Saturday, March 5, 2011

Colorado Skiing and Acute Mountain Sickness!

Last week, Battree and I went to Breckenridge, Colorado for a ski trip. The weather was snowy, the Rockies were magnificent and the slopes were powdery. After arriving after midnight Wednesday, we got up early Thursday and started skiing. We skied all day Thursday with no breaks other than lunch.

Warning, if you ever plan to ski out west or anywhere with an elevation above 8,000 ft. make sure you give yourself a day to adjust to the extreme altitude change and drink plenty of water and gatorade before hand. I was not warned. A few hours after going to bed Thursday night, we both woke up with splitting headaches. Neither of us slept well the entire time we were there. Breckenridge is 9,600 ft. above sea level. The mountain summitt at the resort is 12,998 ft. I am not slamming the town, but make sure you get your body used to the elevation before doing anything active in a place this high.

Acute Mountain Sickness is altitude sickness in it's mildest form. It's like having the flu minus the body aches. I was nauseous and light headed for about 3 days. While skiing at higher elevations, I could see stars, in the daytime. While I was throwing up in the parking lot of Keystone Resort, a local guy told me that the best way to get over altidude sickness was to drive to Denver and stay for about 2 hours. I did not have that luxury. Denver was about 2 hours away and it was all curvy interstate in between. Just what a nauseous guy wants. Instead, I spent about 3 hours at the Keystone ER getting oxygen.

I laid in bed the rest of the day and felt great by bed time. I just stayed in bed.

Saturday provided another great day of skiing. There was constant snow and great moguls. After going to bed Saturday night, the bad headache returned with more nausea. When our plane landed in Greensboro, I had never been happier to be close to sea level.

Enjoy the pictures!















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