Mt. Whitney Portal Store & Hostel Forums General Mt. Whitney Portal Store Message Board JuAltitude Sickness: Mental or Physical?

Dr Harvey Lankford & Dr. Ken Murray have spent a great deal of time during their careers writing and lecturing on the topic of altitude sickness

Bee,

Is Dr. Harvey Lankford one and the same person as h_Lankford, a member on this board?

yes I am, Hello.

as usual, altitude sickness gets lots of discussion. Very interesting topic, I agree.

My own personal interest stepped up after Aconcagua in 1998 when we saw lots of AMS, several HAPEs, one HACE, and one death during a very stormy 3 weeks. We did a little medical study called "Brains and Video Games at High Altitude: Basically, by the time one got to 19,000 feet one could not operate a Gameboy playing Tetris at the highest preset speed because hypoxia slowed reflexes, concentration, attitude and other brain functions. This new finding was added to the medical catalogue of other functions that deteriorate at altitude, the first being deterioration of night color vision beginning at only 5,000 feet! Harvey

Richard, was Shipton speaking of illness or altitude illness and to what degree? ....and..."reach the summit" - how about returning? I know you are just messin' with the quotes

Well, what about aromatic oil and the pyramid shaped wire thingy?

That was Frank Smythe hallucinating on Everest - sharing his Kendal mint cake with an imaginary companion, and seeing geometric kites in the sky.

Hello Dr. Lankford,

It's nice to meet you on the WPSMB. Now that I know you're a doctor I'm going to have to read through your posts again so I can better educate myself about Altitude Sickness. I believe Bee posted that you co-wrote a book on the subject. Bee seems to think very highly of you, so I'm going to have to look for your book also and reacquaint myself with this thread.

I found your post about trying to play a Gameboy at 19,000 ft. quite interesting. One of my friends always brings her solitaire game with her on our backback trips. I believe she had it with her last summer at Trail Camp on the way to the Mt. Whitney summit. I'll have to check with her to see if she remembers it being difficult to play at a higher altitude; however, Trail Camp is no where near 19,000 ft. Personally, I can tell you my radio worked perfectly at Trail Camp. I listened to my favorite radio station, KFI AM 640, two nights in a row while lying in my sleeping bag before I dropped off to dream land.

Maybe I'll see you on the mountain someday.

Take care,
Lynn

Hi Lynn.

Sorry no co-author book, just two small mountaineering articles in medical journals, two articles in lay publications, and too many rejections by others! My opus is a collection of mountain quotes which may someday make the light of day.

As for solitaire: When at 18,000 feet once, one of the guys we were playing cards with in camp suddenly said, "Hey, there are no red cards." He was right. Color vision at high altitude is muted, but subtle enough that most people don't realize it.
Harvey