Did you know that high altitude damages brain cells!

My buddy Jason told me that this was a reality but I had always wanted to wait for the evidence...now it is here (or at least since I’ve read it).  Jason’s view was that mountaineering people he had met were a ‘little slow’ as they got older, but my view was that was because they were old!

Brain damage is a reality of high altitude mountaineering (just Google ‘Altitude kills brain’ and check out the results).  To be honest, this isn’t rocket science.  When you hammer for brain with starvation of O2 that there would be ramifications.  At least the evidence is here and it would be good if the sample size of the studies could be increased (pre-post expedition).

My experience in Aconcagua (my first real mountain) when I experimented with Diamox was evidence that altitude sickness is real.  At Camp 3, I decided to stop taking Diamox to see how my body would react...huge mistake!  I suffered the craziest headache known to man.  My head was going to explode.  Lucky we were commencing our decent already.  I did suffer some memory recollection issues for a few weeks/a month afterwards.  What did I learn?

i)         i) That I was never ever going to rely on Diamox again!  There is too much reliance on a drug and if something should go wrong then you are up the creek without a paddle.

ii)        ii) Acclimatise well and slowly.

What is still unknown is the rate of ascent to acclimatise well.  Some are conservative (1000m/day) others less conservative, but the studies tentatively show that it is not just about the acclimatisation, but also the altitude that you subject yourself to.

The question is then why would I put myself through this still knowing the risks?  Well, because I don’t believe that life is about the quantity, but the quality.  I never thought that I would live beyond 40 years, as my teenage dreams was to live life continually without regret.  I sadly have not done this and became a book-worm that was only focussed on his career, with many, many regrets along the way.  It took a few mid life crisis to open my eyes as to all the wonderful places and people in the world, and how my life could be better by meeting all the characters that form ‘the life of Gil’. 

Life is only exciting if you take risks.  On your death bed the last thing you would wish is that you worked harder, or, that you should have more assets accumulated!  It will be about all the things that meant something, and how you have progressed on your bucket list.  I heard this quote recently -There are two times in life, Now and Too Late.  How will you choose to live your life?

Also, I can afford to lose some brain cells....because I am already too smart...smart alec that is :-P .

Climb safe.