Trouble in Paradise: Altitude Illness in SEKI

Johanes,

Sorry to be getting back to you so late.

Here is my experience doing essentially the same as you in 1998.

I left Equator after a month of travelling at higher altitudes out of Quito ( Chimborazon climb, Inca Trail in Equator, Tungurahua volcano, etc…) I was well acclimatized. I travelled by bus to Huaraz over a 2.5 days. I showed up in Huaraz and felt great Two days later I did the Santa Cruz Trek. Santa Cruz has one high pass. Otherwise it is fairly easy walking. Steadily uphill most of the time, but not difficult IMO. It's well worth doing the side trip to the Alpamayo base camp.

Huaraz is a great place to take it easy and spend a few days acclimatizing if you feel you are not ready to go back up high after Lima. It's plenty high enough to acclimatize for the Santa Cruz Trek for most people. Check out Cafe Andino while there and say hi to my friend Chris.

I left Huaraz on a night bus and spent a full day in Lima and flew out the next morning to Cuzco. I had no problems there. I did several long hikes at high altitude ( Auzangate trek solo) I did not lose acclimatization that quickly.

But I did spend a few days in Cuzco before heading back up higher. There are lots of good days hiking around there to test yourself. It is quite cold at night. In the Vilcanota I slept in a WM Ultalite and was cold. I probably wasn't ingesting enough calories on that trip but I just remember it being very cold at night above 4500m

Just wanted to add my experience to this thread.

I've suffered from altitude sickness several times (usually at 10,000 feet) and recently returned from a trip along the PCT heading south from Sonora Pass.

The trail starts off high and stays above 10,000 feet for about 10 miles.

Fearing altitude sickness, I took 250mg of Diamox (acetazolamide) twice daily a few days before the trip and during it.

It worked brilliantly. I've never felt as comfortable at high altitude and am planning to return to even higher elevations further south.

I did have a few side effects (tingly hands, soda tasting funny) but nothing major, and it was WELL WORTH IT.

So for those of you who have recurring bouts of this problem (Cary!), you might want to consider Diamox. I was very impressed with the results and will be taking it again on future trips when I don't have time to acclimate properly.

Very informative article. Thank you.

Lori,

Thank you for mentioning Diamox is a sulfa drug. I am also allergic to sulfa drugs. My parents learned this when I was a child and I was hospitalized with a case of Thrombocytopenia resulting from a reaction to sulfa.

I now know to decline Diamox or altitude sickness may end up being the least of my problems.

You need to define "high altitudes." I would define normal PCT altitudes to be 8000-10,000 feet. Go to the Andes and you can easily get to 20,000 feet. Go to the Himalayas, and its even higher.

Many of the early Everest climbers were trying to eat everything in sight, up to a certain altitude. Then their appetite would wane, which contributed to loss of energy, which eventually met with summit failure. In 1953, the Brits had along the NZ beekeeper by the name of Ed Hillary. They remembered that he would eat everything left when everybody's appetites waned. Somehow, he had that extra energy, and then (with Tenzing) they were the first ones to summit. Since then, many climbers report disruption of their normal appetite. Up high, your body is starting to run with something lower than full oxygen saturation in the blood, so your body can't fully metabolize food quite the same way as it would normally. As a result, Everest climbers nearly always report a weight loss.

Rather than trying to set up a system of food laws, I follow only one. When I'm hungry, I eat.
–B.G.–

I guess you know that riding a vehicle up to high elevation does not really qualify as proper acclimatization. I guess it is semi-OK if you are not going to be exerting yourself much. To avoid altitude problems best, you need to be hiking and sleeping at progressively higher elevations.

The thing about EBC-Chinese side is that they want to rush you in there, let you snap your photos, and then rush you out. That's why they built the road.

EBC-Nepal side is quite different. The first time I went, we were on the trail for 25 days. We hiked up and down over five river drainages and passes before we got to EBC. That allows the traveler to toughen up a bit before the thin air gets too much.

I saw hikers who had already hit their ceiling at 14,000 feet and had turned back. In most cases, they had been "pushing" just a little too fast.
–B.G.–

I hear that the view doesn't get really good until you get a little above 28,500'.
–B.G.–

That's where the trouble is. Too many climbers will go far higher than their normal limit, and they are spurred on by the thrill and all that. They pass their safe ceiling and their body starts to degrade, but they try to keep going just on emotional energy. That lasts for only a short time, and then they are in serious trouble. That's why it is absolutely vital to bail out before you've hit your limit and before you are incapacitated. To do that, it is a good idea to record your rest pulse rate, and you can start to predict when the limit is coming.

That's why prior training is important. Each person can find out how they do at high elevation before they get into the really serious stuff.

–B.G.–

When you get up high, like 16,000+ feet, and if your appetite starts to wane, you have to keep eating something. The local "biscuits" work fine. They are not as sweet as cookies.

In Nepal, the Sherpa mountain guides found that when you can't eat anything else, at least you can eat biscuits and drink tea.

In Nepal at about 16,000 feet, one trekker was getting hungry, and the usual camp food wasn't filling him up. So, he found this micro-store built out of rocks and looked inside. They had a small can of Pringles Potato Chips ("crisps" to you blokes) that he bought for $8.00. That appealed to his brain. Unfortunately, they did not appeal to his stomach, and after the first few he was giving them away. Nothing functions quite normally up there.
–B.G.–

How many carbohydrates are in a mole?