Mt. Whitney Portal Store & Hostel Forums General Mt. Whitney Portal Store Message Board Altitude Sickness on Whitney and other Sierra....

I have hiked Whitney 15 times in the last 12 years. Typically the altitude problems I have are a headache and upset stomach but they subside once I get down to the Portal, and all symptoms are completely gone by the time I reach LP.

I can live with those symptoms so here is what is bothering me, on other Sierra hikes/backpacking trips over the past 5 years I have gotten really sick to my stomach. Typically I cannot keep down any kinds of foods or liquid and all symptoms seem to go away once I reach about 4000 ft. This happened to me this past week on a trip to Yosemite.

I started off in Toulumne Meadows and reached a top height of 9900 feet at clouds rest. I then set up camp at the base of Half Dome 7200. At this point I was tired but not sick and had no headache whatsoever. I had been drinking water and some gatorade as I hiked but really hadn't eaten much along the hike. After being in camp about an hour all that I had drank started to come back up. This happend 4 more times over the next 3 hours and finally just as it was getting dark I put on my headlamp and descended to the Valley floor. Once I reached the floor at about 11 at night I felt good again. All stomach problems had passed and I was able to hit up a vending machine in Curry Village for liquids.

This has happened more and more frequent over the past 5 years(I am 35 years old and live at sea level) but this is the first time it has happened on the first day of a trip(usually second or third). The symptoms are usually the same, inability to keep fluids or food down/smell hypersensitivity to just about anything/ all problems pass once I reach 4000 feet.

Anybody else ever felt like this? What works for you? I have tried aclimatizing for up to 2-3 days pre-trip and still the stomach problems occurs(headaches only happen on Whitney but no place else). I have seen Altitude sickness as a topic on the board before but I haven't seen these exact symptoms previously posted.

Thanks,


Dave

Your symptoms are similar to mine, only you have it worse. When I am on a backpack, if I am at or above 10,000, I cannot eat that first night, and the lack of appetite lasts for several days. I never actually throw up, and can force myself to eat small amounts as long as it is a more fluid-type of food (Another symptom is NO saliva to help chew and swallow.)

I think your only solution is to acclimate for longer periods prior to going above 9000, and since your symptoms are pretty extreme, talk to your doctor about using Diamox. I take it two days before going out, half a 250 mg tablet twice a day.

In addition, I found that taking Excedrin worsened my symptoms, especially the nausea. It has a combination of aspirin, acetaminophen (Tylenol) and caffeine. I use ibuprofen or Aleve instead.

Finally, backpacking all the way to the base of Half Dome via Clouds Rest is a long hike. If you aren't practicing ultralight packing, that puts you in a really exhausted state at the end of the day. I believe that really adds to the AMS symptoms, too. Try going half the distance the first day, or try what I have: start the hike in the evening and go only several hours.

AMS symptoms are different for everyone and for me they change from trip to trip.

In the pre Diamox days, I made it to Whitney with a splitting headache, that was it. Gonzo by Lone Pine Lake. The next trip to Whitney was a touch on nausea at the summit but gone by Trail Crest. A year later on White no symptoms until summit then the mother of all AMS attacks, headache, nausea, malaise, weakness..the whole shooting match. It went away in Big Pine.

I take Diamox these days and still have intermittent problems with loss of appetite at 14,000', a problem at Whitney in May but not at White in June.

My dosing is slightly different than Steve C's but it works...except for the food thing.

Thanks for the responses,

I guess the next step is to get so Diamox and see if it helps the nausea. Altitude sickness is strange because I never had any problems until about 5 years ago then it has gotten worse with each year. Hope it helps.

Thanks,

Dave

Let the "pharmaceutical solution" be the last choice, and exhaust all other options first. Here's a few things to try:

Are you in good aerobic condition? If you're not doing any aerobic activity, definately start - it helps. Get on a regular schedule of hiking, biking, swimming . . . whatever your favorite and can do in your neighborhood, get out and do it.

Try car camping up in the White Mtns. The Grandview carcamp is about 10,000 ft, and the gate where you start hiking up White Mtn is 11,500 ft. See how you react at those altitudes without the stress of a long hike. Maybe do some light hiking up there too, such as around the Bristlecone Forest, or up Sheep Mtn or Barcroft Peak.

Don't eat highly spiced or salted foods on the trail. This includes most freeze-dried stuff and ramen. Personnaly, I cant stomach that stuff above 10,000 ft. Try spaghetti/pasta with some dried veggies and bland cheese. Overnight trips in summer can easily be done with more palatable dried and canned foods off the supermarket shelf, even veggies like onions and peppers. A little heavier than freeze-dried, but might be worth a the few extra oounces

Keep track of how much water you're consuming - keep drinking all day long. I try to drink 5 liters day, not including drinks at meals.

Good Luck.

Aerobic conditioning has absolutely nothing to do with it. If that was the case I would not have a problem. In fact, my problems increased as my aerobic capacity and condition got better. All my friends who suffer AMS symptoms are first up the hill when hiking.

Staying hydrated does help as does proper acclimatization.

Thank you again for all the tips on this,

A little about myself: I trail run 3 times a week, usually pretty hilly terrain in Santa Barbara and for about an hour at a time. I cycle about 3 times a week, usually one or two times being mtn biking, anywhere from an hour and a half to two and a half hours. I feel like I am in good shape and I push myself more than just a leisurely pace.

As for liquids, that could be an issue. I try and hydrate several days leading up to the trip and try and acclimatize at least one day before the trip if not more. Lately though during the hikes my stomach is a little on the upset side so drinking does not feel that great. Catch-22, stomach is telling me not to drink water but I know I need to so that the stomach feels better at the end of the day.

A month ago I was lucky to stay at a friends condo in Mammoth(8000ft). The day I got there, I did a 3 hour hike and had no big problems that night. The next day I left the condo and rode to the top of Mammoth(11000) and back with no problems other than being a little out of breath and headachy slightly. I never felt sick to my stomach even thought the altitude was higher than Yosemite. My pack during the Yosemite trip was however probably close to 35lbs. Maybe day hiking is the call?

Dave

I have to agree with WB about aerobic training. I got AMS worse years ago when I was in much better shape, and carried heavier packs higher.

LIPT, it sounds like you are in excellent aerobic condition. So you were able to carry that moderately heavy pack such a distance, and that would intensify the AMS.

But the biggest problem is your not drinking enough water. You have got to drink enough so that your urine is clear, and that you are going at least once every 3 hours.

After reading about how pure the Sierra water is, and how the Giardia problem is practically a backcountry "urban legend", I have been drinking unfiltered and untreated water. I found I would drink much more, because I didn't have to go through all the work of filtering.

An interesting syndrome.

While certainly not "typical" for AMS, it does meet the Lake Louise Criteria for AMS. But there are other possibilities.

It may be a migraine variant called "abdominal migraine"
http://headaches.about.com/od/migrainediseas1/a/what_abdom_mx.htm

It could be Cyclic Vomiting Syndrome, or a variation:
http://digestivedistress.com/vomiting.html

These are NOT easy things to sort out.

By far the easiest diagnostic step would be to treat with Diamox for AMS. If no response, makes it a whole lot more unlikely, although the AMS could be a trigger for abdominal migraine, and eliminate the trigger, eliminate the migraine.

However, I'll bet you are more interested in eliminating the symptoms than finding the correct latin name for your malady. It might be worthwhile seeing a neurologist to consult about what diagnostic and theraputic approaches might make sense in your particular case.

Good luck!

Does how hard someone hikes relative to there capability affect AMS? In other words, if someone is hiking at 100% effort are they more likely to get AMS than if they were hiking at 70% effort?

Bob, I've not seem anything that is exactly on point to your questions.

Certainly, rate-of-ascent is very relevant and related, and of course, the closer one is to one's maximum capability, the faster one will be moving.....so there is a indirect relationship, for sure.

The obvious way that one would test this would be to have a person perform an ascent at a controlled rate, carrying very different weights, so as to radically differentiate the work being performed on the identical course. It would be pretty complex to do in reality, I'd think.

I'll volunteer as the first test subject: give me a helicopter ride to the summit, and I'll camp there for three days and report on whether I get AMS.

I believe that my symptoms would be much less than if I had to carry all my gear and water up to the summit and camp. I have camped on the summit twice, and both times had to get down before I could eat anything.

My next step will definitely be getting checked out by my physician. This is sea level here so I hope the MD has some experience with AMS and would be willing to prescribe Diamox to test out. Hopefully this helps cause I would hate to have to give up backpacking in the Sierras.

Thanks for all the replies,

Dave