Mt. Whitney Portal Store & Hostel Forums General Mt. Whitney Portal Store Message Board L.A. Couple Rescued by Boy Scouts on Whitney

An ill-prepared couple from Los Angeles were rescued near the summit of Mt. Whitney, suffering from altitude issues exacerbated by a too-short interval since a recent SCUBA trip.

Story from the Fresno Bee.

Well-trained Scouts and leaders can make a difference...kudos to them for helping the couple down from near the summit and providing shelter overnight so they recuperated enough to make the hike back out.

As a former scout leader, I'm always glad to see these stories.

When I saw the article in the Fresno Bee I recognized the scouts immediately. On July 29 I had stopped for the day and set up camp in Rattlesnake Creek, and these scouts came down the trail and stopped for the night right by me. We had a long conversation that night.

How fast did they return from scuba diving in Belize? The usual conservative recommendation is to wait 24 hours before going up high, which includes flying in a passenger jet. The Mauna Kea (13.8K) visitor center in Hawaii advises 24 hours.

So I wonder if she really was suffering from decompression sickness or was just dehydrated and exhausted.

You are quite right about the timeframe. Commercial airliners are kept at equivalent altitude of 7,000-8,000 ft so any decompression illness would have been then. Her symptoms on Whitney were unrelated to the diving.