14ers.com

^^^ too much humility and down to earthiness. Needs more narcissism and unearned self importance.

Seriously, I'm glad to hear such things can be caused by AMS, I honestly had no clue. But it's important that we are able to correctly identify problems with ourselves and our partners when in the backcountry. Thanks for posting.

I gotten sick about three times in several hundred excusions above treeline.
Some you can read this both ways:
- for the most part if you prepare you can beat it
- however it does strike totally out of the blue somethimes for some people and you should be aware of that

While bagging the summit of Mt. Blanc, 3 of the members of my 5 man team were European, and literally did nothing to acclimate themselves for very high altitude, except starting a pill regimen a few days prior to the climb. In no way were they in any better physical shape than I, and they totally kicked my butt. I was seriously dragging at 14.5K and at 15.5ish, I thought I was going to die and never gain the summit (exaggeration, but not by much.). We did it in late April, and it was a classic all things went to heck in a hurry during the climb.

They told me the name of the medication, and it is specifically for high altitude climbing, and it is supposedly available here in the States. It is called Diamox. I am getting that for the next summit.

I have been doing this for 30 years, I had never seen these guys move without complaints of joint pain, headaches, shortness of breath, nausea, headaches, etc., and this time they got me. This stuff works, and if you knew these old guys, who spend more time smoking and drinking than any other activity, and saw them move the way they did, well, I was blown away.

Has anyone had experience with this med?

Yukon Ron wrote:Has anyone had experience with this med?

Diamox is pretty common. Side-effects are unpleasant (in my experience in Argentina). Something along the lines of feeling as if low voltage electrical current is flowing through... your butt-hole. I s**t you not (pun intended).

Diamox isn't for everyone -- I found that I felt much better without it. It made me feel jittery and nervous.

Dave B wrote:

Yukon Ron wrote:Has anyone had experience with this med?

Diamox is pretty common. Side-effects are unpleasant (in my experience in Argentina). Something along the lines of feeling as if low voltage electrical current is flowing through... your butt-hole. I s**t you not (pun intended).

I had never felt so beat down after the climb, and not having enough time to get my body used to the time difference I could not sleep for a couple of days afterwards. I will plan better, obviously, but, I must tell you, I was very impressed. These guys typically start bitc#ing at 9K.....

More than you probably want to know:

Identifying the lowest effective dose of acetazolamide [Diamox] for the prophylaxis of acute mountain sickness: systematic review and meta-analysis
British Medical Journal, 2012
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/article ... .e6779.pdf

"This systematic review and meta-analysis summarises the current evidence on the efficacy of acetazolamide 250 mg, 500 mg, and 750 mg daily in the prevention of acute mountain sickness. A systematic search of relevant published and unpublished literature identified 11 [randomised, placebo-controlled] trials for inclusion in the review. The results showed that at all three doses acetazolamide was efficacious in preventing acute mountain sickness above 3000 m. Acetazolamide 250 mg was the lowest effective dose for which there was evidence for this indication".

ibuprofin is an over the counter drug thats been proven in studies to prevent some altitude sickness.

I always take a couple before starting a 14er hike. If nothing else, it helps with the muscle soreness

+1 for the moderate dose of ibuprofren throughout the day, 400 mg every 6 hours works great. Vitamin I

http://med.stanford.edu/news/all-news/2 ... -find.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Very nice trip report

It can happen to anyone!

Be Safe

Champion wrote:Very nice trip report

It can happen to anyone!

Be Safe

Champ, I thought you already said "Bye?" Welcome back.

Dave B wrote:

Yukon Ron wrote:Has anyone had experience with this med?

Diamox is pretty common. Side-effects are unpleasant (in my experience in Argentina). Something along the lines of feeling as if low voltage electrical current is flowing through... your butt-hole. I s**t you not (pun intended).

Ok, that's weird