Going It Alone

Andy, of course, did not merely run out of water, Andy pushed himself so hard he got rhabdomyolysis or rhabdo as the Cross Fitters call it. None of us had ever heard of rhabdo until a series of cases emerged during the heyday of the popularity of Cross Fit. But, rhabdo is not merely an intensity event, ultra-runners get rhabdo too. And, Andy’s story – listen to the podcast here (beware, the host has the grating ABC voice and affiliation to excessive emotion that makes the ABC so damn excruciating, my apologies to ABC aficionados) - shows that even bushwalkers can get rhabdo.

Rhabdomyolysis occurs after intense skeletal muscle breakdown where the contents of muscle cells leak from the myocytes (muscle cells) into the extracellular (outside the cells) fluid and circulation. Outside of crush injuries and other causes of rhabdo (certain infections, medications, alchohol and others), excessive and intense exercise and/or ATP failure (ATP is the primary energy carrier for cellular metabolism) are the particular causes that affect bushwalkers. Of note, statins, those (largely useless) chemicals beloved by the pharmaceutical industry as a continuous revenue stream are an increasingly common cause of rhabdo! What a wonderful side-effect that is.

After muscle cell breakdown, a whole cascade of events occurs resulting in electrolyte abnormalities, and kidney damage sometimes including complete kidney failure. Obviously, this is something to be avoided, and, it’s a fascinating testament to both human endurance and human stupidity that we can push ourselves so hard physically that we can literally kill ourselves. So much for the central governor theory.

Andy, poor bloke, may be at higher risk than some other folk. Older obese men do have a higher risk of rhabdo and, judging from the podcast, he may not have started the K2K in tiptop physical condition. Certainly, Andy did not accurately judge the state of the bush along the K2K which I continue to contend is hard to appreciate unless you have experienced it - preferably multiple times as a single event can easily be construed as a one off. Bush-bashing as Andy experienced is a full body experience and has as much in common with strolling along a trail as Trump has with truthfulness.

Passing through very thick regrowth requires certain bodily manoeuvres which are not expected in bush walking. Years ago, I developed the “five point trail breaking scale” for use in the Canadian back-country after heavy winter snow storms. I believe it is time that some enterprising and insightful individual developed a similar scale for bush-walking through regrowth. This would include such descriptors as “hurl entire body including back pack at the offending scrub with as much force as it is possible to produce,” and, “slither along the ground on your belly while fully enmeshed in vines with the tensile strength of wire rope.” Look for this scale in a later blog post.

The other problem for Andy is that he was solo and, much like breaking trail through deep snow, there is valour in having a bigger party to share the burden. Although it can be difficult, once passed through to find signs of passage through the post-fire regrowth, there is no doubt that the second and all subsequent walkers are afforded a slightly easier time. This is a factor that I think solo walkers now need to consider: the game has changed and solo bush-bashing is so very much worse than it was before the great fires of 2020. If you are on your own, you get no break from the labour.

The other interesting thing about Andy’s experience is that although he could have simply turned around and walked out, he did not, mostly (it seems) because he had no car at the Kanangra end as his wife had dropped him off and then driven away. Hindsight, of course, would indicate that turning around and dealing with not having a car at the trail head is much preferable to being hospitalised with kidney failure, among other health issues. But, that’s how we humans think sometimes. Matters completely extraneous to the decision at hand influence us to an undue degree. This is a decision trap which you can read more about here.