The charity 'Medical Expeditions' has just produced a free booklet outlining the symptoms of altitude sickness, recognising how much is too much, and what to do when the thumping headache sets in.
Medical Expeditions was set up in 1992 after its founding members witnessed the death of a young, fit climber from Acute Mountain Sickness (AMS) on the Mera La pass in the Himalayas. Ever since then they have been carrying out research into the effects of altitude on the body by studying how participants in high altitude expeditions cope - or not - with the lack of oxygen.
The booklet 'Travelling at High Altitude' draws on this research, but it's written in a clear, down-to-earth way, so it's far from an arduous read. It's broken down firstly into regions of the world in which mountain sickness is likely to be a problem - and there are more of them than newcomers to trekking at altitude might think - and then into the parts of the body that are likely to be affected by the lack of oxygen.
It's not just a list of symptoms of AMS though; included is also a list of recommendations for dealing with them - including pre-expedition measures - and a check list to help you diagnose how far down the AMS line your body's gone.
Which symptoms are just uncomfortable and which can kill you? That's the question the booklet tackles and, without scaremongering, it's one that no hiker on a high altitude expedition can afford not to know.
Definitely worth a read if you don't have any experience of travel at a remote distances from sea level and you're planning a trip to a mountainous region, whether it's a trek up Kilimanjaro, a visit to Everest Base Camp, or even a high level route in the Alps.
There are both high and low-resolution copies available on the Medex website depending on whether your computer is feeling able to deal with high-resolution-downloading sickness or not.
And did we mention that it's all completely free?!
