At 20,500 feet or 6,250 meters the atmosphere has only 47% the oxygen as sea level. At half this altitude physiological effects of altitude can start to take a toll. It will be great fun to walk and think much less balance and muscle around the 570's!
Acute Mountain Sickness (AMS) can begin at as little as 9,000 feet or 3,000 meters. Symptoms include headache, nausea, dizziness, and trouble sleeping. We will choose our food carefully! We must be cautious about ascending too quickly to avoid AMS and more serious complications. Without descending AMS can quickly develop into High Altitude Pulmonary Edema (HAPE) or High Altitude Cerebral Edema (HACE). HAPE and HACE are caused by fluid leaking from capillaries into the brain or lungs. Both illnesses can cause death within a few hours. Neither training nor experience at altitude can reduce the risk of AMS, HAPE, or HACE. It is not known why some people develop these illnesses and others don't. Sometimes someone can have no problem at a high altitude then return another time and fall victim.
What we can do to avoid AMS is ascend slowly. We will watch each other for symptoms of AMS and with a worsening condition will descend immediately. Fortunately we can descend quite quickly! Hydration can speed acclimatization, some studies show a benefit of drinking more than 5 liters of water per day! Viagra might help but we have to draw the line somewhere. We will be carrying two drugs related to altitude illness. The first is Diamox which we will take daily to aid acclimatization. Diamox does not mask symptoms of AMS, has few side effects, and is the only drug proven to help the body adapt to altitude. The second is Dexamethasone, an emergency only steroid that reduces swelling in the skull (HACE) and arterial pressure and fluid loss in the lungs (HAPE).
The best remedy is to avoid altitude sickness in the first place! So we will ascend slowly and descend for a day or two if anyone shows strong symptoms of altitude sickness.
Much more information can be found here: http://www.altitude.org/altitude_sickness.php
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