|
|
Acclimatization
- Avoiding AMS
Coming
from 700 feet
above
sea level, one of my biggest worries on a four day 14er hiking trip was
Altitude
Mountain Sickness (AMS). I searched every resource that I could
find,
and I talked to as many people as I could, trying to find that "magic
elixir"
to avoid AMS. I found out that there is no such elixir.
But,
I did see a lot of opinions and a lot of ideas. I decided to
summarize
the various things that I did to help avoid AMS. I really don't
know
which things helped and which didn't, or which helped the most.
But,
I'll list them in the order which I believe had the most affect.
Here
they are:
| Hydration
|
WATER,
WATER, WATER. I paced about 20 ozs of fluid per hour of
climbing.
That equates to around 20 oz per 2-3 miles. I usually had half my
fluid as water and half as gatorade. If I were to change anything
I
did, I would have drank more water. |
|
| Forced
Acclimatization |
I
arrived in Denver at 10pm and immediately went to 11,000 feet
(trailhead
of Grays) and camped there for the night. I slept at 9,000-11,000
feet every night. Luckily, I never had ANY AMS symptoms or sleep
problems any night. |
|
| Fitness
|
I
run marathons, and typically run 30+ miles per week. My max VO2
is
currently around 48, which is above average. Some think that this
is
a big indicator of ability at altitude, but other data suggests not.
Also,
in preparation for the trip, I went hiking 12 miles and 15 miles the
two
Sundays before my trip, with my 15 lb pack load; albeit at 700 feet
altitude. |
|
| Vitamin
Supplements |
I
read all over the internet, trying to find out what supplements help
with
AMS. Based on my research, here is what I took, starting
approximately
10 days before my trip and continuing through the trip: (2)
multi-vitamins,
1200 mg of vitamin E, 1000 mg of Vitamin C (both ~3000% of RDA) and 120
mg
Ginkgo Bilbo. As I regularly take a multi-vitamin and sometimes
vitamin
C and E, this was not so extreme for me. |
|
| Food
Content |
I
tried to eat 70% carbohydrates. It is more difficult for the body
to
digest proteins and fat. By eating primarily carbohydrates, your
stomach
requires less blood/oxygen to digest. When the stomach requires
less
blood/oxygen, then the brain gets more. Also, I tried to make
sure
that I ate food continuously, instead of gorging myself in any one
sitting.
Everyone knows how lethargic you can feel after a large lunch.
This
is again due to the blood flow to your stomach. You brain needs
this
blood, especially when the oxygen is deficient. What did I
eat?:
Cliff bars and Gatorade bars. I noticed these were the highest
Carbs
content, so I stuck with them. Also, I bought a big pack of
twizzlers
and ate them as I was walking up the mountain. This was pure
sugar
(carbs) and kept me eating continuously. I was craving twizzlers,
but
I would try any heavy sugar candy as a substitute. I should have
eaten
more, but I only had about 1 bar every 2-3 hours. I always left
with
a good pop-tart breakfast or a Subway lunch though. |
|
| Breathing
|
Very
often, I forced myself to breath heavy and fast. At sea level,
this
might make me hyperventilate, but at altitude I noticed this did not
make
me dizzy. |
|
| Medicine
|
Okay,
so sometimes, I had some mild headaches. This was my ONLY AMS
symptom.
On the first day I had mild headaches that I would say were not
quite
as bad as some hangovers that I have had. On the second day, I
had
similar headaches, but I could feel it getting better already.
Really
the only time that my head bothered me was when I was pounding back
down
the trail (similar to a hangover). By the third day my headaches
were
almost gone and on the 4th day I had no headache at all. I used
IBUPROFEN
in order to alleviate the headache pain. That worked great!
I
truly believe that the headaches were primarily due to mild
dehydration.
Next time MORE WATER!! |
|
| Genetics!?
|
Maybe
I'm just lucky!!!?? |
|
Symptoms
of AMS are
as follows:
- headache (* my worst symptom)
- dizziness
- fatigue
- shortness of breath
- loss of appetite
- nausea
- disturbed sleep
- general feeling of malaise.
|
|
| To
gain
additional information on AMS, and
acclimatization, just go to
any "search engine" and type in ACCLIMATIZATION!
|
|
|