Don't Fear High Altitude

Ever wondered how to tackle high-altitude adventures with confidence and ease? 

Today I share five crucial tips to make your high-altitude experience smoother. 

Chapters

• 0:00 Tips for Dealing With Altitude
• 7:39 Altitude Sickness Prevention Tips

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:30

I'm always just a little bit embarrassed when people say that they listen to the podcast, because I will say that right now I really am focused on YouTube and building our YouTube channel and growing on YouTube, just because I feel like people need to kind of see what our group trips look like before they book a trip, and I think that's the best way to like see and hear and see what goes on on our group trips. And the podcast, for me, is just another way to connect with our community. I'm definitely over social media. I post every day on Facebook and Instagram, but it's not where I'm hanging out these days, just because I find it to be somewhat distracting and it keeps me from what I'm really focused on. So right now I'm really focused on. So right now I'm really focused on YouTube. I'm focused on making sure that our weekly newsletter goes out every single Monday and I'm really focused on group trips and making sure that our trip participants are stoked and informed and ready to go on big adventures like the one that we just had in Iceland, and one of those adventures that you hear me talk about all the time everywhere is Mount Kilimanjaro. Kilimanjaro is definitely one of the biggest adventures I've ever been on in my entire life and one thing that I think keeps people from climbing big mountains like Kilimanjaro is this fear of altitude and this uncertainty about altitude sickness and thinking. You know, I'd hate to pay all that money to go all the way to Tanzania and do all this prep work to train for Mount Kilimanjaro, just to show up and feel sick and not be able to enjoy the climb because of altitude sickness. And the truth is we never really know how we are going to feel at altitude.

Speaker 1: 2:29

On Kilimanjaro, I don't think I experienced any altitude sickness. I think I did definitely have a headache after we got off of the summit, which was a little strange, but I think it might have been more from just fatigue and dehydration than from altitude sickness. But in Peru, the moment my plane landed, I was sicker than a dog and I was actually more acclimated for Peru than I was for Kilimanjaro because it was summer and I was up in the mountains and I live at 7,000 feet, but I was up above 10,000 feet quite regularly. And a few days before I flew to Peru I went to a hike, like a woman reunion, with some trip participants from our Yellowstone trip and I was at Breckenridge, which is a high altitude, for a few days, and I should have been very acclimated when I landed in Peru, but instead I was super sick for a couple days and just felt really lousy. So we never know how our body is going to feel and it can vary by day, by location. What we're eating, what we're drinking All of that really plays into altitude.

Speaker 1: 3:46

Recently, I published a YouTube video about what your first night at altitude feels like, because I don't want people to be scared of altitude. I don't want you to miss out on incredible adventures because you're focused on altitude, or I don't want you to get to high altitude and assume that you're supposed to feel lousy just because you've been told that you're going to feel lousy at altitude. If you are one of those people, that's like I'd really love to go on a big adventure, but I don't know about altitude. I'm nervous about altitude sickness. I don't know how I'm gonna feel at altitude. I would encourage you to head to our YouTube and check out our latest video, all about altitude sickness and what your first night at altitude really feels like, and I'm going to give you some spoilers here. So if YouTube is not your thing, there are one, two, three, four, five things that I think really help me when I'm feeling the effects of altitude sickness.

Speaker 1: 4:51

The first thing is time, so giving yourself time to acclimate to that higher elevation elevation. You know, I'm going to use Peru as an example because that's where I felt the worst when we arrived in Cusco, which is, I think, the elevation of Cusco is. I think it's high, I think it's like 11,000 feet or something. It's pretty high. When I arrived the next day, I went on a hike to Rainbow Mountain and we were above 15,000 feet, if not 16,000 feet. So I was already feeling lousy when we arrived in Peru. And then the next day we went on this huge hike to big elevation and it's no wonder that I felt lousy because I did not give myself time to acclimate. Give myself time to acclimate.

Speaker 1: 5:47

The next tip I have is food. When I'm at altitude, I tend to lose my appetite and it gets really hard to eat and that is not good because we need to especially be eating at altitude. You know, things like protein are super important and I found that if I can just get like a protein bar with some glucose in my stomach, it really helps a lot. There's these bars that are I think they're called Build Bars B-U-I-L-D. They're a protein bar. The companies in Utah they're like the easiest protein bar for me to tolerate when I'm at altitude.

Speaker 1: 6:25

The next thing I want to mention briefly is hydration, and hydration is important whether or not you're at altitude or not at altitude, but at altitude it's especially important. Our guides on Kili were telling us three, four, five liters of fluids every single day. But also to make sure that you're getting some electrolytes in. You know, some noon tablets are really good. I like Ultima electrolytes, but throwing in some electrolytes with your water super important at altitude.

Speaker 1: 6:59

Rest is my fourth tip at altitude. At altitude, rest is my fourth tip. At altitude, it's easy to push yourself a little bit too hard and your body is telling you to slow down at altitude because you're probably not feeling awesome. So it's okay to rest. And with that, if you find that you are giving yourself time, you're eating, you're drinking, you're getting electrolytes, you're resting and you're still not feeling better than just, it's time to like head down the mountain. At that point you know all of your, all of your fun tickets are taken. It's not fun anymore. So what's the point of having an outdoor adventure if it's not going to be fun.

Speaker 1: 7:39

And the fifth tip that I have, very briefly, is to maybe talk to your physician about a prescription for Dymox.

Speaker 1: 7:47

Dymox does have some side effects that are difficult for some people, but with Dymox, you know, maybe try it at home before you use it on the mountain.

Speaker 1: 7:59

And the side effects that I experienced from Dymox were increased urination, but it might have just been because I was trying so hard to make sure that I was drinking enough water. And then also I felt some tingling in my face and in my hands, which felt a little strange, but it also felt a little silly and I didn't mind the tingling so much because I knew where it was coming from. I knew that it was a side effect from the Dymox. If I would have been at 19,000 feet and felt tingling in my fingers and my face and not known that it was a side effect from Dymox, I would have freaked out a little bit. So those are like five tips to help at altitude and, like I said, if you want to go check out our full video about what your first night at altitude really feels like, go check it out on YouTube. And thanks so much for being here, for hanging out with me, and I will be back next week talking a little bit more about our recent group trip to Iceland.