Read my Stealth Belt review at the end or Click Here to jump straight to the review on a separate page!

The last time I attempted to hike a peak just North of Seward, I ended up having emergency surgery because of a necrotic bowel. So when I jumped out of bed on Saturday and felt a searing pain on my left side, I didn’t have high hopes for hiking the Mt. Alice ridge. In fact, after climbing back in bed to relieve the pain, I figured we’d end up stuck at home on a beautiful Saturday. But after 40 more minutes of contemplating what to do and working on my PT exercises in bed, I sat up, and the pain had disappeared.

A similar situation happened 3 weeks ago on my right side, and in talking to my surgeon and my PT, I know that my right side has a really tight thick band of fascia, so I’m assuming my left side is effected with either tight fascia or adhesions from surgery as well.

So after giving my body a bit longer to adjust, we packed up the car, and headed off toward Seward a bit later than expected. And despite the late start, we couldn’t have asked for a better day! As we drove along the Turnagain Arm we saw Belugas swimming, we explored beautiful new to us terrain on our hike with endless sunshine and glaciers, we ate as many giant blueberries as we could, and at the end of the day, we discovered a new beach. I was hoping to say we also saw a bear, but it was just a black dog running across the road…

I had heard about Mt. Alice years ago, but never thought much about it. But in my quest to explore new areas this Summer, the Mt. Alice Ridge trail popped back up on my radar. We parked in the large pullout on the opposite side of the road as instructed and then searched for one of the small trails into the woods. From there, the trail travels up a steep wooded ridge until it levels off a bit. That’s where we first stumbled upon the first patch of high bush blueberries. We lucked out on this trip with endless trailside blueberries!

As we wound our way up through the forest, the trees started to thin and we popped out in a meadowy, rocky area. We continued up the trail and started to get our first peak of the summit of Mt. Alice. The summit of Mt. Alice stands at 5,318 ft, and since I’ve read that the last 700 feet is 5th class sketchy terrain, we opted not to attempt the summit today (or maybe ever). But we did enjoy exploring the alpine ridge with a chossy rock scramble to the Godwin Glacier overlook. From the overlook, you have views of the summit, the glacier, and pretty much all of Resurrection Bay! I had no idea how beautiful the hike would end up being, but it is definitely on the top of my list of Alaska hikes now! After taking in the views, we headed back down, checked out a small tarn, ate a TON more blueberries in one of the most productive blueberry patches I’ve ever seen, took a side detour through the meadow, and hiked back down the ridge to the car. We ended up deciding not to camp since we finished the hike sooner than expected. So we continued down Nash road to explore a bit more, listened to the waves crash on the tiny beach at the end of the road, and drove back home at the end of the day.

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Stealth Belt Review

I received my Stealth Belt a few weeks ago and used it on a short hike, but I’ve been wanting to try it out on a longer hike before fully reviewing it. The belt that I received is the Stealth Belt Pro Ostomy Support Belt. My stoma is on the left, so I ordered one that fits the left side, accommodates a 70mm flange, and fits 34″ body size. I followed the Size Guide and instructions on how to measure the flange. To be honest, I probably should have sized down a little bit on the body size, but even though I think the belt is a little big, I’m able to cinch it down enough with the velcro closures to make it a more snug fit.

Now, until I received my Stealth Belt, I’ve never worn my ostomy bag sideways. In fact, I’ll say I was pretty skeptical of wearing it that way. Mostly because I was worried about how I would empty my bag in that position.

So, that being said, it felt a little strange at first to put on the belt and orient my bag in a horizontal position.

I’m still getting used to the belt, so it takes me a little time to put it on and tuck my bag inside. I wear a 2-piece system, so when I’ve put the belt on, I’ve also opted to just change my bag out for a new one when turning it sideways to avoid leaking any stool. On my Mt. Alice ridge trip, I wore my bag vertically for the car ride and then changed it out and put the new one on horizontally at the trailhead.

So far, I’ve found the belt to be quite comfortable. I hardly notice it’s there. I was even thinking yesterday that when I’m hiking, I normally feel my bag get heavy and know it’s time to empty, but on this trip, I had to look down or feel my bag to know it was time to empty because it was so supported by the belt. I’ve also appreciated the fact that the end of the bag doesn’t chafe my leg in this position. Normally, unless I wear my ostomy underwear, I end up with chaffing on the inside of my thigh from where the end of the bag rubs all day. The Stealth Belt covers the bag entirely, so that is not an issue. Another thing that I noticed, as a female, is that it’s nice not to have to move my bag out of the way while peeing and wearing the Stealth Belt. Typically, when I squat to pee, I have to kind of hold my bag up out of the way. But again, with the bag in the horizontal position, and tucked away, that’s not an issue.

Finally, let’s talk about emptying your ostomy while it’s in the horizontal position. Again, I was a bit skeptical about this. Especially when I’m hiking or recreating outside, I don’t empty my ostomy as much as I do when I’m at home. So when I do go to empty it, it’s pretty full. This is why I was nervous about the horizontal position. When my bag fills up, especially if it’s more liquidy, the stool can come rushing out in an uncontrolled manner, and I had fears of it spilling all over me and the Stealth Belt. But so far, that hasn’t happened! I’ve emptied my bag 2 times while wearing the Stealth Belt, and it pretty much hangs down like it normally would when I go to empty it. I have to work a bit more to fully empty, and sometimes I have to do kind of a ninja squat to make sure that I have space to empty, but so far no poo-catastrophies! I’m going to list my top pros and cons below, but overall, I think the Stealth Belt is a neat product for ostomates who want to keep their ostomy bag supported and out of the way! I’m going to keep trying the Stealth Belt out with various activities, so I’ll keep you posted on what I think as I wear it more!

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My Top Stealth Belt Pros

• I barely knew my bag was there while hiking (no dragging feeling)!
• My bag was nice and supported, so as it got full, it wasn’t pulling and wearing away at the seal!
• While tucked into the belt, there was no way my bag was going to chafe my leg (I ended up with really bad bag chafe one time after running an ultra race. That was no fun.)
• I didn’t have to move my bag out of the way while peeing!
• My movement felt less restricted when hiking/climbing uphill because my bag wasn’t hanging down and restricting my hip flexors.

My Top Stealth Belt Cons

• Because of my every day preference for wearing my bag vertically, I had to change it to the horizontal position when putting on the Stealth Belt which added an extra step for me at the trailhead.
• It can be a little bit awkward to empty, but I’m assuming that will get better with practice.
• I felt that in the horizontal position, as my bag filled up, it was more obvious under my shirt. So if you’re looking to keep your bag low profile, this may be something to think about (Stealth Belt does have a vertical belt option though which might be more low profile.) This could also be specific to my body shape.