For you high country hunters - a question
 

Has anyone ever had any problems with altitude sickness? If so - how do you beat it? I am a true flatlander - living at 1300 feet for all of my 22 years. Have been to some altitude a couple times. First time was Estes Park, Colorado - 9000 feet I believe - was the absolute sickest I ahve ever been for 1 1/2 days. Second time was this spring turkey hunting in the Black Hills. Camped at 6600 feet and was anywhere from 6000 to 7100 feet. Did not feel good at all.

What are some ways to beat altitude sickness? I would like to hunt sheep and elk some day and know that it will not be possible unless I can find some way to adjust to the altitude.

RE: For you high country hunters - a question
 

It's never been a problem for me. I'm strange though, I get sick about once every 5-6 years, not even a cold. I can walk right through poison ivy and it doesn't bother me at all, don't know why. My high school girlfreind was the same way, never got sick, poison ivy never effected her either. BTW Estes Park is a neat little town, was there in the late 80's checking out RMNP.

RE: For you high country hunters - a question
 

First move to Denver. That's a bit over 5000' high and won't make you ill to live there. Then plan on arriving at your hunting altitude at least a week before the hunt starts. Your body will need to make some more red corpuscles and it'll take that long to do it. [:o] There aren't any magic formulas just git up there and wait. ;)

RE: For you high country hunters - a question
 

Drink water water water water and then drink some more water.

Avoid all alcohol, caffine and tobacco.

Eat lots of carbs.

DO NOT over exert yourself.


Read this....... Altitude sickness

RE: For you high country hunters - a question
 

I am with BIGBULLS all the way.The only thing I can add is.

GET LOTS SLEEP ALLSO. This will help. Water is the 1st thing.

So far most that have came up to montana and hunted with me did this.They hunted very light the 1st 3 days.We did a lot of spoting. Wallked slowly up hill. Even let a bull go on the 1st day so he did not kill his self to get it out.We did kill the bull on the 3 day any way :}

Its better to walk 5 huors in the dark.Than run 1 hour in the day light to get to a bull.

RE: For you high country hunters - a question
 

I'm a "flat lander" myself. Even though I live in the Ozark mountains the elevation never exceeds 1500 feet. The best way to beat altitude sickness that I've found is to acclimate slowly. The worst thing you can do is fly in from home straight to the mountains and drive directly to you camp up in the high country. Leave yourself a day or two for acclimation. spent some time in town generally around 3000 feet or so then head to camp leave yourself a day of acclimation, little or no strenous activity. Of course hydrate, hydrate, hydrate and when you think your eyes are floating drink some more water.

RE: For you high country hunters - a question
 

I live in houston texas, talk about a flatlander, the elevation ranges from 120-345 feet above sea level.

RE: For you high country hunters - a question
 

Ok, from what you are saying, I am going to bet that the normal "easy" things are not going to work well for you.

The next time you go to the doctor, tell him that you have a problem with altitude and he/she will probably prescribe DIAMOX. This is a drug that is a diuretic, which means that it will cause you to pee more and need to drink more, but it works! It also makes any carbonated beverage taste terrible, also easily dealt with. I take this drug the day before I go, the day I go and for 3 days after I get there. Some people may need to take it longer, but a total of 5 days works for me. Other than the doctor visit, the drug is pretty cheap too.

Others have mentioned most but I will repeat what works for me:

1) Arrive at least 2 days before you hunt and don't do anything strenuous for a couple of days
2) Avoid caffeine and alcohol
3) Drink water (or gatorade), drink some more, and then some more.
4) Take rolaids: Part of the process that causes altitude sickness is that is causes your blood to become acid and rolaids will help counteract that. I take 3 rolaids 3 times daily once I reach altitude and for 3-4 more days.

RE: For you high country hunters - a question
 

Mr G,

A warning! Listen to these folks, but beware, altitude sickness can hit you after you come out of the mountains.

This is what happened to me in 2003, after my mule deer hunt near Craig, Co. My buddy and I was hunting on a private ranch, about 6500 ft., I believe. We got there 2 days early and drove up to 10,000 ft. in the Rout Nat'l forest to look around for a future hunt (I talked to a forest Ranger and he told me we was at 10,000 ft. Kind of funny now, but he asked, "Your not from around here are you", I was thinking he figured that out because of the way I talk. I asked how do you know, he said your out of breath and didn't walk 50 yards to me. I didn't realize I was breathing so hard.

Now, the Rest of the story. I got my deer two days before my buddy and I could drive my atv (private ranch) to the deer. On the last day, my buddy got his deer, the catch, it ran about 50 yards and fell down in a ravine, about 50 ft down, and I mean straight down. It took us quiet a while to get that deer out of there. My buddy is or was 63 at the time and I was 54, he had just that year got over a broken back, so we was whipped when we got to the motel that day. We was to leave the next day. My buddy went to sleep and got about 6 hrs sleep, I couldn't go to sleep to save my life, tried several times, just to wired.

Our first mistake, he woke up around 9 pm that night and wanted to leave, and I agreed, should have waited til the next morning, at some point I'm sure I would have gone to sleep. He drove to I70 below Meeker, and said he was to sleepy to drive more.

Second Mistake. I started driving from there, drove all the way to the East side of St. Louis, Mo. Don't remember how many miles that was, but take my word, it's a long way. Then he started to drive again, and he made it about 100 miles, then wanted me to drive. (I forgot to add, I stoped several times in road side parks and tried to sleep and couldn't do it.) Anyway, I took over again. Some where in either Kentucky or Tenn., I got to the point I couldn't tell if I was going up or down a hill, it looked like I was driving in a funnel, and I thought I was going about 75 mph. I knew that Tractor trailer trucks, etc. was passing us, when I looked at the speedometer, I was only doing about 25 mph. I got the truck off the road and woke my buddy up, he had to drive us till I could get some sleep. All the time he was driving, I swear I thought he was going about 80 mph and kept telling him to slow down. I couldn't tell up from down and as I said earlier, it looked like we was in a funnel.

Still in Tenn., not far north of Atlanta, there was a wreck on the Interstate and we had to stop for about 2 hrs. I finally went to sleep during this time. When I woke up and they let the traffic go, I was fine.

When I got home, I got me a doctor appointment to see what was wrong or had happened to me. He said it was a combination of things, fatique, no sleep, and most of all, lack of oxygen or altitude sickness. He also said, that had this happened to me in the mountains I could have died.

So my friend, heed these warnings from these folks, and don't be dumb like I was. I might add, this was an 1800 mile trip for us, one way.

dog1

RE: For you high country hunters - a question
 

water is so far the only thing I know FOR SURE that works. When I was turkey hunting this spring I drank more water in a 12 hour period at elevation than I do in 2-3 days normally at my "regular" elevation. This seemed to help.

The first time I experienced the sickness was on the Estes Park trip. We drove from eastern South Dakota to Estes straight through. I was perfectly fine in Greely, CO, which I believe is around 4000 ft. - maybe a little more. From Greely up to Estes Park was the worst. I was in a bus and thought initially that I was more motion sick than anything. When I was vomiting profusely 3 hours later still I knew something was wrong. The only thing I could do for 1 1/2 days of a 3 day stay was sleep and vomit. I have never been so sick in my life.

I am quite positive that with a day or so of acclimation (and being in better shape than I am in now) I could hunt the Black Hills with less difficulty. It is the higher points (8000 ft. + ) that I worry about. Lack of sleep did influence the turkey hunt this year as we arrived at camp at 10 or so at nite (which was 11 pm "normal - i.e. central time") got things set up and ended up sleeping for around 5 hours after a 10 hour trip from one end of the state to the other.

Thank you all for the input and if any more advice is known - keep it coming. I am sure I am not the only one afflicted with this and this could help many others.

BTW - I did shoot a turkey in the Black Hills

RE: For you high country hunters - a question
 

txhunter---got it right as far as I know. Good luck. Believe it or not the rolaids do help. cb

RE: For you high country hunters - a question
 

I got it once for no apparent reason. Felt suddenly very tired, indefinite feeling of not being well (probably at about 10000 feet trying to hike up to the top of Jicarilla Peak SW of Taos, New Mexico). Girl friend who was hiking with me in the mountains had no effects. I have climbed higher, slept higher (slept at 12,200 foot three nights out from Tulsa, Oklahoma), worked harder at altitude and never had another problem. I try to drink lots of water, avoid coffee and alcohol to be sure the problem doesn't recur, but so far no additional bouts with that unpleasant malaise.

RE: For you high country hunters - a question
 

Again ditto txhunter,the Diamox works,and I had no ill effects from taking it.I hunted Co. last year and spike camp was at 11,000ft.

RE: For you high country hunters - a question
 

I will just echo what some others have said. Drinking lots of water is the most important thing you can do. The higher you go, the drier the air is. This means you will become dehydrated. The dangerous part is that you will probably not feel thirsty. If you wait to drink water until you are thirsty, it's already too late. I am at 14,000' and above no less than 10 times each summer. I do a lot of hiking and mountain climbing. I learned the hard way. I now have a hydration pack system that allows me to drink while walking. I don't like to stop much, so it's the best thing I've found for staying hydrated.

You can take some stuff to help with the side affects. Before I moved to CO I used to take Bonine pills when I would come out. They are essentially motion sickness pills, but help the symptoms of altitude sickness as well.

RE: For you high country hunters - a question
 

Some decent advice here...although I would not recommend you totally avoid caffiene. Caffiene is a vaso dilator (up to a certain point) which will allow your vessels to pump more (oxygenated) blood to the tissues....which is what you want. However, that certain point is reached at about the 5th cup of coffee...at which time the excess caffiene will tend to act as a vaso constrictor and will inhibit O2 transfer. Smoking is a no-no because the CO will also inhibit O2 transfer.

I hear what you are saying about blood becoming acidic...does this via exercise....cutting wood, putting up camp, exertion at a level you are not accustomed to, etc...all this produces a bit of lactic acid which, among other things, inhibits the ability of oxygen to adhere to hemoglobin---and a subsequent decrease in available O2. Rolaids is ok; alka seltzer might be better. However, as someone else said, if you are concerned enough, talk to your doc about diamox....good stuff.

You can also get off your can and exercise. Doesn't have to be dramatic, maybe 30 minutes or so, 3-4 times a week at an age predicted max heart rate. (220- age) X .65 and .85

220-20 = 200. 200 X .65 = 130. 200 X .85 = 170. In other words, for a guy who is 20, his heart rate should be between 130 and 170 for the entire 30 minutes. Substitute your age for the 20. As you get into better shape, your body will begin to process O2 much more efficiently...thereby making altitude sickness less of an issue. Don't neglect the strength training aspect either. Your best bet is to seek out a gym whose trainers are certified by either NSCA or ACSM. If they haven't heard of either of those two groups, move along until you find one certified by same. Once you get on a program, stick with it and ignore advice given by other folks such as the 'biggest dude in the gym'.


Forgot to add that the more you exert, the harder you breathe...which uses more oxygen and uses more water vapor which escapes (dehydration) during heavy breathing. Additionally, the cooler air does not allow us to feel as much sweat; most of us assume that we don't need to drink as much.

If you know you are going to do some work outside, take the time to down some fluids at least 30 minutes before as this will give your body a better chance to build up more interstitial fluid and give you the edge on dehydration. As many folks have mentioned, (powdered) gatorade isa goodidea as it also contains minerals lost during sweating

RE: For you high country hunters - a question
 

I have always heard to avoid caffeine totally until you are adjusted to the altitude. I assumed that any benefit from vasodilation might be counteracted by its diuretic effect (makes you pee more). In other words, if you need to drink more to stay hydrated at altitude, any caffeine makes you have to drink even more to stay ahead of the game. Anyway, caffeine is not a big deal to me (I don't drink coffee) so I don't usually drink any anyway.

RE: For you high country hunters - a question
 

When we were kids we hiked into clouds peak wilderness and camped near 10,000ft. We lived in the Black hills, but my two brothers and I were pretty sick. My little brother turned into "MOUTH ST. HELENS" as we put it. My older brother and I were only sick for one night. I have had the opposite more often, going to lower elevation and playing sports you never get winded.

RE: For you high country hunters - a question
 

DON'T DRINK COFFEE? How do you function?

"I ain't never met no one from texas I couldn't shade!" Rooster Cogburn

RE: For you high country hunters - a question
 

I tried it a couple of times, but just never could get the hang of it. Love the smell, just don't care to drink it. Besides when I go to the mountains, I have plenty of energy! That is until theelk is down! My brother drinks it from day one in the mountains, but he doesn't have any trouble with altitude.

RE: For you high country hunters - a question
 

i have to agree with big bulls. And just b/c i have gotten mtn sickness before and the stuff that works is water, A LOT OF SLEEP, and some sniker bars here and there , along with a sip of pepsi here and there. being that i live in colorado and i have been here for my whole 15yrs of life i was suprised that i did get sick b/c i have been goig up to the mtns since i was 2 months old. But the sings of mtn scikness for me was getting very lite headed and my reactions got a slow my mind couldn't react to stuff as fast(it would be like watching a movie but not on a tv threw the negitives very slowly) i got extrely warm and i started to sweat on a 20 degree day and all i had on where some long underwear a t-shirt and a jacket with snowpants on.but with what i have mentioned be4 i did go back to camp and sleep the whole day and drank a lot of water and had a snikers he and there. But the thing that worked for me was the candey bar that i ate it seemed to have revied me faster.(and if you carry a back pack on you aalways have some kinda candy in there b/c that is the fastest way to get nrg but lose it at the same time. But Just be extremly careful up in the mtns and drink a lot of water and a long with other stuff i said precioulsy