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gear of the week

Gear of the Week | SheWee, Freshette and Co

Peeing aids for the outdoor lady

by Lea Hartl 02/06/2016
A fundamental gender injustice that no women's rights movement has been able to change in the slightest is the fact that women have a harder time urinating in the open air for anatomical reasons. Woe betide those who wear dungarees, strap their avalanche transceivers over their suspenders and pull two layers of fleece over them.

In contrast to the men who pee discreetly in every second hairpin bend, as a lady you have to think a little longer about whether it's really that urgent to do it now. On the one hand because of the inevitably laborious peeling out of various layers of clothing, on the other hand, and of course there are different sensitivities here, because the whole thing can't be done so discreetly. A ski tour colleague once confirmed to me that he only pees so often because it's so easy.

On tour with a ski friend I greatly admire, one day I could hardly believe my eyes - had she actually just peed standing up - totally discreetly - without pulling her pants down? Just like the boys? Yes, she had. And with the help of a platinum funnel. The thing is called WhizFreedom and is purple. I bought one on the strength of my girlfriend's convincing recommendation - "it's practically changed my life". We agreed that trying hers would have been going too far.

The WhizFreedom is a simple funnel. There are various similar products from other manufacturers, all with similarly great, haha-funny names: Freshette, Urinella, GoGirl, SheWee. There are both disposable funnels (usually made of cardboard, found at festivals, for example) and the plastic version for multiple use. The latter are usually made of hydrophobic material to prevent the potential Igitt factor. Of course, you should still wash them regularly. Some models have a small extension tube, such as the "SheWee Extreme". Many manufacturers rely on purple to pink shades, but other colors are also available.

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Experiences in practice

Whether you're planning a ski tour, a jungle expedition lasting several weeks or a visit to a disgusting highway service station toilet - you should definitely practice with the thing at home beforehand, for example in the shower. You have to try it on once or twice, but the main problem, at least in my experience, is initially a lack of confidence in the clean and reliable function of the funnel. Once you get used to it and overcome your fear of getting your trousers on, it really does work as advertised. For use with dungarees, a slightly longer funnel with a hose is recommended, such as the SheWee Extreme.

Do you really need it?

No, of course not. But it is certainly helpful in some situations, provided you can get to grips with the handling. Personally, I found it a little too fiddly to regularly take it with me on ski tours, possibly due to my generally coarse motor skills. I find the concept more interesting when it comes to peeing in very adverse conditions, for example generally in a snowstorm, when you can't/won't leave your tent at night because of a snowstorm, or in the case of the aforementioned, disgusting highway toilet. As far as the problem of a lack of discretion is concerned, I am of the opinion that you can also tell your fellow tourers to look the other way for a moment. This requires a certain minimum level of maturity on the part of your touring partners, but you're usually out and about with real men and not (late) pubescent boys.

The Amazon reviews of the various products are largely enthusiastic and sometimes enlightening, see example above.

Alternative methods

Another mountain friend that I greatly admire confidently answered my question about the benefits of SheWee and co. in the negative, explaining that she could easily pee in a bottle if necessary, even at night in a tent in a snowstorm. A third admired friend finally explained to me that it wouldn't be a problem when skiing anyway. But back then, when they paddled from Alaska to Vancouver on a four-month kayak expedition, they had to develop a special deep-sea kayak peeing technique. (Explanation at the bottom here)

Since then, I've been wondering how this works in other sports, such as paragliding or bigwall climbing. Does anyone have any experience with it?

WhizFreedom at PG partner store Bergzeit.

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This article has been automatically translated by DeepL with subsequent editing. If you notice any spelling or grammatical errors or if the translation has lost its meaning, please write an e-mail to the editors.

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