Post from Tim:
Pangboche: Acute Mountain Sickness, or AMS, is caused by ascending to high altitude without allowing enough time for your body to acclimatize properly. It can cause symptoms ranging from the simple: headaches, sleeplessness, shortness of breath, nausea, and dizziness, to the very serious: vomiting, loss of coordination, cerebral edema, pulmonary edema, and even death. It is a very dangerous problem in the altitudes that we were trekking in and something that we had to take very seriously.
Increased urination is a minor symptom, but one that has caused me the most danger so far. Thanks to AMS, I really needed to use our lodge's outhouse. But standing in between urgent release and me, stood a huge furry black yak with a white spot on his chest and rather large menacing horns. He stood his ground firmly, blocking the threshold of a stone wall that I needed to cross.
He eyes stared at me sideways and spoke clearly. It was clear he wasn't going to move without a fight. I yelled like a Sherpa, "Heh! Yah!" I waved my hands and jumped up and down. He turned his head a few degrees and said that if I didn't stop this nonsense soon, I'd see the business end of his horns.
Just as I was about to flee, a burley Tibetan looking woman ambled over, bent down, and scooped a handful of stones from the ground. Suddenly the yak didn't seem so tough. She hurled a couple of stones over his back and he went running like his tail was on fire.
And thus, I was saved from dire consequences of AMS.
Increased urination is a minor symptom, but one that has caused me the most danger so far. Thanks to AMS, I really needed to use our lodge's outhouse. But standing in between urgent release and me, stood a huge furry black yak with a white spot on his chest and rather large menacing horns. He stood his ground firmly, blocking the threshold of a stone wall that I needed to cross.
He eyes stared at me sideways and spoke clearly. It was clear he wasn't going to move without a fight. I yelled like a Sherpa, "Heh! Yah!" I waved my hands and jumped up and down. He turned his head a few degrees and said that if I didn't stop this nonsense soon, I'd see the business end of his horns.Just as I was about to flee, a burley Tibetan looking woman ambled over, bent down, and scooped a handful of stones from the ground. Suddenly the yak didn't seem so tough. She hurled a couple of stones over his back and he went running like his tail was on fire.
And thus, I was saved from dire consequences of AMS.