Re: [CDT-L] List discussion

At 02:46 PM 8/15/98 -0700, you wrote:
>
>
>
>> I have spent a lot of time at very high altitudes. I worked at various
radio
>> transmitter sites in the Andes in Colombia and Peru up to nearly 16,000. I
>> have never heard of healthy people being affected by the "seroche" as
altitude
>> sickness is called in South America at altitudes below about 14,000 feet. I
>> would think that the only places this would be a problem on the CDT
would be a
>> few peaks when one is working very hard and is dehydrated.
>
>I have gotten altitude sickness below 14,000 ft on the CDT (and I was very
>healthy).  And I know at least one other person who has also gotten attitude
>sickness on the CDT.  (However, I don't live at 14,000 ft or above like some
>people in Columbia and Peru.  At the time I lived at about a mile
elevation.  Now
>I live at almost sea level, so high elevation bothers me even more than it
did
>then.)  The fact is altitude sickness affects different people differently at
>different times and for different reasons.  But I do agree that staying well
>hydrated is the key on the CDT to preventing altitude sickness.  The only
solution
>I know is to carry plenty of water over dry sections and don't try to save
the
>water.  Drink it!  It does more good in your body than in your bottle even
if you
>might need to dry camp.  We used snow melt if we couldn't find water.
However,
>snow seems to be a Catch 22 on the CDT.  Go early enough to find plenty of
snow
>melt and you may have trouble getting over some sections.  Go late enough
so that
>snow won't prevent you from hiking and you will have more trouble finding
water.
>

Like Marilyn states, I have also felt the affects of altitude below 14K.
And I have seen people to sick to move at 12K. 

On our very first trip to altitude (six years ago) we were confronted with
a case of HACE in a member of our hiking party at just above 9,000 feet!
The "Readers Digest version" of this story is embedded at the following URL:

http://www.mindspring.com/~treeline/altitu~1.htm

David

 
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