Comments on: This is Your Brain on Altitude

By: Shared Items on December 4, 2009

Shared Items on December 4, 2009 — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 10:22:48 +0000

[...] This is Your Brain on Altitude from: SierraDescents.com – Climb Up and Ski Down on 6 Nov 2009 [...]

By: Andy

Andy — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 17:35:03 +0000

Interesting – I’d never heard of a US high altitude unit. I bet the hypoxic acclimatization strategies are going to get a lot of attention now. If they help prevent brain injury on the mountains (and 93% O2 sat on Kili suggests it does), everyone’s going to be using them. Or do they contribute to the problem?? A lot of unanswered questions on this subject.

By: Dan Conger

Dan Conger — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 17:01:28 +0000

It is interesting. I don’t have real issues with acclimatization, but I think part of that is the fact that I lived at 6,000 feet for several years near Bishop, CA while growing up. You should read, “No Shortcuts to the Top” by Ed Viesturs. He talks a lot about the effects of altitude, and the realities of climbing on extremely tall mountains. My romanticized idea about climbing Everest one day evaporated after reading that book. I’ll stick to the Sierra Nevada, thank you very much.

By: Colin in CA

Colin in CA — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 03:35:36 +0000

Doh, I mean Outside article. I swear I thought I saw it somewhere else though. Maybe not.

By: Colin in CA

Colin in CA — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 03:34:46 +0000

Read that same NYT article. Very disturbing.

The question is, if you’re one of those California climbers, what counts as acclimatization? Sleeping at 6K? 8K? 10K?

If I slept at Bunny Flat or Brewer Creek, and climbed/skied Shasta in a day, would that be high enough? Probably not…

By: Jonathan Lemkin

Jonathan Lemkin — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 18:37:03 +0000

On the other hand, before doing Kilimanjaro this summer, spent 6 weeks ramping up in a borrowed hypoxic tent. 5% up a night until we were sleeping at 13,000 for a week before leaving. Felt kind of silly doing it, did it anyhow. 9 days later on the summit, 93% oxygen saturation, felt great. After reading this, I feel a little less like a gear junkie gone mad.

Met a guy on our way down in full-blown pulmonary edema. At 15,000. They’d rushed up. Fed him our dexamethasone, porters dragged him down 1000′. Stopped talking gibberish, able to walk again.

US Special Forces keeps a team sleeping in a hypoxic barracks for immediate deployment to altitude. I’ve got to admit, I’m a little jealous.

By: Chris

Chris — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 19:08:19 +0000

Deep-sea construction divers – the type that have to used mixed gas rigs and stay under high pressure for long periods of time (like days) are starting to notice the same memory problems. Could it be a problem with too little/too much atmospheric pressure?

By: Jonathan Lemkin

Jonathan Lemkin — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 05:17:00 +0000

The rush to altitude phenom is very real. LA straight to June Lake. Next morning up at 5 to ski the Solstice Couloir. So 1000 to 9000 to 11,000 and I realized as I get there I don’t know my guide’s name. Not a big deal…. except it was the 10th time I’d climbed with him. Then I had to explain to him that I’d lost the thing. Because I couldn’t come up the word coordination. Very real.