Colorado Health & Fitness Hotels & Lodging Mountain Living Telluride The Rockies: altitude sickness Colorado Diamox Don Bowie Dr. Peter Hackett Institute for Altitude Medicine lodging Telluride Mountain Lodge New Sheridan oxygen therapy traveling to elevation
by maribeth
Comments Off on Dealing with Altitude Issues at Our High Mountain Destinations
Dealing with Altitude Issues at Our High Mountain Destinations
Almost Summer at Mountain Lodge Telluride
The Town of Telluride, Colorado: Fun at 8,750 Feet
Me Feeling Happy and High at the Delightful Rooftop Bar at the New Sheridan Hotel
I’m long overdue in talking about how to combat the effects of high elevation with you. I apologize. Please forgive me.
In some ways, I’m new to the game myself. Although I’ve lived at heights as great as almost 10,000 feet for fifteen and a half years, I’m somewhat new to a magical little pill that has made a world of difference for me: It’s a diuretic called Diamox.
It was just a year ago that I began taking Diamox, a prescription medicine long touted to me by my ski clients but somehow I was lax in asking my doctor for a script. I finally did last spring and have used it many times this past year as I’ve traveled in and out of Telluride many times. At the risk of sounding like a drug pusher, ask your doctor about it and see if it’s good for you.
In other ways, I’m not at all new to the effects of elevation on my body. I think I first felt them when I went to the Alps during the time I was living in France. I was slammed with a headache that carried all the force of an avalanche down Mont Blanc. Ever since then, I take precautionary aspirins when I first arrive at elevation, even before the head pounding sets in.
But the Alps are nothing–at least in terms of height–to the Rockies. And I found that out when I moved here. Sure, after a few days I adjust to our thin air (about 30% less oxygen when you’re at over 9,000 feet), but if I leave a high destination for over a week, I have to reacclimatize each time, sometimes with effects worse than other times.
It’s no wonder I was fascinated with a Travel Fun interview I did many years ago with Dr. Peter Hackett, a world renowned high altitude expert and director of the Institute for High Altitude Medicine here in Telluride. I am rebroadcasting that interview on KOTO at 6:30pm MST today. Dr. Hackett, a leading authority on altitude illness with years of experience on big expeditions in Colorado, the Himalayas, Denali and South America, talks about his experiences along with, Don Bowie, one of the world’s top climbers. Don also shares sketchy elevation issues he has succumbed to during some of his adventures. It’s important to note that elevation sickness is genetic; it has nothing to do with what kind of shape you’re in.
