Mt. Whitney Portal Store & Hostel Forums General Mt. Whitney Portal Store Message Board ACSM Article on Whitney

I just received my October issue of Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise, the official journal of the American College of Sports and Exercise, and it contains an article titled "Mt. Whitney: Determinants of Summit Success and Acute Mountain Sickness", by Wagner, et. al. The data was collected the first two weeks of August, 2006, and I believe I remember a thread mentioning that this data collection would be occuring; indeed, this site is mentioned and referenced in the article! I believe that this article would be of interest to many on this board; I could probably figure out how to post it, but am not sure about the copyright rules regarding that. I suspect that some of the researchers may be a part of this board; if so, I will defer to their decision on posting.

Dr. Murray (Ken) had mentioned that the study results had been published. Maybe he'll have a source for posting the article here without copyright infringement issues.

Any word on the report?

Yes. I'm one of the authors. I'm looking into the issue of being able to post it. Should have info soon.

Here is the abstract:
============================================

Mt. Whitney: Determinants of Summit Success
and Acute Mountain Sickness

DALE R. WAGNER1, KIM D’ZATKO2, KEVIN TATSUGAWA3, KEN MURRAY4, DARYL PARKER5,
TIM STREEPER5, and KEVIN WILLARD5
1Department of Health, Physical Education, and Recreation, Utah State University, Logan, UT; 2Department of Psychology,
Utah State University, Logan, UT; 3Recreation Administration and Leisure Studies Program, California State University,
Fresno, CA; 4Department of Family Medicine, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA; and 5Department of
Kinesiology and Health Science, California State University, Sacramento, CA

ABSTRACT

WAGNER, D. R., K. D’ZATKO, K. TATSUGAWA, K. MURRAY, D. PARKER, T. STREEPER, and K. WILLARD. Mt. Whitney:
Determinants of Summit Success and Acute Mountain Sickness. Med. Sci. Sports Exerc., Vol. 40, No. 10, pp. 1820–1827, 2008.

Purpose: The aim of this study was to determine the prevalence of summit success and acute mountain sickness (AMS) on Mt. Whitney (4419 m) and to identify variables that contribute to both.

Methods: Hikers (N = 886) attempting the summit were interviewed at the trailhead upon their descent. Questionnaires included demographic and descriptive data, acclimatization and altitude history, and information specific to the ascent. The Lake Louise Self-Assessment Score was used to make a determination about the occurrence of AMS. Logistic regression techniques were used to calculate odds ratios (OR) for AMS and summit success.

Results: Forty-three percent of the sample met the criteria for AMS, and 81% reached the summit. The odds of experiencing AMS were reduced with increases in age (adjusted 10-yr OR = 0.78; P G 0.001), number of hours spent above 3000 m in the 2 wk preceding the ascent (adjusted 24-h OR = 0.71; P G 0.001), and for females (OR = 0.68; P = 0.02). Climbers who had a history of AMS (OR = 1.41; P = 0.02) and those taking analgesics (OR = 2.39; P G 0.001) were more likely to experience AMS. As climber age increased, the odds of reaching the summit decreased (adjusted 10-yr OR = 0.75; P G 0.001). However, increases in the number of hours per week spent training (adjusted 5-h OR = 1.24; P = 0.05), rate of ascent (adjusted 50 mIhj1 OR = 1.13; P = 0.04), and previous high-altitude record (adjusted 500 m OR = 1.26; P G 0.001) were all associated with increased odds for summit success.

Conclusions: A high percentage of trekkers reached the summit despite having symptoms of AMS.

Thanks for the abstract. My son and I were two of the hikers surveyed.