Stinking and snoring on guided expeditions...

This 10-day Baker/Rainier course I'm doing in a couple weeks will be my first guided trip, as well as my longest trip.  My normal trips are 3-5 days with family members or close friends.  I was wondering:

1) Snoring: I snore at night.  The people I backpack/mountaineer with either know this and bring ear plugs, or I sleep in my own tent for their sake.  Is this something that people just deal with and expect when going on a guided trip where you get paired up with strangers in a tent?

2) Stinking: I never change my underwear, I never change my baselayer top, and I don't bring deodorant.  Not sure how much the underwear contributes to the stink, but when I wear synthetics I can work up quite a funk.  Again, I'm always with family or close friends - we deal with it because we're close and we just don't care.  Is this also something that you just deal with on guided trips with strangers?

Just to clarify - I'm not so much worried about other's snoring or smells - it's me being concerned for everyone else.  Is there any sort of  etiquette I should be aware of? 

dude yer gross

Ha! Some of the best trips were with people I didn’t know that well. You’ll be fine.

 Snoring.. last time I thought “God shut up you windbag” while doing the 69 sleeping bag thing in a tent it lasted all of about 2 minutes before I passed out. I’m a fat slob so walking uphill all day makes me tired AF come 8pm. Summit day errrr middle of the night nobody sleeps anyway.

 Stinking.. nobody cares! Wear wool base layers

 

Be considerate of your tentmate. Bring a couple of pairs of earplugs for him and bring a change of underwear/base layer. Instead of just saying "that's how I roll."

Gonna go with Andy on this one - a second set of underwear/baselayer don’t weigh that much, and would be much more considerate to your tent-mates. Also, wet wipes go a long ways, but they can be a bit of a luxury item, weight-wise.
As far as the snoring, I’d just let the guides and your potential tent partners know, so they have fair warning to get earplugs in and get to sleep before you start sawing logs.

Bring some wipe n dipes .  Use them yourself and seal the used ones away in something appropriate.

If your tent partner gets out of control? Nonchalantly say how great they are and offer one of your fresh ones.

Snoring=ear plugs. Bring and offer those too.  

Props to you for being considerate about those things.  Many people don't care.

Sounds like you're going with a guiding service.  I'd ask them.

Me, personally, I take hygiene seriously as to not create a breeding ground for sickness.  However, I'm not a mountaineer so maybe you guys are a different breed.  I also sleep very light and earplugs do not mute snoring.

+1 on the wet wipes - count out how many you need, put them in a ziplock bag - the weight is negligible .   One pass on face and neck, one on pubes, one on feet - makes an amazing difference.

As for the snoring, do anything you can to minimize your impact on the rest of the group.  If you can sleep on your own at some distance from the rest of the group, do it.  Your whole team will be stronger if they don't lose sleep to your little symphony.  Do you snore less when you sleep on your side instead of flat on your back?  Then choose and arrange your sleeping pads to maximize the amount of time that you will stay on your side.

I have been on both sides of the snoring issue.  I eventually had surgery (on me, although I have been tempted to operate on other offenders) to deal with the issue - one of the best investments I have ever made.

If my buddy didn't stink I would think there was something wrong with him. The snoring, ya earplugs are nice.

Thanks for the input everyone...

I already have 3 sets of extra earplugs packed for others who may not have brought any.  I don't snore when I'm on my side, so I will definitely try to do that as much as possible.  I wear a snoreguard at home so my wife doesn't murder me... the problem is that the snoreguard gets gross really quick if it's not cleaned properly (like in denture cleaner or running water and soap), and I can't figure out a way that I could keep it clean when you have to melt snow for water.

As far as the stink... I'll go ahead and bring some more underwear and another baselayer.

Ok.   Ok.  Ok.  Just forget the extra layers and upgrade to strongly scented wipe n dipes. :)

bring earplugs for your tent mate. avoid farting and burping.

I find blatant overuse of pee bottles gross.

Lose the synthetics and wear merino wool base layers. Stink problem solved.

Buy a handful of those foam earplugs that come in tiny ziplock bags. That way they’ll stay relatively pocket-lint free. 

Ear plugs really don't work very well for blocking out low-frequency intermittent noises (like many cases of male snoring). If wearing earplugs helps some people sleep thru other people's low-tone snoring, I think that's mostly Placebo effect.

I think Better is to give other party members advance permission to nudge (or shove) your body in case you start to snore.

Ken

Ear plugs make a difference for me. Though the quality of said ear plugs and their placement matters.  YMMV

Get checked for sleep apnea, and if you have it have your dentist make a sleep apnea appliance. You will wake up much better rested and not snore all night. Snore guards just mask the issue.

Merino wool baselayers don't get nearly as funky. Bring a second set for the long trip and wash a set when you have excess water. You will have extra time and opportunity on a trip that long.

Bill Lawry wrote: Ear plugs make a difference for me. Though the quality of said ear plugs and their placement matters.

I wear ear plugs lots. I have put lots of care on selecting quality, and care in my technique for placement.
I highly recommend them for improving sleep quality.

That's why I have no illusions about their degree of effectiveness for blocking out low-frequency intermittent noises -- such as serious male snoring.
It's just not how the physics works, not how the low-level human perception neural system works.

. . . (But the protocol of inserting earplugs _could_ be effective for ignoring difficult sounds in higher-level mental processing -- by the Placebo effect).

So while I am a big believer in ear plugs for myself, I do not think it's fair to say to _another_ person,
"My snoring ought to be no problem for you -- just wear good earplugs properly".

Ken

kenr wrote:

I wear ear plugs lots. I have put lots of care on selecting quality, and care in my technique for placement.
I highly recommend them for improving sleep quality.

That's why I have no illusions about their degree of effectiveness for blocking out low-frequency intermittent noises -- such as serious male snoring.
It's just not how the physics works, not how the low-level human perception neural system works.

. . . (But the protocol of inserting earplugs _could_ be effective for ignoring difficult sounds in higher-level mental processing -- by the Placebo effect).

So while I am a big believer in ear plugs for myself, I do not think it's fair to say to _another_ person,
"My snoring ought to be no problem for you -- just wear good earplugs properly".

Ken

Fair enough.

And placebo or not, I certainly appreciated having ear plugs in a group of 12 backpacking the Grand Canyon last March for three nights. The group sites are small!  

Expecting friends, family, climbing partners to deal with your funk because you haven't changed your underwear in 5 days?  That's rotten hygiene, nothing less, nothing more.  An extra pair of undies and a few wipes add little to your pack.  Have respect for others around you, and yourself, and practice good hygiene on extended trips.

A 10 day Baker climb is a full-on expedition style climb.  You'll be basecamping and can hump some extra weight.  Like undies and wipes.  You won't be the only one snoring.  Have had to deal with this many times over.  Inform your guides now that you snore and suggest that you should be a tent buddy with someone else who snores.  As a paying client, I wouldn't be psyched about sharing a tent for 10 days with someone who snored, it could ruin my experience.

Well, it is a large guided trip. Can’t expect to have a sleeping environment like at your home. Clients who expect something closer to that should be hiring a guide one on one. Really.

My daughter is a professional musician so I use earplugs a fair amount.  They're certainly a good idea for any hut-type situation (eg Grand Teton Climbers Ranch) where you are sleeping in a room with multiple people.  Kenr is right, nothing will entirely block out low-frequency sounds, but it is possible to attenuate them.  

In my experience, foam earplugs are worthless. The best ones (more expensive; 12 pairs cost $14), recommended to me by a French person who has survived a lot of nights in hut, are  Quies wax earplugs .