Chockstone Forum

      Sponsored By
      ROCK
   HARDWARE

Chockstone Photography

Australian Landscape Prints

Chockstone Forum - Accidents & Injuries

Report Accidents and Injuries

Topic Date User

Altitude 8-Jan-2005 At 4:34:13 AM shmalec

Message

I find the first sign is always nausea and this gets quite severe before I develop a headache. There is something of a delay but its usually a couple of hours. Most of the time its mild nausea and irregular breathing at night (waking up with a need to catch up on breathing). The nausea usually goes away after a few hours. One occasion I've had severe headach and exhaustion but this was climbing to 5900m with a months break between climbs and only one night at ~4900m. The other time I had full on vomiting and gastro and was left barely able to walk down but I suspect I got a dose of giardia in the mix also as I didn't fully recover until I took the pills a week afterwards.

Its a very interesting subject and peoples reactions seem to differ greatly.

Anyone have any thoughts on how long you retain acclimitisation. I've heard that within 4 weeks your haemoglobin (sp?) replaces itself and therefore all the extra you had is now gone. I personally think it lasts longer than this having compared my own reaction to others after a break from climbing for a month or two.