This is the second year that I have been hit with altitude sickness hunting elk. It seems that anything over 10000' just kicks my butt. I don't get the coughing up blood stuff, just a headache from hell, loose my balance and generally feel very bad. Dropping down to 8500' and downing a lot of gatoraid will usually do the trick to get me back in shape to hunt. Doe's anyone else have this problem and is there any way to prevent it. I try to stay hydrated but that doesn't work most of the time.

Gradually working up to the elevation you have problems at (usually takes a few days at increasing elevation) is the only real answer I know of. If this event occurs it is a real poetential, life threatening danger and the only real cure is to get to lower elevation ASAP. What elevation are you at in Colorado, how long have you been there? This usually occurs to folks coming from a lot lower elevation than most parts of Colorado. Good luck and maybe others here can lend some thought and help?

Larry Sellers
SCI (International) Life Member

The best medicine would be to acclimate to the highest altitude that you will be at. This, however, takes a great deal of time. Full acclimation can take up to 3 weeks, depending on the altitude. When I lived in CO, I didnt have any problem with altitude. I lived at around 6500 feet so going up to 14,000 wasn't much of a big deal. I did have a problem with altitude when I did my CO-OP in Italy and tried to some 4000m peaks. You can go from dang near sea level to over 15k feet in the Alps! What worked for me is to make the highest base camp possible without experiencing symptoms. I would stop when I started to get a headache. I would spend a day there doing little to nothing. The next day I would gain altitude until I started to get a headache, then head down. After 2 or 3 days of doing that, I could climb the peak without symptom. The other thing that you can try to speed up the process is a drug called Diamox. I personally cant use it due to a sulfa allergy but I have hiked with people who have used it and it works pretty good.

Hope this helps

Get into town a day or so early, drink lots of water and take Tums......

Whenever I've had friends from sea level visit, Tums did the trick each time.....

You might read about the acclimatization process used by climbers that hope to climb Everest.

They spend 6 to 8 weeks gradually climbing higher. Normally this is on the Khumbu glacier. once they climb to a higer camp they may go back down to the last camp to spend the night. This glimbing higher during the day and sleeping lower goes on while they haul their equipment hihger and higher each day.

There are a few people that are genetically able to adapt to the lower oxygen levels. They may be able to climb into the dead zone above 26,000 ft without oxygen.
Then there are people that develop cerebral edema or pulmonary edema at much lower altitudes. These folks are genetically unable to climb higher. Sometimes these are the strongest and most fit at lower altitudes so they cannot comprehend being unable to survive at higher altitudes.

Try this on youtube

Accute mountain sickness

Thanks for the advice. I live at 5300 ft. and going over a pass at 11000 doesn't bother me. Going to the top of Pikes Peak doesn't bother me either. The difference is physical activity at a higher elevation. My headaches don't come on until early morning after sleeping at a high elevation. I'll try the Tums, that certainly may help. It's frustrating to go hunting with my son and then not be able to do and go the places I need to, to make an enjoyable hunt for both of us. I'll keep working on it and ask my Dr. about the drug mentioned.

SR:

a great video you posted from YouTube. It answered a lot of questions for me. Everyone should watch this. Knowing the symptoms may help you help some other hunter like me.

Diamox tablets helped me in kyrgzia. JY Jones wrote a great article on this a few years back.

You might also try drinking 2 bottles of water with each bottle of gatorade. Working on wildfires where we can get really dehydrated, we try to make sure everyone does this. There are too many salts in gatorade alone. A couple of friends who come from low elevation on the East Coast to hunt elk with me here in Utah have had problems with altitude sickness. One thing that seems to help is to drink a canteen of water before they ever leave camp in the morning.

Good advice from knowledgable people. One of the biggest issues is what altitude you sleep at, but on a hunt it is really hard to acclimate slowly over time.
I'd vote for diamox at least for the first 5 days. It's a diaretic and could cause dehydration so be careful with how much you take (find a doctor that knows what he's doing to write the presc).

Lots of great advice by everyone thats what I love about this forum.
Thought I would throw my 2 cents in too. Altitude as stated affects different people in different ways however I've noticed whether I was climbing fourteeners or high altitude hunts that altitude affects peoples thirst and appetite. I always recommend that you drink water even when your not thirsty and eat even though you may not be hungry. Pop a couple Rolaids before you start your hike and at least at lunch time and the return. Drink more water than you think you need, the air is thin so you are panting while hiking and that loses lots of water vapor so drink more than you think you need.
All that and a positive attitude and you should minimize the affects.

Here's a CDC article

http://wwwnc.cdc.gov/travel/ye...ion/altitude-illness

Basically, go to your primary doctor a couple months ahead of time, get your acetazolamide, and try to ascend slowly anyway. I had a friend come from 1000 ft this fall and hunted at 12000 feet. He did okay, started with a night in Denver, then 2 nights in vail at 8000 ft, and then he hiked slowly over 2 days to 10000, and when I met up with him after 6 days, he was good. With your history though, acetazolamide is going to be your biggest help.

Try the diamox mentioned earlier. IN 97, I took it before and during a trip to China. I went from 50" elevation here in FL to a high of 17,500" with no problem and virtually no acclimation period. We landed on Beijing. We were in base camp at 12,500 feet 48 hours later.

You might also try the Hypoxico equipment. It can help you simulate high altitudes.

We brought Diamox to Tajikistan in 2008 but did not need the medication. Other members of our party used the drug and said it helped a great deal.

My husband Rick just did Kilimanjaro in September. I joined the group afterwards for the Ngorongoro Crater and Serengeti. Rick and Javier (from Mexico City) did not use Diamox, but three other members did. They said it really helped them adapt to the altitude.

Altitude affects everyone a little differently. I lived in La Paz, Bolivia for 3 years and worked all over the Andean Ridge. Drink water until you think you will throw up and then drink some more. Caffeine helps as does diamox for most. It is a shame we cannot get coca tea. That is one of the best remedies. Contrary to popular belief, you will not show up positive on a drug test. Until you add a bunch of poisonous chemicals, the coca leaf is just a leaf.

Acetazolamide = Diamox (brand name)

I recently prescribed this for a couple of friends who were traveling through the Himalayas.

Read abstract here:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15072715

Kenati
Interesting study however it was based on non mountaineering "tourists" I assume.
Any study results available for people who may be exerting themselves whether it be mountaineering or hunting?
Most of my high altitude hunts do not differ in the least from mountaineering.
Good read though and I appreciate the link.

quote:

Originally posted by SFRanger7GP:
Altitude affects everyone a little differently.

I will second that! I have lived at +-6,500 for 3 months and I still feel short of breath at times(with little or no exertion). Previously I lived at sea level and I packed an elk at 8,500ft this month.

Even so I find that I do a double yawn at times to catch my breath.

Our bodies respond to hypoxemic (low oxygen) conditions by altering the amount of a substance called 2,3-biphosphoglyceric acid. (2,3 BPG for short). The 2,3-BPG levels are higher in those acclimated to high altitudes. This substance allows oxygen to be released more easily from being bound to the red blood cell's hemoglobin and delivers it to tissue that needs oxygen.

This article states, "Recently, scientists have found similarities between low amounts of 2,3-BPG with the occurrence of high altitude pulmonary edema at high altitudes." This may explain why some folks are genetically unable to tolerate high altitude.

In addition to 2,3-BPG, there are other factors that affect the oxygen dissociation curve as well, such as pH and dissolved C02 in the blood. High levels of 2,3-DPG shift the curve to the right (as in childhood where oxygen is pulled out of mother's circulation and given to the baby).


Other than the basics, I really don't recall much else about it.



You can geek out and read more here if you'd like:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2...phosphoglyceric_acid

That's interesting the suggestion to take TUMS. A few years ago we were camped high in southern Colorado and one of our group really felt bad. The outfitter gave him a pack of Rolaids to eat and next morning he was hunting. I always thought it was just folklore but maybe something in them works.