You are hereForums / By Discipline / Mountain (off road) / MTB Events / Altitude Sickness.
Altitude Sickness.
Being born and lived all my life about 5meters above sea level, has anyone or know anyone that has experienced riding in altitude. I’ve done Whistler but you get lifted up to approx 2200meters and the villages are all around 650meters and there’s no problem. I’ve got an opportunity to go to Mont Blanc via Hungary. Do a search for Mont Blanc Mountain Bike tours and get ready to catch some drool.... Land at Geneva ride through Switzerland, France and Italy. I just cant find anyone that has experienced riding at real altitude first hand. To be honest I’m shite scared and excited at the same time to do it. PS. As it turns out there’s some riding to be done in Hungary to my surprise.
- Login to post comments
- Bookmark & share
your biggest problem is that it really affects people differently regardless of physical fitness.. it also depends on how quickly you're going to get to a particular altitude and how soon you'll be doing any activities, like riding..
a quick search gave this:
"A minority of people, about 20%, have some symptoms of altitude sickness if they ascend to about 2500 meters (8000 feet) above sea level and sleep there. However, most people will acclimatize to 3000 meters (10,000 feet) with relative ease, perhaps having symptoms after the first night"
from http://wikitravel.org/en/Altitude_sickness
Sounds like an awesome trip!
I rode up the Stelvio pass (2757m) and Grossglockner (2504m) last year and didn't have any issues. Well - aside from a nose bleed at the Stelvio - does that tell you something?
However, this was after several months riding and hiking in the mountains. Most riding peaks out around 2000m, but spent several days hiking over that altitude. We often slept at altitude too. Eg. Bormio is over 1200m, Lavin (Switzerland a few days earlier) is over 1400m.
It's not that I'm immune to altitude though - have also been trekking in Lombok (Mt Rinjani) and felt like complete cr@p (nausea, slight dizziness, etc) after climbing from 950m to over 2700m over the day. Mind you - I'm sure dehydration played it's part on that day too.
So last year I built up slowly to those altitudes and felt fine whereas the Lombok trip we just went straight up there after years of living in Sydney. I guess the point is, they don't tell you to acclimate to altitude for the sake of it
Mind you, it's not like we're talking about Everest here - give yourself a few days to step up and try and sleep at the top of each 'step' if you can and am sure you'll be right.
I've skiied the glacier under the Matterhorn at Zermatt, which is a touch under 4000 metres. They have signs at the top advising you to descend immediately if you feel dizzy or have chest pains etc.
Best to build up to it over a few days, lets the body acclimatise. And stay off the turps!
The best part of course, is that you have a 2300 vertical metre descent back to the village. Would love to hit that in summer on a Downhill bike.
Stuff it I'm not going!
Seriously Thanks guys. I'll search the areas you mentioned and re read your thoughts when I get time. Cheers
Give yourself time to acclimatise. Take it easy going up hills and don't over exert yourself until you have a couple of days under your belt. Drink plenty of water assists in bloods ability to absorb oxygen at altitude. Small dose of aspirin can help thin the blood a little and help with mild headaches. Vomiting, bad headaches or coughing blood = descend and usually you will come good very quickly. Try to go high and sleep lower so you can get a decent sleep. Alcohol will knock you around at altitude, cheap nights out though. Sounds awesome.
You make it sound scary but I'm still keen. The time frame when I can go is right in the middle of the Tour de France. Not sure if thats good or bad. Not that we will be riding on the road at all but I guess there will be alot more people around.
Mate,
I'm a keen mountaineer/bike rider. I've never ridden at altitudes greater than 3600-800m but I have been to 7000m above sea level. Well 6962m [Aconcagua].
My suggestion is that once you are above 3600m or thereabouts - the height at which large trees can no longer grow, that you take the climbs slow and you stay super hydrated. I can't stress that enough. You should pee perfectly clear all the time. The problem with the cycling [I imagine], is that you are going from point A to point B and may not get to do what we do on a mountain, which is climb high, sleep low. For 'normal' athletes the advice is never gain more than 1000 feet in a day, but I've found this to be quite conservative. Again, on a mountain, we just watch how we feel, and if the symptoms are coming on strong then we turn around and drop a couple of 100 meters. Again, it may be hard to do this travelling from point A to point B. If you know you are getting close to the top and have a good descent on the other side then I would probably keep pushing - so long you know you are not stopping for the night on a summit.
If you are fit however [train lots of cardio], I really don't think you will get too many symptoms below 3500-4000m. Mont blanc is 4,800 and I don't expect you would be going anywhere near the summit?
If you are really concerned you can always approach a GP and ask him for Dexamethasone. Some climbers use it to help with acclimatization. Its got some nasty side effects and I wouldn't recommend taking any without proper advice.
But really, in my view and without going into too much detail - as your body produces more red blood cells to cope with the reduction in oxygen - your blood gets thicker. hence don't underestimate the hydration factor.
Good luck, sounds awsome!
PS - If you start coughing blood that is usually a sign of pulmonary edema, not a symptom of mountain sickness - if that's the case, in my view, you get right off the mountain and to a doctor. End of trip.
Great info. The information that you get from the tour operators is pretty blasé (maybe that’s just a French thing.) We don’t go near the summit, and I’m starting to ramp up my cardio.
I walked the Tour Mt Blanc last year in July - great walk. 170km in 9 days. Most of the walk is above about 1500m with passes up to around 2500m. You seem to be approaching from Geneva towards Chamonix (alt 1000m), so that is a good gradual start. Most of the refugios are below the 2000m area - so even if you do a higher pass during the day, you get a bit of respite at night.
Taking it easier in the first day of so is good advice - but that is not hard as the scenery is fantastic. Good fitness beforehand is a big help.
Enjoy!
I'm feeling more and more confident with the info I'm getting. Correct, fly into Geneva, then travel to Chamonix. I hear that there are some fantastic trails in the Chamonix valley and use of the surrounding ski lifts