, depth of inhale, blood is redirected to the muscles, our body feels at ease sometimes even experiencing euphoria. It is commonly observed during the hunt, when a hunter sees the game animal. Being in the adrenalin excitement a hunter may miss even from several meters and some trophy hunters even ask their guide to fire a shot, being unable to cope with hand tremor. I can’t speak for the others but for me adrenalin works as a powerful stimulator. There’s enough to see a tiny dot far away, near the horizon – and you’re on the move… Unfortunately, quite often it is difficult to reasonably assess your strength and possible consequences of such spurts. It’s generally fraught with different troubles, strengths fail you and you have to stray, you miss again and again, etc. However, it passes away with gaining some experience (closer to the end of season) and you even acquire some discretion…
Finally, all those factors like oxygen shortage, muscles overload, calcium consumption during contractions, exhausted reserves of glycogene and slow synthesis of energy from fats cause fatigue. This simply means that muscles can’t keep the same efficiency during a series of repeated movements. Your only salvation is in training. This fights tiredness by increasing energy production, increases the size of cardiac muscle, increases the number of red blood cells, increases the muscle energy and strength, accumulates the extra glycogene, etc. Sadly, the training results are short-lived – without regular repetition all your “physics” will plummet to an average in about two weeks. Moreover, the geneticists have revealed direct relationship between physical abilities and genetic background. The presence of a certain gene like I-gene provides its owner with more strength. The scientific research of the genome in a group of recruit showed that soldiers having this type of gene can hold heavy weight 11 times longer, than their fellows with D-type gene. This feature has been revealed after the training course. By the way, those mountaineers ascending 7000 m peaks without oxygene tanks also have this type of gene. I don’t know what about you, but I don’t feel myself the happy owner of this type of gene. Genes determine the amount of prevailing fast and slow muscle tissues, it means whether you are a long-distance runner or not. And it seems that I was lucky in this respect. The hardiness during the mountain hunt is the key factor of success. And it depends, in its turn, on anthropometric parameters of a certain hunter. The more massive he is the harder is the hunt, even if he’s of an athletic type and has very few fat. The trick is that the muscle power grows proportionally to the squared section of the body while the body mass grows to the third power. That’s why almost all the iconic mountaineers were lean and sinewy.
So, what forces us to overcome all those difficulties and suffer privations, to suffer from a stress and almost non-human physical loads? The physioligists have an answer because even the non-material satisfaction from a new “conquered summit” has its scientific explanation. During the physical activity our blood is richly supplied with endorphines (endogenous opiates or so called “hormones of happiness”), which effect the receptors the way morphine does: put us in good spirits, increase lucidity of our mind, make us feel better although the initial purpose of this hormones is anaesthetization.
So, if you are tired a bit of the realities of this world, go out and clean your backyard out of snow. Endorphines will put you in good spirits and you’ll feel yourself a good guy. There exists a special term “training euphoria”, in our case – a mountain one. You can easily become addicted to it and if you’ll be forced to refuse it for some reason you’ll begin to feel anxiety and irritation.
From my own can say that a mixture of adrenaline and endorphine caused by 3000 m elevation and taking the long desired and very hard trophy is something incomparable! I think that a man feels absolutely happy at this moment.
A summary:
- there are several different sources of energy in our organism and these are renewable; we take the energy from food – fats, carbohydrates and proteins supply us with different components for our power system;
- to raise the threshold of your fatigability you need physical training on a regular basis;
- adrenaline and endorphine are not dangerous for your health and sometimes are even beneficial.
