ProView – Road Shower

Being on the road is freeing, and the daily ebb and flow of climbing life is intoxicating for me and my wife. But what happens if you need to work a bit on the road? Or meet up with folks? Or just want to wash off the dirt from a few days in the backcountry? Enter the Road Shower.

The Road Shower is a metal tube of water that mounts to the rack of your vehicle and holds five gallons of pressurized water. Yes, pressurized! Forget the old gravity-fed solar showers of the past, this puppy serves up nice 90 degree water (on a hot day) through a food-grade hose and is powerful enough to wash all the grime from your nooks and crannies.

I first heard of it online and saw some videos of a girl washing a mountain bike off in the middle of nowhere. I was in the market for a shower for my van which carries 20 gallons of drinking water, but no shower hook-up. I mounted it to the rack and was off to a week in Red Rock, NV followed by a week in Shelf Road, CO. Once filled, the tube is heavy (enough so it’s hard to lift on my van top) but that’s the only gripe I have (and it’s not their fault water is heavy). I used a one-shot bike pump that has a CO2 canister to pressurize the shower and gave it a few short bursts to get it going. I was able to shower off with plenty of water left for my wife and daughter to both have hot showers. I also like that the hose is food grade, which means drinking from it is fine and you don’t have the bad taste a cheap hose can give you.

Filling the tank is easy because it has a large mouth opening that’s like the radiator cap in your car. Once the water is flowing you may need to redo the pressure to keep a strong flow of water. If you run out of air, you can run it as a gravity feed, but the pressure is far less. On really hot days you can use the attached thermometer on the tube to let you know how hot the water is, for us, on a 75 degree day, the water was around 85, a very nice temp for a shower.

We mounted it and then just left it on top of the van since it has a great tie down system for the hose and there is no rattle or noise at all. In other words, once it’s up there you forget about it till it’s time to pamper yourself on the road. For me, whether I’m headed out for a long weekend or a month, it’s nice to be able to clean up and keep the hygiene levels higher then the average dirtbag climber. You can find more information at www.roadshower.com.

Craig DeMartino has been a climber for the past 24 years. He climbs around the US and the world chasing routes of all types… In 2002 he was accidentally dropped 100 feet onto the talus of Rocky Mountain National Park which resulted in the loss of his leg, a fused back and neck, and a lifetime of chronic injuries. It is also what led him to Paradox Sports. He leads clinics for Paradox teaching other disabled climbers how to get back to climbing, and life, with humor, psych, and a love for their new “normal”. Craig was the first amputee to climb El Capitan in Yosemite in under a day, part of the team on the First All Disabled Ascent of El Cap, and a Bronze Medal winner in the Paraclimbing World Championships in France. He is a dad and husband and loves to spread his love of climbing to the world through our programs at Paradox. – Paradox Sports