I posted a trip report entitled "Lessons Learned -July 26 Summit" in which I mentioned that two people in our group of five took Diamox prior to and during their summit trip. The drug seemed to work very well, but did produce some interesting side effects as noted before.
The five of us were in roughly the same hiking condition and had logged similar miles in conditioning for this trip. We had hiked to the tops of Baldy, San Gorgonio and San Jacinto. Two people got prescriptions for Diamox prior to the trip and began taking the drug a day or two before our summit attempt. Both of these people arrived at Whitney Portal by the early afternoon prior to our early mornign departure. A third person arrived at the same time and had not taken Diamox. The other two people in out group spent a couple days in Mammoth to acclimatize. They did not take Diamox.
We arrived at Trail Crest at roughly the same time and because it looked like we might have only a small weather window we decided to hurry at our individual best pace to the summit. The two people who took Diamox arrived at the summit about 30 minutes before the other three. They also seemed to be in pretty good shape and the altitude did not seem to phase them too much. Since we had all seemed to be in roughly the same shape to start we attributed their faster pace to Diamox.
While Diamox did seem to work very well for these two, they mentioned that they had a few interesting side effects including some tingling in the fingers and a fuzzy-tingly sensation on their tongue, especially when eating or drinking carbonated beverages. They also said that food tasted different. Despite the side effects both said they would take the drug on other high altitude hikes. There are other common side effects and more information on the Diamox can be found here:
http://www.t***mc.co.uk/world/mm/mm3.htm
This post is not meant as an endorsement of Diamox and is only intended as a more detailed account of someone's experience with the drug. Since quite a few people are have expressed interest in this topic it might be useful for others to post their personal experience, both good and bad. Ultimately the decision to take Diamox should only be made after consultation with your doctor.
