Caving Programs
What are my chances of getting high altitude sickness?
I’ve sent in my acceptance and deposit to go to school in Flagstaff, AZ. Flagstaff has an elevation of about 7200 ft. Now, I’m real concerned about the possibility of getting Altitude Sickness.
What percentage of people would you say experience altitude sickness when arriving at about 7000 ft? How likely am I to get it if I’m coming from an extremely low elevation(87ft)? and if I fly into Flagstaff rather than spend the time to adjust by driving? Is it rare to experience severe (pulmonary and cerebral edema) altitude sickness?
Also, I like to exercise at least 3 times a week at the gym and was planning on joining their outdoors program(camping, backpacking, canyoneering, rafting, climbing, caving, snowboarding, etc.) for the experience. I know people generally experience it while exercising. Will this be a problem throughout the year?
What’s the most that I’m likely to experience at 7200 ft?
hey how is it going………
look, i live at 9183.35 ft so is far high than 7000 so… well, there are no ALTITUDE SICKNESS!!!!!!! i mean not as sickness on it’s propper name. i live in quito, Ecuador you must have heard about it is really high, there are some gy that lives in La Paz, Bolivia at 11811.02 ft and they have no problem. of course that we are people who has lived in the highlands all our life, but 5 times per year we g to the beach 0 ft LOL and we come back in 4 days, there is not a problem.
if you are going to spend a whole year there there’s absolutely no problem, you just have to take a normal adaptation period, it depends on your body, it could be 8 days if you have an sportive life LOL i mean if you practice sports really often, but if not, it will probably take arround 5 or 6 days cause the amount of oxigen you need is not the same as if you were and habitual sportsgirl……… if you are planning to go for just for one,two or three days and make some sports or exercices well there you’ll suffer a little bit…… not because an cerebral edema or any pulmonar complication, is just cause of the lower amount of oxigen, you’ll feel a litttle pressure on you chest and a little headacke (just if you arrive and immediately or two days latter go making sports). you can do this your whole life and in long term you’ll never get a sickness.
well about driving or flying it doesn’t really matter, cause as i see you like exercise, so your body will need a period of arround 8 days to get completly used to it, or at least you’ll not have problem while practicing any kind of exercises after this 8 days.
so my recomendations are:
at first you arrive in plain or car, go to your house, hostel, room etc… and rest, the next day you can take a short walk, don’t try jogging or running (i repeat, not cause an sickness) is just cause you have to give your body a normal adaptation to the low oxigen up there.
the third day you can take a longer walk, you must drink a lot of water, and rest again.
then in the next 5 days do the same routine but increasing the distance of your walks, maybe in the 2 last days of adaptation period you can try jogging or running.
i think this cool the outdoor program option, you just have to respect the 8 days adaptation period (i’m really serious) after this adaptation you can do your normal life, camping, canyoneering, raftin but for climbing or snowboarding you must feel really comfortable with your body. that’s cause you’ll produce a huge amount of adrenaline and that will force your body to take more oxigen than the habitual, so you must be really conscious about it.
so good luck with your school, and enjoy the altitude, cause when you go back to the lows you’ll feel like a brand new car, i mean, you’ll not get tired that easy.
Above and Beyond Orientation Value Experiences (ABOVE)