The Sun in his Glory

I know that life is the integration of experience over time, but occasionally I wish that the experience was a little less lumpy.

In the past I have only used sun cream on one occasion - the first time I went skiing, when everyone said "Chris we know you tan well, but you must get some sun cream to go skiing". So I went out and got a bottle of of factor two or three (I forget now, which) and applied it on the first day. This was such a faff that I didn't bother subsequently, and four days into the trip I was getting asked for directions in French as everyone thought me a local.

Equally, I have sun burnt on only one occasion - working in a market garden for six weeks, usually without a shirt, doing stoop labour, the back of my neck went somewhat pink towards the end of this period.

So it was a bit of a shock when on the first couple of days on the trek, I not only burnt, but burnt very badly on the outside of my lower arms and hands, the back of my neck, and more lightly on the top of my head, my forehead, the edges of my ears, and the tip of my nose. By my estimates, it probably took five minutes to start to burn; 10 minutes to burn badly; and that I was in the direct sun at 4000m for about 11 minutes. Also my estimate of the temperature in the direct sun was 48o C. I lost all the skin on my lower arms and hands, and a chunk from the back of my neck. It took about 10 days to repair the damage. One additional unexpected effect was that the areas of my hands that lost skin have grown back with a lot more hair there than I had previously.

So I've learnt always to cover up well in the direct sun at altitude. A much deferred lesson or hubris justly punished?

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