I just finished doing Mt Whitney as a day hike on 8.10.16. I did this hike with someone who I thought was prepared physically and mentally. Not only was this not the case, I placed myself in an incredibly dangerous position by hydrating her with the only water we had as we completed the last 1.20 miles to the summit. She dropped her pack at the 1.9 mile marker saying she could not summit with its weight. It did not occur to me that it meant she was leaving behind her water and supplies. Up until this point I was experiencing only mild symptoms of altitude sickness. Symptoms that were only mild because of constant hydration, eating consistently on the ascent, aspirin, prior acclimation hikes and months and months of training. I had Diamox with me but had not found it necessary to use since I was doing so well.
The reason why I am sharing this story with you is that I broke the number one golden rule. We take care of ourselves first, then we help another. During the final 1.20 miles I was barely hydrating myself. She was complaining of altitude sickness so I was hydrating her as we pushed on. I was completely out of water when I reached the summit. At this point I began experiencing the worst of altitude sickness and dehydration. I immediately became nauseous, couldn't see clearly and hardly had energy. We stayed on the summit for approximately 20 minutes and started heading down. The person I was hiking with did not wait for me and headed down the trail. I stumbled down the most technical part of the trail, vomiting at this point, had difficultly breathing and the already intense headache was getting worse. A stranger came to my aid, saying that she saw my friend who informed her that I needed water. 5 trail Angels carried my pack, gave me their water, brought me to this so called friend and helped us descend over the next 12 hours (full blown hallucinations now). They all agreed that I would have qualified for a life flight had we been able to reach help, and help reach us. Instead, I fell twice on the descent and I have suffered a hiking season ending injury - a shoulder injury with a possibly fracture to the elbow, neck injury and overall damage to my physical, mental and spiritual well being.
What I want to express more than anything is that hydrating was an absolute critical part to combating altitude sickness for me. Combined with many other elements that prepare you for a hike such as this, I failed to take care of myself when I started taking care of another first. My hopes in sharing this story is that maybe one of you will be helped. In addition, determining who you hike with is extremely critical as well. We place our lives in one another's hands. We don't leave our partners behind.
Altitude sickness is terrifying and is never to be taken lightly. I learned so much about it from many different sources and social media groups to help in my preparation
and things still took a different turn.
I owe my life to the nameless 5 Angels that were kind enough and patient enough to help me on that day. I don't think I would be alive today without their help. If you are out there, please know how grateful I am for what you did.
