Knapsack Treks
  • Detian Waterfall Then & Now
  • Good Vices
  • Live From Lukla
  • NDP – National Day Pendaki
  • Trip Reports
    • Australia
      • Aussie Odyssey Part 1, Uluru, Kata Tjuta
      • Aussie Odyssey Part 2 Kings Canyon
      • Aussie Odyssey Part 3 Kangaroo Island
      • Dunes Downunder Part 1
      • Dunes Downunder Part 2
      • Dunes Downunder Part 3
    • Climbing Tianyou Peak 天游峰 @ Wuyi Shan 武夷山
    • Europe
      • My Greek Odyssey (Athens & Acropolis)
      • My Greek Odyssey (Delphi)
      • My Greek Odyssey (Meteora)
      • My Greek Odyssey (Mt Olympus)
      • My Greek Odyssey (Pella – birthplace of Alexander the Great)
      • My Greek Odyssey (Thessaloniki)
    • India
      • A Tale of Two Jahans
      • Akbar The Great
      • Dungeshwari – where mistakes are made and corrected
      • Horriday In India – Trains
      • Sarnath – first lesson
      • Shimla – legacy of British India
      • Taj Mahal
      • The Mahabodi Temple, Bodhgaya
      • Varanasi, a city as old as time
    • Indonesia
      • Beautiful Bali 2019
        • Batur Mountain & Lake
        • Kuta Sunset
        • Marvellous Munduk
        • Nusa Penida 1
        • Nusa Penida 2
        • Tirta Gangga
      • Dieng Antiquities
      • Gedung Songo
      • Gunung Lawu 2019
      • Sex & Temples
        • Candi Kethek & Ceto
        • Candi Sukuh
      • Back In Mt Bromo With A Kid In Tow 1
      • Back In Mt Bromo With A Kid In Tow 2
    • Kyrgyzstan, Land of Yurts, Horses, Vodka and 美女😆
      • Song Kul Lake Horse Trek
      • Beautiful Bishkek
      • The Ala Kul Lake Trek Via Telety & Karakol Valley
      • Dungan Mosque Kyrgyzstan
      • Holy Trinity Cathedral, Karakol
    • Magical Myanmar 2019
      • Hsipaw Trek
      • Paya Ko Thaung
      • Pining For Pyin Oo Lwin
      • Sunset In Sittwe
      • The Goteik Viaduct
      • Yangon Memories
    • Nepal
      • Everest Three Passes Trek Nepal
      • Tilicho Lake
      • Annapurna On Wheels With Two Kids In Tow
      • Gosainkund Winter Trek
      • Lost In Lumbini
    • The Water Curtain Cave
    • Kunming, Dali With A Kid In Tow
  • Wacky Workouts
    • Climb Stairs
    • Great Body Weight Exercise
    • Metabolic Principle – Fat Burn
    • Metabolic Principles – Muscles
    • Pull Ups Step By Step
    • Push Up Variations
    • Pushup Variations
    • Working With Elastics
  • About The Author
  • Knapsack Books
  • Fighting Fit
    • 1000 Squats
    • Alternatives For Prevention of AMS?
    • Buffering Your Blood
    • Carbo-loading: The Real Thing
    • Cold Dips
    • Fluid Replacement
    • Food For Hikes – Sweet Potatoes
    • Healthy Coffee?
    • High Altitude Diarrhoea
    • Jumpstart Cream
    • L-Carnitine
    • Low Carb Myths & Risks
    • MacRitchie To Bukit Timah Hike
    • Preventing Blisters
    • Sandfly Bites
    • Cheating AMS
  • Gear & Stuff
    • Choosing Footwear
    • Cooking Set
    • Cushion Gloves
    • Dressing Right For The Himalayas
    • Gelert Boots
    • High Fashion (Frogg Toggs)
    • Hiking Footwear Cheap & Good
    • How To Clean Mouldy Slides
    • My Neat Knapsack
    • New Hiking Boots From Decathlon
    • The Humble SAF Combat Boot
    • The Thermos Effect
    • Custom Made Hiking Boots
  • The Aging Adventurer
    • Bye Bye Bunions
      • 6 Weeks Post-op
      • Day 1
      • Day 2
      • Day 7
      • One Month Post-op
      • Trying On My Boots & Thongs
      • Week 3
    • Clogged Arteries: everyone has them!
    • Don’t Lose That Muscle
    • Foot On Ice
    • How Exercise Affects Blood Pressure
    • Keeping Fit Past 70
    • Secret To Burning Fat
    • Stairs Workout
    • Strength Training
    • The Best Doctors In The World
    • Toes & Poles
    • Too Old To Run?
    • Training For Seniors
  • Legends
    • Ernest Shackleton (1874-1922)
      • The Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition
    • Gigi The Bikini Hiker
    • Khoo Swee Chiow – K2, the ultimate peak
    • Xiao Peng 小鹏
    • Yu Chun Shun 余纯顺
    • Lei Dian Sheng 雷殿生
      • Horsehair & Blisters
      • Trust & Kindness
  • Other Sites by Chan Joon Yee
    • Chan Joon Yee On Homecooking
    • Chan Joon Yee On Social Issues

Login

  • Log in
  • Entries feed
  • Comments feed
  • WordPress.org
Tweets by toothfully
Follow me on twitter

Adventure News

An Adventure Of A Lifetime

by admin May 10, 2012 2 Comments

Two Singaporeans have died on a trip to Mt Kailash (aka Kang Rinpoche) in Tibet. You can find the news reports here. Apparently, the unfortunate two have died of Acute Mountain Sickness (AMS).

AMS ought to be well known to many Singaporeans who have been trekking at high altitude. Over the last 2 decades, trekking in Nepal has become such a popular pastime for Singaporeans young and not-so-young that having done the Everest trek no longer earns you any bragging rights. We’ve even had a few Everest expeditions. All this while, we have not heard much about trekkers dying of severe AMS. Why is that so? Because there is a limit to trekking and climbing speed.

jeeps and flags

It’s such an irony that deaths should occur more frequently in these seemingly effortless, soft adventure trips. But when wheels take the place of legs, the chances of climbing too high too fast are multiplied. Unless trip leaders familiar with the weaknesses of desk-bound Singaporeans take extra precautions in organising high altitude vehicular treks, we are likely to see more of such tragedies as this form of travelling gets more popular, especially with the elderly and well heeled.

AMS is not a merciless illness. It often gives you ample early warning before it strikes with full force. In fact, it even gives a few final warnings before delivering the fatal blow. And there is no shortage of information on AMS on the internet, so there’s really no excuse for ignorance.

However, the problem lies in the nature of group tours itself. You can of course embark on a trip with a personal guide (which I often do), but joining a group would be far more economical. The disadvantage of group travel is that it does not take individual differences into consideration. To stay in the group, you’d have to keep up, sometimes at the expense of your own comfort or convenience. Many itineraries for busy Singaporeans are planned without extra days to give allowance for contingencies. Hence, members who are already experiencing AMS symptoms may deny or downplay those symptoms. Or they may be pressured to endure the discomfort in order to stay with the group.

Handheld Pulse Oximeter OctiveTech 300AH

How do you know who is unwell? There is a very simple and portable device known as a pulse oximeter. The procedure for measuring the percentage saturation of blood with oxygen is quick and non-invasive. In an instant, a reading on the monitor will tell the trip leader if a member is hypoxic. The trip leader can set his own cut-off point for the SO2 reading, pull hypoxic members out of the group and insist that they do not ascend any further until they can acclimatise.

If the early signs of AMS are ignored, the condition can deteriorate into High Altitude Cerebral Edema (HACE) and High Altitude Pulmonary Edema (HAPE). In HACE, the brain swells and compresses itself within the skull. This may lead to delirium and coma. In HAPE, fluid leaks into the air sacs of the lungs and the casualty literally drowns in his own fluids. These 2 conditions are rapidly fatal, but if the trip leader knows how to inject appropriate medication, he can buy the casualty some time before he can be evacuated to the nearest helicopter landing site.

Getting an intramuscular injection #1

This brings us to the evacuation plan which is often missing in most of the trips which are organised locally. We should take a leaf from Japanese groups which are often far more well-planned for contingencies. Sadly, most Singaporeans treat a trip to the Himalayas as a budget trip to a Third World country. When groups set off without a licensed guide or experienced local trip leader, I really don’t know what to say. It’s about time we show some respect for high altitude tourism. Otherwise, we may end up paying a price far higher than what the “luxury” groups ask for.


Check Out Knapsack Books by Chan Joon Yee

  • Previous Unlicensed Guide?11 years ago
  • Next Tragedy In Annapurna Region11 years ago

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Knapsack Books

2023 Knapsack Treks. Donna Theme powered by WordPress
Manage Cookie Consent
To provide the best experiences, we use technologies like cookies to store and/or access device information. Consenting to these technologies will allow us to process data such as browsing behavior or unique IDs on this site. Not consenting or withdrawing consent, may adversely affect certain features and functions.
Functional Always active
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
Preferences
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes. The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.
Manage options Manage services Manage vendors Read more about these purposes
View preferences
{title} {title} {title}