Showering is a Base Camp thing. Say you just came down from 10 days up on the cold and nasty mountain. You are whooped. You are coughing. You are sunburned and you are skinny. But you probably aren't all that dirty.

Climbing mountains is not at all like riding the subway. The air is clean, their aren't cockroaches, you aren't handling money and newspapers and getting in grimy taxis. And you don't have a hot date tonight. So why do you want to shower in the first place? Well, if you insist, do it in the morning when the wind hasn't come up yet. Try to fit it in to the cook's work plan so you aren't using up his hot water at an important time.

Help him out by carrying a jug of water from the river to make up for what you will waste on your neat-freak habits. Walk into tent, put hot water in plastic shower bag, take off clothes, open water flow, lather, rinse, repeat. Towel off. Put filthy clothes back on.

—Dave Hahn, Climber

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