Medical Risks of High Altitude Climbing Frostbite – One of the most common risks of climbing. It happens when you don’t keep your hands or feet warm enough. The afflicted areas will turn black and blue. Untreated frostbite usually has to be amputated. Hypothermia – Not a common risk. It is caused by your body temperature going down faster than it is made. It will slow down your blood and eventually make you die. It is like being frozen or you are in a coma. The only effective way to help this is to go to a hospital. Snow Blindness – This is not a common risk. It happens due to seeing the sun’s reflections in the snow. If you get this your eyes are permanently damaged. It makes your eyes ooze and swell, and they become more sensitive to light. The best way to prevent this is to wear sunglasses. Acute Mountain Sickness (AMS) – A more common risk. Symptoms include headache, nausea, vomiting, difficulty sleeping, dizziness, small breaths, anorexia, and fatigue. You collapse after a while and aren’t able to think or function properly.

Crevasses Crevasses are a huge problem for climbers. When there is a large amount of snowfall, small crevasses are concealed to the naked eye. If a solo climber falls into one, they will probably be seriously hurt because of the fall. Crevasses are usually very deep. Most are recorded to have depths to up to more than 20 meters. There is however safety equipment used to help climbers if they are to fall into a crevasse. When there are multiple climbers, they are usually linked by a rope or chain that has bulky knots tied into them every meter or so. If one falls the second person can hold on and the knots will dig into the snow. If you are on a solo expedition, you can just drag a rope with knots behind you as you walk.

Avalanches Another less common, and unavoidable threat is avalanches. These can happen without people knowing, which is what makes them so dangerous. If you find yourself in the path of an avalanche there are dome things you could do that may help… 1.Keep your head, and don’t panic. 2.Do not go under a rock shelf or into a cave. 3.Warn others that are with you, for they may not hear the same things you do. 4.Keep your mouth closed. 5.Keep your backside to the mountain. 6.Remove your pack and excess gear. They will weigh you down and will make it harder to keep above the snow. 7.Try and swim to the side of the avalanche. If you find yourself under the snow, move your head side to side and try to reach the surface. The BEST way to avoid avalanches is to know about lose snow caps and avoid high risk areas.

HAPE & HACE (High Altitude Pulmonary Edema & High Altitude Cerebral Edema) HAPE is when there is a large accumulation of fluid in the lungs caused by the high altitude. Symptoms include rapid, shallow breathing, decrease in performance, and rapid heart rate. HACE is a severe form of Altitude Sickness caused by the swelling of brain tissue from fluid leakage. Symptoms are usually the same as AMS plus loss of coordination, decreasing levels of consciousness, disorientation, loss of memory, hallucinations, irrational behavior, and coma.

Those are some of the many dangers climbers face when taking on large expeditions like Greg Mortenson did. Climbing requires many physical and mental preparations that could save you from disease, avalanches, and other treacherous obstacles. Learning about these risks gave me a whole new outlook on climbers, and the amount of courage it takes to summit a large mountain like K2. I consider coming close to the summit a huge accomplishment, and for that I admire Greg Mortenson’s determination. Thank you for watching my presentation.