Sea level to 10,000 :: avoiding altitude sickness

[alaska_bou]

Don't assume 10,000 feet doesn't pose risks if your body has never been that high. Here in Wyoming an out-of-state elk hunter died at 8,500 feet from edema of some sort if I remember correctly. This is very unusual and I expect you will do fine. As others have said, pay attention to your body. Most physicians won't recommend diamox unless you are spending prolonged time over 14k or so. This past March I hunted over 15k feet and I took diamox. The altitude kicked my butt but my body did fine and I had only a few mild headaches but I stayed as hydrated as I could and took electrolyte supplements (which are more important the more you sweat).

I have noticed that when at high altitude (over 10k feet) I have little to no appetite. Keep this in mind so you can keep your nutrition up even if you don't feel hungry when you should.

 

[Farmingdale's Finest]

Hey guys,

I am going on my first elk hunt this year. I live on the eastern side of Pennsylvania, and I'll be hunting an OTC unit in Colorado. I am interested if anyone can give any advice on avoiding altitude sickness. I have read about medications you can take and hydrating weeks before the trip. However, I would like to hear from some people on this forum that have hunted at 10-12,00 feet in search of elk, who normally live closer to sea level.

Thanks in advance!

-Travis

You're going to want to read this thread of mine and my sons hunt from 2019 as well as the other links to articles in it. Long story short I live at sea level on the Jersey shore and even with diamox my son got altitude sickness bad enough that we had to cut the hunt portion of our trip 5 days short.

Trip cut short due to altitude sickness

We got back from NW Colorado last night after driving out there last week and arriving the Thursday evening before the opener. We camped at 8400 feet and hunted the first two days of the season from 7500 feet to a little over 9000 feet. On Monday we hunted up to 9750 and had a near encounter...

www.rokslide.com

 

[Farmingdale's Finest]

Thank you all for the suggestions! We will likely be getting to CO around midnight so I'll be able to acclimate that night while we sleep.

If I could add one more question. Is there a real difference between 8-10,000 ft/10-12,000 ft as far as feeling the affects I am just wondering if there is a height that you feel the affects of the higher altitude more drastically, or is it more of a gradual thing?

Thanks again everyone!

Hate to burst your bubble but if you are at sea level and go straight to altitude you will feel it even doing next to nothing. Altitude sickness you can get at as low as 6600 feet. A few weeks before my son and I went to the Routt NF my wife and I were in Lake Tahoe and she got a mild case of altitude sickness at 6600 feet which was the height of the hotel next to the lake. She had a headache and fatigue the whole time we were there. The day we got home she lost 9 pounds of retained water weight from the inflammation she got.

I have another post about my hunt and even with Diamox my son got it bad enough we cut the hunt 5 days short even after dropping down over 2000 feet from camp, having a gallon of water and a quart of gatorade. After 4 hours at lower elevation he wasn't any better so I made the decision to pack up and drive back the 1800 miles to NJ because if we didn't I am confident he would have ended up in the hospital and possibly worse.

 

[Operator]

This will be my first trip over 5000ft, I am taking my grandson who's almost 18, a co-worker told me his wife got altitude sickness skiing one year, he bought the disposable O2 cans said she would inhale O2 from the can when she felt a headache coming on and that helped her. Anybody here taken O2 cans along to help reduce the effects of altitude?

 

[Dos Perros]

I took my 7 y/o from 1000 ft (where we live) to 11k this weekend. We overnighted at 5k in western KS, then drove to the unit, fished for a bit at 9k, and then went to 11k that afternoon. Everyone in the party was feeling it, headaches, etc. I drank a ton of water on the drive and tried to make my boy do the same, although he could have drank more.

After a relaxing afternoon/evening, at about 1 AM he woke up and threw up his dinner. He does that sometimes if he has too much sugar, which he tends to do on camping trips. I wasn't sure how much sugar he had. He was complaining of head ache. No other symptoms that I could tell, but made the call to head down. We stayed the night at 8k, I did some in depth reading on altitude sickness, bought one of those Boost Oxygen cans, and decided to go up the next day.

He was taking breaths from the can every 15 minutes or so, and we had another good/relaxing afternoon and evening. Same deal that night, he threw up his dinner. Decided just to ride it out. Next day he was fine, went hiking, and we stayed the next night much lower.

Based on this experience I have made some conclusions:

1) There are 3 types of altitude sickness, and you need to know the differences.

What Is Altitude Sickness?

Traveling to a place at a higher elevation than you're used to can make you sick. Learn the symptoms of altitude sickness and what to do if you get it.

www.webmd.com

Acute Mountain Sickness (AMS) is what most of us are familiar with, headache, nausea, vomiting, etc. This is not as concerning as it is annoying.

HAPE (high altitude pulmonary edema) is serious, and can be identified by the fluid in the lungs, you might be coughing it up. You need to go down if you experience this.

HACE (high altitude cerebral edema) is serious, and can be identified by confusion, trouble walking, etc. You need to go down if you experience this.

2) With kids, I will spend a day or two camping lower (like 9k) but recreating higher. I don't mind the 20 minute drive up if we can save some trouble.

3) I will try to be more diligent about making sure we're all well hydrated days before the trip.

4) I will keep on hand a Boost Oxygen bottle, more of a just-in-case kind of thing, and for warm fuzzies. I have no illusions it can really treat or prevent altitude sickness, but it emboldens me to trust my gut to ride out a bout of AMS instead of throwing in the towel and heading down.

 

[vectordawg]

My eyes were killing me the second day in WY last year. It was like something inside my head was trying to push out my eyeballs. The guy I was with had some allergy eye drops and told me to try them. I'm not exaggerating when I say that the pain in one eye disappeared faster than I could get drops in the other eye. No problems the rest of the week!

 

[ColeyG]

- Journal of Mountain Hunting

With Adam and the JOMH team fresh off a trip to the high alpine in Tajikistan, we thought now would be a great time to explore some considerations for traveling ...

beyondthekill.net

 

[doc holiday13]

diamox works great. I went from sea level to 9k in a day in Peru via airplane. hung out for one day. took diamox as soon as I got to my hotel. next day I hiked up to 11k. camped took diamox and continued up to 15k. it works. zero headaches and just stay hydrated

 

[Pony Soldier]

Back in 2001 we flew into Peru and a spent a couple days at a lower (10,000) then we traveled to the Bolivian border at 17,500, i live at nearly 6,800 and had no problems adapting. From sea level you might have to adapt into it.

 

[HUNTNUT]

Texan here. Hydrate hydrate hydrate. If you have time to acclimate a couple of days prior at lower elevation 6-7,000 ft, would be ideal. Diamox is a diuretic that your doctor can prescribe to help. Avoid alcohol use. Listen to your body. Headaches are common. I usually suffer from them the first night or two but haven’t had any additional issues. There are some great mountain sickness/high altitude society websites online with excellent info. A multitude of supplement companies touting claims of helping or preventing it. IMO, they don’t do1500 to11,600ft many times in 24 hrs.

Hey guys,

I am going on my first elk hunt this year. I live on the eastern side of Pennsylvania, and I'll be hunting an OTC unit in Colorado. I am interested if anyone can give any advice on avoiding altitude sickness. I have read about medications you can take and hydrating weeks before the trip. However, I would like to hear from some people on this forum that have hunted at 10-12,00 feet in search of elk, who normally live closer to sea level.

Thanks in advance!

-Travis

Diamox. Take it and don’t look back. Do not risk losing any time hunting because you do not think it will affect you. Do not follow somebody’s home brew advice because it worked for them. It’s not guaranteed to work for you but it is your best option. Spoken from 7 times experience going from 1200 ft to11,600ft in less than 24 hrs.

 

[TradArcher]

If you can sleep low and hunt high, don't have your camp at 10k ft if you can help it. Spend a night or two in a hotel in Golden or maybe Lakewood before driving up the rest of the way.

If you run into issues then find a spot near the front range to camp or hotel and just get up very early and drive up then hike in to hunt. Being actually able to hunt is pretty important.

I kill deer and see a ton of elk around 8500 to just below 10k ft on the front range every year. I watched one of Randy's videos on where he thinks you have to go to find elk nearer to RMNP area and just shook my head - you don't have to go so high. Will you find huge bucks up higher sure....but pretty respectable and eating deer and elk are down lower too. I also don't often glass to find either deer or elk but thats left over from my midwestern roots - I just look for places with water, food and cover, look for sign and still hunt and have good luck with that. People will say you can't do that but its been very successful for me. I do own binos but they stay home most of the time. I probably should learn the glassing game but it's pretty thick where I hunt so not so sure it would be useful.

Don't buy into everything you see online and in videos - be willing to get out there and really read the terrain and pay attention in the woods. Be willing to change-up where you hunt as well - not seeing game? Then move on to the next spot that you read as "elky". Too many hunters in a spot? Let it go and move on - you will find a better place and enjoy it more when you find it.

Anyways I'm rambling now but you get the idea - don't force yourself to stay too high because you heard you have to go that high to see game. One thing I don't see mentioned often is that mountains create their own microclimates - sometimes it can be quite a bit cooler in a different spots and you just gotta find them.

Good luck!

 

[farmer14]

I’d agree with some comments on here…it either affects you or it doesn’t.

I used to live at 9,000 feet year round and even when I was in the best shape of my life (rookie smokejumper) I would still get winded every now and then going up the stairs to my apartment.

Hydrate and KNOW your limitations. That’s about all you can do at this point. GL

 

[snowymtnwolf]

Go slow up. Lots of good articles out there on it w regards to science. Hydrate.

Nothing says this type person will or will not get it.


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