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Originally posted by dcs
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i know leh is well inhabited. leh, itself is at much lower altitude. some of the passes they will be passing through, are way much higher. also, strictly speaking for myself here, i don't think I can compare my levels of fitness with the people out there. plus, given that I am a heavy smoker, my lung capacity is also bound to be much diminished.
I wasn't trying to scare them nor I am I paranoid. my input was based on my own experience (and of my group) and the other family that was airlifted out of Sarchu. Also in our case, I am a heavy smoker. other three are in much better shape than myself. but still we all had the symptoms, with me being in worst shape. only after we got some oxygen and that magic pill at the army medical base, we started coming back to normal. also all the points i mentioned were advise of the doctor there. i.e. not to spend too much time and exert oneself on the high passes.
apart from the problem at Sarchu, we had no problems throughout the rest of the trip, including khardung la.
The reason for a blood test is this. How often have you heard someone go for a blood test to check for something and then say "hey i didin't know i had a low heamo count" ??
this thing is, normally a low haemoglobin count etc. does not manifest itself into something problematic under our normal conditions. but given these high altitude conditions and based on various variable factors including, but not limited to, the individual's constitution and adaptability, altitude sickness is very real and can get quite problematic.
also the intensity of the altitude sickness is not just about how high you are or how low the oxygen is. it depends on how fast you have gone up, and consequently, how less time your body has had to adjust itself to the conditions. thats why you need to acclimatise at certain places by taking a day's halt and then proceeding. in their particular case, i was worried because they are running a very tight itinerary, plus they are on bikes. that was a worrying factor for me.
i don't believe in being a pansy, but i also believe in taking some basic precautions and checks. fwiw, before we left, we had a complete and comprehensive medical done. nothing to indicate that we should have any problems. but we did have one bad bout of altitude sickness.
and i was smoking too, inspite of this :-(. but not till we got to leh.
courtesy : Mr. Razor da Blades
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