Altitude Sickness: Prevention and Causes

Altitude sickness, also known as acute mountain sickness, can bring your dream hunt to a screeching halt. To learn more about how altitude sickness affects hunters, I spoke with Tom Stayer of Southern Colorado Outfitters. He sees multiple cases of altitude sickness each year while guiding hunters on backcountry horseback hunts in Colorado’s Sangre de Cristo mountain range where base camps are located as high as 12,900 feet.

What is Altitude Sickness?

Altitude sickness occurs when a person accustomed to breathing the oxygen rich air at, or near, sea level climbs to high elevation where the air contains less oxygen. The sudden change makes it difficult for the person to get enough oxygen in their lungs and brain and results in altitude sickness. Cases have been reported at altitudes as low as 8000 feet, but Stayer usually starts to see symptoms at 9,500 feet.

Symptoms of Altitude Sickness

Stayer said the symptoms he sees most often from hunters experiencing altitude sickness include lethargy and terrible headaches. “They just get really weak. It’s very debilitating to them. They are unable to hunt. There’s no toughing it out and trying to get through it.” Other symptoms include dizziness, loss of appetite, nausea, and insomnia. Stayer noted that symptoms of altitude sickness are often hard to self diagnose. “When [our hunters] get it, a lot of times they don’t realize what it is, but we recognize it for what it is and get them down in elevation because it is a life or death situation.”

Treatment of Altitude Sickness

Stayer said the only short-term cure for altitude sickness is to get the affected hunter to lower elevation. He said, “There’s nothing you can do on a week hunt to get acclimated to [the altitude] if you get full-fledged altitude sickness.” He went on to say “the altitude’s going to bother everybody. It bothers us when we get up here and we’re first setting up camp. It takes a week or more of being out there at that elevation to really get used to how thin the air actually is. It does get better, but it’s not something that gets better in three or four days.”

Preparing for a High Altitude Hunt

The best way to avoid altitude sickness is to increase your body’s ability to absorb oxygen. Stayer warns his clients “if you smoke, quit. Realistically, if you’re going to quit smoking and think that if you quit for a month, that’s going to take care of it, that’s not going to do you any good. You need to quit a couple of years ahead of time. We try to screen out people who smoke or who have recently quit smoking because it just doesn’t work. We end up having to take them down off the mountain. They just can’t deal with that kind of altitude with their lung capacity already diminished from smoking.”

Aside from not smoking, Stayer recommends a regimen of cardiovascular exercise to increase your lung capacity. Since his hunts take place on horseback, many clients ask if they should take riding lessons before the hunt. Stayer tells them to spend the time they would have spent taking riding lessons improving their cardiovascular fitness. He said being in better physical condition “just makes everything more enjoyable.”

Ways to Avoid Altitude Sickness

You’ve booked a hunt and have been training hard for months to increase your lung capacity. Here’s a few ways to help avoid letting altitude sickness ruin your hunt.

• Ascend slowly. – Rather than going straight from your sea level home to a high country camp, consider spending a few nights at a middle elevation to help your body acclimate to the thinner air.
• Stay well fed and hydrated. – A diminished appetite is one of the first symptoms of altitude sickness. Make sure you are eating properly and drinking plenty of water.
• Never hunt alone. – Despite your best efforts, you may experience altitude sickness. As mentioned, it is often hard to self-diagnose. Hunting with a partner could be the difference between life and a high altitude death.

Altitude sickness is a real and debilitating ailment. Use the tips and information provided to prepare for your hunt and wrap your tag around a high country giant.

To book a hunt with Southern Colorado Outfitters, contact them at Southern Colorado Outfitters.