Mt. Whitney Portal Store & Hostel Forums General Mt. Whitney Portal Store Message Board Altitude Sickness

This will be my first time above 3000 ft. and I was curious if anyone had ideas to avoid altitude sickness?

Read the "Altitude Tutorial" on www.ismmed.org.

It is the best I have seen.

It seems that the Doc's on this board recommend acclimating progressively as the best preventive medicine.

Captain - My wife and I have dayhiked Whitney 3 times without altitude sickness. Our preparations for dealing with altitude have included most of the stuff in the threads and the ismmed web site. Here is what works for us:

1. If you have mountains nearby, train at altitude. For weekend hikers, the acclimation won't carry over to the next week, but your body does get a heads up about huffing and puffing at altitude.

2. Take Gingko Biloba starting about a week out. It's an herbal supplement available in any drug store.

3. Get to Lone Pine a few days early and spend time at altitude. A paved road leads to 10,000 feet at Horseshoe Meadows and a good dirt road to 11,000 feet in the Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest. These spots are well worth visiting on their own.

4. Start the hike taking aspirin as a preventative and take more during the hike.

5. Arrive at the trailhead well hydrated. We drink a lot of water during the days before the hike and split a liter bottle driving to the Portal. Avoid alcohol in the days before the hike.

6. Drink plenty of water (or better a sports drink) during the hike. Do not wait to feel thirsty. Drink on a schedule whether you want it or not.

7. Eat throughout the hike. You may not have much appetite. So, take simple foods that appeal to you that are high in carbs. This trail burns a ton of calories.

Good luck and enjoy the mountain!!

never been above 3,000 ft ? where have you been, yes altitude sickness you are a prime candidate for my friend . one thing to avoid even if you are just staying in the portal is going down the mountain and coming back up from lone pine . going to store in lone pine and heading right back up roundtrip within an hour will make you sick fast, it is like the bends when you go diving. if you are trying to summit whitney, then spend 3 or 4 days prior to your hike at the portal, so your blood thins properly . and avoid excess gassy things like soda and beer, keep the co2 to a minimum

What???
If you wish to read factual information about altitude, acclimitization, etc please visit the website that I can't help but reference for about the hundredth time...

www.ismmed.org, go to mountain medicine information center, the written for non-physicians altitude tutorial. This was written by physicians and other medical types who have devoted their lives to the study of altitude medicine.

I was only going to visit this board for info before my (done) trip up the MR but I the more I read the more I realize that there isn't a great understanding of altitude physiology- probably no ones fault-maybe the info is hard to get for the non-medical person. I really want to let people know that there IS info out there and you should want to get as much info as you can about the possible complications of our shared love of the mountains and high altitude. . As a doc, I see too many unfortunate things happen because people don't understand their environment (not just mountains) and/or because they believe information that someone else has given them based only on one person's anecdotal experience. I can't, won't and haven't tried to correct every misconception or myth that I see here-there are simply too many-some of them alarming. Knowledge is power but that knowledge must be based on facts. Richard gives good recommendations here as have some others on other threads but there are some that are just wrong. (minor caution taking ginko and aspirin together- may be okay in young healthy person but there is some evidence now that excess bleeding can occur as in -if you fall or something your blood may not clot properly...but ginko is really showing good results in preventing AMS)

What chance do I have: living at sea level, driving up from LA (sea level) in the morning, doing a light hike to 10,000 ft, camping at portal (8000 ft) till 4am, getting up and doing a day hike to the summit. Presume that i do all the right things (hydration etc),. What are my chances for not summiting due to AMS, etc

marcus - Until you go to high altitude for the first time, it's impossible to say how you will react. From personal experience and from reading this board for several years, it seems that some people are relatively immune from bad effects (if proper precautions are taken) and others just can't handle it without resorting to prescription drugs. Everyone's physiology is different. We live at 500 feet and have never felt headache, nausea or worse on Whitney by following the steps I outlined previously.

Marcus, I have dayhiked the summit successfully for the past 10 years, going from sea level to the summit in 22 to 24 hours. I have never gotten any AMS symptoms on the uphill, they take a while to set in, but get a little headyachey (even with over the counter medication) on the downhill portion from about 13000 to 9000; then it slowly clears up from there as I continue down. I would describe my acclimation ability as average to slightly above average, and I am in hiking shape year round. I also agree that individual results can vary wildly, and experimentation with lower five figure peaks is the best teacher. This year I plan to lead a group, and so I will be acclimating for two nights, and I think that 36 hours at the Portal to 10K is a good compromise point timewise, if you can afford the extra day.

I kid you not, but Rock & Ice Magazine recently published an article by Tim Neville on AMS.
Aside from Diamox, he claims "Viagra has shown promising results in fighting altitude sickness. Seems that nitric oxide, a wunder-compound that has lifted many flagging member, also occures naturally in great concentration amoung the native Tibetian and Bolivians, whose people have lived at altitude for thousands of years. Viagra helps dilate the blood vessels and reduce blood pressure - keys to avoiding AMS. However, most doctors caution that more research needs to be done before Viagra can be taken williy-nilly in the mountains."

I'm not making this up, and from past experience with Viagra, I'm going to see if the drug becomes common knowledge in preventing/treating AMS. However, I caution those who want to try it, to make sure you're with someone you love...

~Swifty

Tis true...

There is active ongoing research in the Wilderness Medicine community on Viagra at altitude and there are early promising results but there are more studies needed.

I wish I had invented this stuff

Captain:

An earlier post suggested taking aspirin prophylactically. I respectfully disagree on 2 counts. The first is that aspirin may make you sweat at a higher rate and could dehydrate you to a degree. While drinking lots of water is a good thing in the mountains and helps with altitude sickness, you want to use your kidneys, not your skin, to clear the water and metabolites. Second, I think that you should be careful about stopping the early warning signs of AMS with aspirin. Whitney is high enough to get cerebral edema (which is a much more serious condition than AMS) and I like to know when I start getting a headache. If you choose to take aspirin at that point, at least you are on guard about altitude effects.

Thanks to everyone for advice on avoiding Altitude sickness. A friend who was a deep sea diver recomended Vitamin E, B22 and Iron, which he said that they used when diving.
Any thought on the effectiveness of these vitamins?

Aspirin is an anti-inflamatory, not a pain killer; ergo, it doesn't 'mask' pain, but rather reduces the swelling that causes it. Same with Aleve (naproxyn) Motrin (ibuprofin) or Celebrex. While these NSAIDs may produce other unwanted side effects, such as stomach and intestinal discomfort and/or increased dehydration, they will not hide the symptoms of AMS, but rather forestall them. Ask your doctor.

I just finished the trip and was sick, sick but I probaly could have avoided if I would have stayed very hydrated and eaten a lot of food. The altitude will make you feel not so hungry and you will begin to get a head ache, for me anyhow and it has happened before so I would follow some of this advise others have posted and don't over look it and think it won't happen to you because me and several others (a lot of others experienced sickness) Drink, drink, drink, a lot of water and be sure to read if you are alergic to any of it because I was prescribed Diamox and I happen to be alergic to sulfa meds. Good luck and you will have the time of your life.