Strange Whitney Trip Report

[zippetydude]

I’ll say this: Strange things happen above 13,000’. Everything seemed normal up to Trail Camp…

…Then, as I was tooling along on the 97 switchbacks, all of a sudden a bright yellow dot appears in the center of my field of vision. Odd. I didn’t know bright yellow dots lived on Mt. Whitney.

It politely stayed only in the center of my vision, so I was able to keep going as long as I used my peripheral vision. This was a little tricky, as I had to turn my head slightly sideways to be able to see. I probably looked like one of those crazed wildebeests on the Nat Geo channel that has a worm in its brain, staggering along the trail with my head twisting side to side.

After about 30 minutes, it turned to a brilliant lavender line. I must say, I preferred the lavender line. If I turned my head just right, I could underline things when I looked at them. It made them seem extra important.

Sadly, it disappeared after just a few minutes and my vision returned to normal.

Well, almost.

A little while later, as I took a drink from my camelbak, which meant I went about 5 seconds without inhaling, things went dark. (I could be a former president - I get buzzed from not-inhaling!) You know how it looks when a cloud suddenly covers the sun, and everything goes slightly dark for a bit? Well, every time I took a drink, everything would go dark. I’d pant a little harder, and everything would come right back. I’ve never had a brightness control for my eyeballs before! It did this most of the way on up to the peak, and each time things went dark, I would feel dizzy and my legs felt very heavy. It all seemed very innocuous. I didn’t drink as I passed the windows, as I didn’t want to take the quick route down.

Anyway, I’ve been up Whitney a few times, but never had the altitude provide such entertainment.

Has anyone here had odd symptoms like that at altitude?

All in all, a perfect autumn trip up an amazing mountain.

z

[halhiker]

I've never experienced cerebral lights on any hike before but it sounds like fun. One time Whitney, however, I did feel exceedingly tired and I realized it was because I was hiking very slow and waiting for someone. With the slow pace I wasn't breathing heavily enough. I decided to pick up the pace a bit and soon felt fine.

Also, one reason I don't like water bladders is the need to suck to get fluids. I prefer to spend my energies sucking air and I've found it easier to drink when I can just pour fluids down my gullet.

[Rumpled]

I'd think seeing those kinds of things might get me to turn around for the day.
Or, thank your pharmacist!

[Ellen]

Howdy Z,

I didn’t drink as I passed the windows, as I didn’t want to take the quick route down. z

Yes -- I've had strange visual occurances (SVO's) between 12 K and 14 K when pushing myself hard on the Pike's Peak Ascent. My SVO's were very bright flashes of light. This brought to mind the Twilight Zone theme song. I saw an opthalmologist afterwards to make sure that my retinas weren't tearing or detaching.

Miles of smiles,
Ellen

[HikeUp]

Interesting. Either your water was spiked or those red shorts were too tight !

[zippetydude]

I think it was a result of pushing hard at altitude. The effects vanished when I stopped at the peak and did not reappear on the way down.

No, no pharmaceuticals were employed in the adventure!

As far as red shorts, well I wear them everywhere, so I don't think they were to blame. On the other hand, I only wear the cape on high mountain trails, so it may be implicated.

Still, sounds like Ellen has had the same thing, and she hardly ever wears tight red shorts and a cape.

Years ago, my wife had gone to a neurologist regarding migraines, and he asked her if she had occasional visual phenomena either associated with or apart from her headaches. She did not, but he said the "aura" that is sometimes associated with a migraine can come with or without pain. He described it as bright visual appearances from spots to circles to images that look like crystals. Also said they're not indicative of any danger (like a detached retina) so told her not to worry if she experienced that.

I wonder if this is somehow a form of migraine aura that is induced by low blood oxygen saturation. I once took a blood oximeter up on San B, and found my saturation levels dropped from high 90's (which is normal) to low 70's (which would not occur at sea level, even during exercise).

I wonder if it dropped - for both Ellen's case and mine - into the 60's or below, thus causing the strange effects. Hmmm. Thanks for the feedback (and humor)!

z

[hykurs]

Hi Zippety - I've experienced similar effects while flying (in an airplane) above 10000'. I was in the navy at the time and we had to go up in altitude to go over a mountain range. Unfortunately we had only 2 portable oxygen bottles to share amongst the crew. While waiting my turn for O2 I would experience strange visual effects and as soon as I hit the oxygen everything would brighten up and look normal. Then again, you could be having flashbacks.

[Zé]

Hey Zip!

That's sounds crazy. I wonder if the effect is due to the altitude's effect on oxygen level in the brain, or in the retina or pressure difference by the retina. I guess probably the brain.

Obviously not a good sign although it might have been a good time . I'm kinda paranoid and think anything dizziness (or weird stuff like that) could lead to some level of pulmonary (or worse, cerebral) edema. Now i have no idea what level of altitude exposure is needed for those to occur but sure sounds scary enough for me to take it easy. Forcing yourself to go slow really does help!

I wonder if there are any long term effects to repeated quick ascents to 14k ft exposure?

[HikeUp]

FWIW... the visual "effects" I get at the onset of a migraine is the presence of blind spots - i.e. while looking directly at something, a portion of it and the surrounding area are not visible. Basically I see half of my usual field of view (which half seems random). This is accompanied by nausea. After awhile (15-30 minutes) normal vision returns, nausea goes away and excruciating pain settles in for the long term!

What you experienced certainly doesn't fit that description, other than I tilt and turn my head as necessary to see stuff.

[Zé]

of course this is temporary (while at altitude) but interesting:


Table 1 Cognitive capabilities as a fraction of sea-level performance for unacclimatized subjects according to McFarland (1972 )
Altitude (m) Visual sensitivity Attention span Short-term memory Arithmetic ability Decision making
2500 83% 100% 97% 100% 100%
3500 67% 83% 91% 95% 98%
4200 56% 70% 83% 92% 95%
5000 48% 57% 76% 86% 90%
Note: Adapted from McFarland, 1972.

bold is around Mt Whitney level. 44% drop in visual sensitivity!