 Poster: A snowHead
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I arrived in resort yesterday at 5pm. Within 2 hours I began to feel very unwell and have done since. My symptoms are headache, sickness, upset tummy, shakes, very hot but I'm shivering, Total loss of appetite, heart is beating pretty quick as well. The other thing is occasionally I go dizzy and nearly fall over. This inky happened when i came to a stop on my skis. I'm in Les Menuires which resort wise is pretty high, but surely altitude sickness doesn't effect people at this altitude or does it?
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Sounds more like a bug than altitude sickness. Lots of fluids and bed!
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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Ricklovesthepowder, dude, you're sick. Probably a virus picked up on the big flying box of germs on your way in.
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Ricklovesthepowder, I don't know but I'm sorry to hear this and hope you feel more normal soon and can enjoy your hols. I can't sleep well at 2000m and suffer some of the symptoms you describe so yes I think you can certainly be out of sorts at this altitude. We are going to Breckenridge at Easter and I am a bit worried.
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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Ricklovesthepowder, sounds like you have a fever  Paracetamol, bed, clear fluids if you can tolerate them. Hope you feel better soon.
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Ive been taking paracetamol and water since last night. I feel so rough and groggy. I felt better when I got out on my skis this morning but we spent most of the day at around 2400m or so which may not have been a great idea. I will continue taking paracetamol and drinking plenty of water. Hope it gets better.
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Ricklovesthepowder, if you aren't eating and drinking properly and continued to ski, you won't have done yourself any favours. Consider a morning off and stay in until you feel better.
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Ricklovesthepowder, poor you - that is such bad luck. It does sound like a bug that needs a bit of R&R rather than the altitude. As Lou, says take plenty of water and give yourself a bit of time off otherwise it may all drag on a bit (she is a nurse so she knows about these things - I just give 'mum' type advice).
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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Ricklovesthepowder, sorry to hear you're not well; how disappointing. Do what nursey says; she knows. 
Then ski at lower altitudes - why be up at 2400m when there's terrific, and less bone-chilling, skiing at much lower altitude?
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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Ricklovesthepowder, Nothing plenty of beer won't sort out 
Crap when you wait for so long for a ski holiday and you can get sick or injured just before or during your holiday.
More of a preventative measure (toch wood) I take a daily vitimin C with Zinc seems to keep the usual winter aliments at bay.
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And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
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Lou, Thanks. Called it a day at 3pm and have been lay in bed since. I will try and get some sleep and see how infeel in the morning. Hopefully I will feel better, but if not I won't go out.
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dude
get pissed on hard spirits
ski hard
stop whinging on snowheads
ring your mum instead
oh - and mtfu
ok bye
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You know it makes sense.
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Ricklovesthepowder,  Sleep well.
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Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
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Classic food poisoning symptoms! Lucozade, dry crackers and bed, you should be ok by tomorrow.
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Poster: A snowHead
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Ricklovesthepowder, If it is HMS avoid alchohol take it easy, plenty of fluids. If there is a clinic near get your O2 checked if you do not feel well in a days time; my wife pro skier, has suffered HMS in the states and has got it in, Les Menuires, it being above the level to cause. I hope it is not and good luck.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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Sounds like a bug of some sorts, fluids paracetemol and a light diet sound sensible. You don't need your oxygen level checking unles you want to line the resort doctors pockets to no effect.
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Ricklovesthepowder, we had a similar outbreak when we took a group to 1800m. The nurse with us told us to drink lots of fluids but absolutely no tea, coffee or alcohol for at least 24 hours. Increase the fluids by at least twice as much as as normal and make sure that a lot of it was in the form of orange juice. She also told us to take up more sugar which was hell for me as I hate sweet drinks. within the next 24 hours most of the group had recovered, some took 36 hours. The one person who refused to follow the instructions was very ill all week but at least they were drunk most of the time!
If it does not clear up in 48 hours you have a virus and need to get some proper medical advice in situ!
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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The one person who refused to follow the instructions was very ill all week but at least they were drunk most of the time!
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 Samerberg Sue, was that outbreak down to altitude sickness or a bug of some sort?
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pam w, Altitude sickness. It was apparently a common occurrence for all those who normally lived at or near sea level. All those who were affected, including myself were fine within 36 hours. Apart of course from the obdurate PITA who I banned from accompanying us ever again.
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Interesting that 1800m is high enough to affect some people so adversely. Backs up the arguments of those who counsel against taking small babies to even moderate altitudes - presumably their systems are less good at adapting, and they can't explain how they feel (though they can at least be relied upon not to get drunk).
My OH is more affected by altitude than I am, as we discovered walking on Mount Kenya, many moons ago. He therefore suffered more in L2A skiing in summer on the glacier, even though we'd been a few weeks at 1500m which helped. There's no telling who will be affected; nothing to do with fitness or other aspects of health, it seems.
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| Ricklovesthepowder wrote: |
| Within 2 hours I began to feel very unwell and have done since. My symptoms are headache, sickness, upset tummy, shakes, very hot but I'm shivering, Total loss of appetite, |
It could be the altitude? Only happened to me once,and caught me completely off guard.Arrived in resort(Italy)and,within a couple of hours,was off up the mountain on a rep ski around.It was only a couple of hours,but by the time we got back I felt well moby dick!Took to me bed,loads of fluid,and slept for the rest of the day & night.It had passed by the following morning Most seem to agree it can take 24/48hrs to aclimatise,though most of the time we do this without even realising it.
Seems to be a completely random event,rather like sea sickness.Most can go for years/ever,and never suffer it.And then,like me,it can happen and you wonder what the hell is going on?
If it goes on for more than 48hrs,then I would suspect a bug of some sort?Hope it sorts itself out pronto,and you enjoy the rest of your holiday.
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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Samerberg Sue,
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Altitude sickness. It was apparently a common occurrence for all those who normally lived at or near sea level. All those who were affected, including myself were fine within 36 hours.
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If there were a group of you suffering from the same symptoms the chances of it being altitude problems at 1800m rather than a bug are virtually zero. Bugs attack groups, altitude problems are fairly rare at this altitude and if there are a lot of people with the same problem it was a bug not the altitude.
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T Bar, I've spent lots of time in the mountains, winter and summer, for donkey's years and must admit that I too have never heard of mass altitude sickness at 1800m.
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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Pedantica,
dude
with SS as the team leader
they were probably faking it
ok bye
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And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
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Hypoxia doesn't normally affect healthy adults at less than 10,000ft or approx 3,000m. You can get a bit of a head ache, bloodshot eyes or even nose bleeds at 2,000m but would already need to be seriously unwell to have hypoxia.
I suspect it is a bug.
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You know it makes sense.
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T Bar, it was a mild Altitude sickness not a bug. And all the group were affected to different degrees. The altiude can have such an effect when you combine it with prevailing weather conditions, excessively dry atmosphere both inside and outside and huge temperature differences between outisde and inside.
Not all altitude related illnesses are as dramatic as those experienced by Himalayian climbers! And children are particularly sensitive to the changes bought about by the combination of factors described above. It was the only time we had this problem despite using the same resort and accommodation on a number of occasions.
The symptoms were not evident in the coach on the journey to the resort as 24 hours all together would have given at least the carrier time to infect some and for the first symptoms to appear. The symptoms all appeared to one degree or another in the whole group within the first 3 to 4 hours in the resort hotel. They all disappeared within 24 hours for the majority, 36 hours for a few and not all for the idiot who refused to test out the nurses' advice. The particularly marked common symptoms were the severe headaches, feelings of dizziness and nausea. Some were feverish, all had the shivers to some extent or another and the loss of appetite.
At no time did we had any actual vomiting or diarrhoea, had we had any of that we would have called the doctor in as that would have meant a gastro-intestinal infection/virus of some kind.
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Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
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I suspect atmospheric pressure can have a bearing, too. My daughter is extremely sensitive to changes of pressure, though I've never noticed anything. One time, in one of the uni buildings in Brighton, she was walking with some friends and suddenly felt very odd, almost fainted, extreme headache. Actually doubled up and gasped. Then just seconds later there was an absolutely huge blast of wind, shaking the whole building, and heavy rain. It was a front coming through - everyone heard the wind and rain, but she must have been hit by the pressure change just before.
The differences in pressure between sea level and any given altitude up a mountain can differ quite a lot, which along with humidity could certainly help explain why some people suffer altitude sickness sometimes, not others.
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Poster: A snowHead
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I'm now off to drive DOWN the mountain and home to the UK, so might suffer mountain-home-sickness. Life's so much more complicated when we're in the UK!
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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pam w, bon voyage, drive carefully!
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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I've had significant altitude sickness symptoms as low as about 2,300m (Arequipa in Peru) but that was limited to feeling weak and dizzy and being able to get wasted on one bottle of beer 
Bear in mind also that aeroplane cabins are generally pressurised to the equivalent of about 2,100m (figure from Wikipedia for a Boeing 767, in case any lurking aerospace engineers are interested!) and I've definitely had the same weakness / dizziness / cheap date symptoms on most plane journeys I've been on. So it's seems perfectly reasonable that some people would notice the difference from 0m to 1800m.
I remember multiple people and books saying the same thing about travelling at altitude in Peru: altitude sickness can affect anyone, no matter how fit, and it can strike unexpectedly, as pam w pointed out above. Essentially, even if you're fit as a fiddle and have never had problems before you could still be affected. Don't be surprised if you have to spend a day, maybe two acclimatising to the altitude by doing not much. Even during 5 months continuously spent in St Anton (1350m at the village), I continued to get at least slight dizziness / weakness whenever I went to the top of Valluga (2800m if I remember right).
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
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Jaeger.
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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You can't get altitude sickness at 2000m.
You can feel a bit out of breath due to the reduced oxygen in the air but that is not altitude sickness.
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Dude
must have been really mild
a bit like alcohol induced dehydration lol
ok bye
| Samerberg Sue wrote: |
| we had a similar outbreak when we took a group to 1800m. |
| Samerberg Sue wrote: |
| T Bar, it was a mild Altitude sickness not a bug. |
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| To put a number on it, it is estimated that about 20% at 8,000 feet and 75% at 10,000 feet or higher will experience some form of AMS when coming from lower elevations |
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My Mrs got a bit light headed at Les Arcs on the Aguille Rouge 3226m, drank some water for 10mins was fine, We slept at 1800m so I wouldn't automatically call the symptoms Altitude. but fluid regardless will help mate 
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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Ricklovesthepowder, how are you today? You can see there's lots of speculation
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Lou, Just got back now. Went out at 11am. Popped over to Meribel for some lunch, eat half of it which is a start! Had a glass of coke, €6.70 
I do feel a but better but still not 100%.
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