My first high altitude hunt was a little un-nerving too. I knew we'd camp at 10,300 the first day and felt that I'd need some insurance, Diamox was the insurance (not panacea)I wanted from what I'd read. I had a little trouble getting the Doc (military doctor) to prescride a few for me (it's an antibiotic and they're none to keen on short doses of antibiotics as a rule). Had I not stated that I was "forced" to go directly to 10,300 from ~sea level he'd had balked and I'd have gone without the Diamox.

This year again (my third hunting trip to the > 10,000ASL region, no Diamox last year) my wife is coming along and we'll be backpacking to over 12,000 after one or two days at 10,000. We'll once again take the Diamox (provided I can wrestle it from the military doctors), but this time it's because we can't esily descend if one or both of us get into a little trouble, (a little prophylactic medicine).

Here's a fairly good web site with info.

http://www.high-altitude-medicine.com/AMS.html

Now the only problem I have left at high altitude is those strange dreams (Chickens driving wooden Ford Torino's and such.. weird stuff ).

www.thebmc.co.uk/world/mm/mm3.htm



Diamox (acetazolamide) is actually what we call a carbonic anhydrase inhibitor. It is used in the treatment of glaucoma. It has a sulfonamide group as part of the molecule. What this means to you all is that you should not use it if you are allergic to "Sulfa" type drugs. It costs about 15 to 25 cents per tablet, so have your doctor write a prescription for 100 tablets.



JCN