J2Ski Forum Posts and Replies by ise

andymol2 wrote:
I recall one lecture I went to given by a mountaineering neurosurgeon who got voluteers to have pressure transducers inserted in their heads and monitired the effect of altitude on pressure within the skull and compared the findings to the amount of "free space" on CT scans of their heads befor the Himalayan trip. The pressure generally rose most/ most rapidly in those with least space who were the younger ones.
They didn't do the research on children (I guess it would be unethical to get minors to have transducers inserted into their heads) but kids are thought to "go off" more rapidly with head injuries than adults because they have less space to swell into so I guess the same could be applied to altitude sickess.

The medical advisor for the company I was in the Himalayas for was suggesting the company could look into research into this, they have around 4000 young people on expeditions each year, mostly from the UK but from North America, the Middle East and Austrailia, around half or more (I think) are over 3000m so it would be a good sample. The caveat being diamox is routinely used though. However, I know to date that there's been no serious incident regarding altitude. The group I was with had 15 teenagers and there was one female who failed to acclimatize, she was one of 4 or 5 who immediately had problems at 3500m. While the others recovered to a level consistent with the group she just didn't but her problems were more chronic lethargy (hard to spot in teenagers sometimes) than anything else. But that was more a failure to acclimatize than real AMS.

I know the Swiss study in 2008 had 50 Swiss children going up the Jungfraujoch, that's a journey that always make me nauseous anyway. And the findings there were

CONCLUSION: After rapid ascent to high altitude, the prevalence of acute mountain sickness in children and adolescents was relatively low; the clinical manifestations were benign and resolved rapidly. These findings suggest that, for the majority of healthy nonacclimatized children and adolescents, travel to 3500 m is safe and pharmacologic prophylaxis for acute mountain sickness is not needed.

That's "PMID: 19117853 (medline)", as your occupation is GP I'm guessing you may have access to the full paper. Presumably by prophylaxis they primarily mean diamox which seems reasonable, we're routinely using it but 3500m is a staging post for 10 or 15 days at 5000-6000m which is a different ballgame.

I really don't think this is an issue for skiers, they're only poking their head above 3000m rarely, it's probably useful to recognize some nausea, headaches, coordination problems or lethargy might be related to altitude if you've just stepped out of the funicular at Tignes but otherwise I'd strongly argue skiers suffering from the altitude at 2000-3000m simply aren't and there's something else more mundane wrong.

I'm hoping the wine thing works if you live higher than sea level otherwise I've been wasting my time :D

A few hundred here :

http://snowslider.net/category/outdoors/ski/

AllyG wrote:

ise wrote:sorry, Le Grand Bornarnd, old (non-skiing) photo's from there : http://snowslider.net/category/france/haute-savoie-department/le-grand-bornard/

Thanks Ise,
I'll be able to go to sleep now, happy that I know what LgB stands for, and roughly where it is :D

And thanks for the peek at your website - now I know what you do - lead people about wearing tennis racquets on their feet :D

only in the winter, my experience is that it doesn't work in the summer :)

sorry, Le Grand Bornarnd, old (non-skiing) photo's from there : http://snowslider.net/category/france/haute-savoie-department/le-grand-bornard/

AllyG wrote: Where IS LgB?

Borne/Aravis massif part of the French préalpes not far from Annecy.

sort of, it's a "sentiers européens de grande randonnée" one of the routes from the European Ramblers' Association. I can't see it's going too well for them really, even I'd not heard of these routes until I saw it on the map, for that matter I'd never heard of the European Ramblers' Association either :-) I can guess where the money's coming from though :roll:

tspill wrote:
6. Where exactly do you go to see the big rock with the hole through it on the L'Aiguille Percee at Tignes?

L'Aiguille Percee is the big rock with the hole through it, that's what it means. You can walk along to it from the lift that goes up either side and pose for photo's etc, you can ski down through it as well although it's obviously not a marked run.

goff wrote:
Try and stay here
http://www.hotel-marchairuz.ch/
Found this web site on the Ridgeway .
activityworkshop.net/hiking/jura/lepont-coldemarchairuz.html
Will not be taking on any thing epic without a guide

Goff

I reckon that's the only place on the col. We've a CAS refuge, Cabane du Cunay, on Mont Tendre but it's winter room only in the week so it would be bleak and I'd need to lug a load of extra gear which would be painful as I'm expecting to cover around 25-30km a day. I've booked the hotel for next Wed. night which will be comparative luxury I think :)