[pct-l] altitude

[Phil Baily]

My typical response to hiking at "altitude" (I would define it as 
starting a few thousand feet lower than 10,000'.) is tiredness or 
lack of energy or slower walking speed.  I also often have a headache 
the first day or evening, and maybe slight nausea. All the symptoms 
seem to disappear after two or three days. Then, I am good to go over 
the high passes, etc. The first trip of the summer to altitude is 
always the toughest. I think this is typical, but people are 
different and their symptoms or their intensity or the 
acclimatization time appear to vary. I have also known people to get 
pulmonary edema and have to go to lower elevation immediately to get 
rid of it. I have a good friend that this happened to once, although 
he had been hiking in the Sierra dozens of times previously without 
incidence. He also went back many times afterwards without incidence.

Pieces



At 08:44 AM 4/11/08, jomike at cot.net wrote:
>I was just reading an article in Backpacker as to what happens to 
>your body at "altitude". Isn't that defined as 10,000' and above? 
>That being the case, what effect do those who have hiked the pct 
>through the Sierra, Forester Pass, et.al  experience? Poorly worded 
>sentence, sorry.
>
>are we there yet
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