Effects of High Altitude on the Human Body

Works Cited

"Acute Mountain Sickness." Acute Mountain Sickness. Aconcagua News, n.d. Web. 25 Sept. 2012. <http://www.grajales.net/blog/tag/acute-mountain-sickness/>.

"Everest." Everest, Mount Everest, Everest Himalaya, Everest Expeditions, Everest Sources. N.p., n.d. Web. 25 Sept. 2012. <http://www.italysoft.com/curios/everest/index.php>.

"Everest: The Death Zone." NOVA. PBS. 24 Feb. 1998. Television. Transcript.

"HACE or High Altitude Cerebral Edema." Advancing The Science. Mayo Clinic, n.d. Web. 25 Sept. 2012. <http://advancingthescience.mayo.edu/hace-or-high-altitude-cerebral-edema/>.

"HAPE - High Altitude Pulmonary Edema." Base Camp MD - Guide to High Altitude Medicine. Explorers Web Inc., n.d. Web. 25 Sept. 2012. <http://basecampmd.com/expguide/hape.shtml>.

"HAPE or High Altitude Pulmonary Edema." Advancing The Science. Mayo Clinic, n.d. Web. 25 Sept. 2012. <http://advancingthescience.mayo.edu/high-altitude-pulmonary-edema/>.

Krakauer, Jon. Into Thin Air. New York: Villard, 1997. Print.

Frostbite

(48 degrees F)

Beck Weathers

(<48 degrees F)

"He was lying on his back across the floor of the collapsed shelter, shivering convulsively. His face was hideously swollen; splotches of deep, ink-black frostbite covered his nose and cheeks. The storm had blown both sleeping bags from his body, leaving his exposed to the subzero wind, and with his frozen hands he'd been powerless to pull the bags back over himself or zip the tent closed," (Krakauer 267).

The Death Zone

Hypoxia

Not enough oxygen to support human life.

• Hypoxia, the deprivation of oxygen in the body caused by high altitudes, leads to conditions such as HAPE and HACE.
• High Altitude Periodic Breathing occurs when someone at high altitude stops breathing from time to time during the night

"Although we hadn't slept with oxygen during our previous stay at Camp Three, now that we had begun the push to the summit Rob strongly urged us to breathe gas during the night. 'Every minute you remain at this altitude and above,' [Rob] cautioned, 'your minds and bodies are deteriorating.' Brain cells were dying. Our blood was growing dangerously thick and sludgelike. Capillaries in our retinas were spontaneously hemorrhaging. Even at rest, our hearts beat at a furious rate. Rob promised that 'bottled oxygen will slow the decline and help you sleep,'" (Krakauer 159).

The Death Zone

"Above the South Col, in the Death Zone, survival is to no small degree a race against the clock... We would instantly become more vulnerable to HAPE, HACE, hypothermia, impaired judgement, and frostbite. The risk of dying would skyrocket," (Krakauer 181).

"A baffling ailment, HACE occurs when fluid leaks from oxygen-starved cerebral blood vessels, causing severe swelling of the brain, and it can strike with little or no warning. As pressure builds inside the skull, motor and mental skills deteriorate with alarming speed-typically within a few hours or less-and often without the victim even noticing the change. The next step is coma, and then, unless the afflicted party is quickly evacuated to lower altitude, death," (Krakauer 144).

"By the time he arrived at the tents late that afternoon Ngawang was delirious, stumbling like a drunk, and coughing up pink, blood-laced froth: symptoms indicating an advanced case of High Altitude Pulmonary Edema, or HAPE-a mysterious, potentially lethal illness typically brought on by climbing too high, too fast, in which the lungs fill with fluid. The only real cure for HAPE is rapid descent; if the victim remains at high altitude very long, death is the most likely outcome," (Krakauer 113).

Effects of High Altitude on the Human Body

Into Thin Air