AMS-Explained

Early AMS
The earliest known account of mountain sickness can be traced back to the first few decades of the first century A.D. One account from the period reads, “The travellers have to climb over Mount Greater Headache, Mount Lesser Headache, and the Fever Hill, where they will develop a fever, turn pallid, feel a headache, and vomit." (Ward 1975)
In 1590 in Peru, a Spanish priest wrote of the ill effects of altitude while crossing the Andes and concluded, “the element of the air is so subtle and delicate, as it is not proportional with the breathing of man, which requires a more gross and temperate air.” (Heath and Williams 1981)
Theories of mountain sickness advanced rapidly with the popularity of ballooning in the eighteenth century and alpine climbing in the nineteenth century.
As man continued to push his physical boundaries by venturing higher and higher, he occasionally paid the ultimate price. In 1875, the flight of the Zenith from Paris resulted in the deaths of two balloonists, Sivel and Croce-Spinelli. However, this did not deter the early pioneers. This century's leap into aviation and space travel has brought with it a deeper understanding of human ability to function at altitude.

Onset of AMS
The incidence and severity of AMS depend on the rate of ascent and the altitude attained as well as the length of altitude exposure, the level of exertion and inherent physiological susceptibility.
The main symptoms of AMS are headache, fatigue, dizziness and anorexia with nausea also being common – in fact the initial symptoms are very similar to that of an alcohol hangover.

Where and at what altitude does AMS occur?
High Altitude is classed as 1500 to 3500m – AMS is common with rapid ascent above 2500m but does not tend to occur below this.
Very High Altitude is 3500 to 5500m – this is the most common range for severe AMS.
Extreme Altitude is over 5500m – any ascent without supplementary oxygen invites severe AMS. There is no human habitation above 5500m.

Himalaya: The Legend of the Chandratal and Surajtal

There is a charming legend about the famous, beautiful lakes known as Chandratal and Surajtal in the folklore of Himachal Pradesh.
The story goes that the daughter of the moon and the son of the Sun were in love. They wanted to meet, but this was very difficult as the son and moon come into the sky at different times. So, they decided to meet o­n Earth. They chose to meet near the Baralacha Pass.
Unfortunately, when they came down o­n earth, they landed o­n different sides of the pass and were still unable to meet. Their resultant great sorrow turned them into lakes of great purity. As their water swelled, they gave birth to two mighty rivers – the Chandra and the Bhaga, which flowed around the mountain range and were finally able to confluence at Tandi.
And the two lovers? They are said to be the two lakes we know as Chandratal and Surajtal, o­n the two sides of the fearsome Baralacha Pass, in the district of Lahaul and Spiti, in Himachal Pradesh in India.
It is said that the mesmerizing, haunting beauty of the Chandratal is a result of the beauty of the daughter of the moon – who knows? The whole ambience of the lake does seem to be out of this world.
The beauty and taste of crystal clear water, the crown of mountain peaks towering protectively, and yet keeping their distance, the soft, abundant grass, the serenity in the atmosphere, even the air seem to speak of magic.
This is o­ne place you visit o­nce, and just hearing the name takes you there in your mind for the rest of your life.

Everest Turning into World's Highest Cesspool

The new hazard comes from human waste scattered along the mountain slopes, which could run into hundreds of tonnes...

A deadly peril lurks on Mt Everest, the highest summit in the world, which is far more dangerous than the freezing cold, gale winds and recently posted security forces who are empowered to shoot at the sight of political activities. The new hazard comes from human waste scattered along the mountain slopes, which could run into hundreds of tonnes.

"Toilet paper and human excreta litter the Everest base camp (at an altitude of 6,400 metres), the slopes, and even the summit (8,848 metres) itself," says Ang Tshering Sherpa, chief of the Nepal Mountaineering Association, which is entrusted with promoting mountaineering in this country."In summer, when the snow melts, the frozen human waste comes into sight and starts raising a stink. The grave health and environmental hazard the untreated excreta pose is a matter of great concern," Sherpa added.

While conscious mountaineers have been trying to clear the garbage left on the mountains, nothing has been done so far to treat the human waste lying there.In the past, expeditions have collected used oxygen cans, tents, food tins and other litter and brought much of it down but the human waste remains."As it remains frozen during the expeditions, it is very difficult to remove it and bring it down," Sherpa said.In a bid to prevent the world's tallest mountain from turning into the highest cesspool, an expedition is now introducing, for the first time in the history of the Everest, bio-degradable toilets.

Sherpa's son Dawa Steven Sherpa is leading the 24-member Eco Everest 2008 expedition to the summit in memory of the peak's greatest benefactor, Edmund Hillary, to try and clean the garbage.The team is carrying three "Clean Mountain Cans" with them, a portable toilet manufactured by an American company. The bins are lined with bio-degradable bags that decompose the human waste deposited in them.The expedition is armed with 200 such bags. Besides using them, the team members will also try to remove the frozen waste on the summit, put it in the bags and bring it down to the base camp.The cans, which can be bought for $75 a piece in the US, cost a thumping $150 when brought to Nepal, one of the poorest countries in the world."The cans were gifted by the American Alpine Club, while some of the bags were donated by the factories that made them," Sherpa said.

Sherpa, who runs Asian Trekking, one of the leading trekking agencies in Nepal, said his company would henceforth use the cans and urge other agencies to employ them too.The expedition, that is also highlighting the dangers of climate change in the Himalayan slopes, is tying to put into action a banner in Kathmandu that urges citizens to use garbage wisely and turn it into money.It is offering each climber who brings down human or other waste down from the peak to the base camp $1 for each kg of junk.

Ancient Meteor Blast Peppered Mammoths With "Shrapnel"

An ancient meteor impact in North America sent up waves of rock fragments that peppered prehistoric mammals with "space shrapnel" about 34,000 years ago, scientists say.
Many of the animals, particularly in the region near present-day Alaska , didn't survive. That's the story being pieced together by a research team led by Richard Firestone of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in Berkeley, California.
The team had done previous work on a suspected impact that occurred 13,000 years ago. But while looking for evidence of that more recent blast in mammoth tusks, the scientists found traces of the much older event.
"The surprise was the tusks were dating back to 30,000 to 34,000 years ago," Firestone said.
"Nobody had thought of it before. It was serendipitous."
The work was presented this week at the fall meeting of the American Geophysical Union in San Francisco, California.
Tiny "Bullet Holes," Micrometeorites Found
While searching for evidence of the more recent cosmic impact, team member Allen West, an Arizona geophysicist, noticed an odd pattern as he was combing through thousands of ancient tusks.
He found that the top-facing sides of a few tusks were pockmarked by holes 0.08 to 0.11 inch (2 to 3 millimeters) across.
The pockmarks were found on seven mammoth tusks—most likely from near Alaska's Yukon River—and the skull and horns of a Siberian bison. (That the holes were found on only one side of the bones indicated that the impacts came from a single direction, Firestone said.

Largest Spitting Cobra Found -- New Species

The newly anointed Ashe's spitting cobra, or large brown spitting cobra (Naja ashei), can reach lengths of more than 9 feet (274 centimeters) and is believed to deliver more venom with a single bite than any other cobra on the planet.

The aggressive reptile was previously identified as a brown-colored variant of the black-necked spitting cobra, though researchers had long suspected that it merited its own species. Now blood and tissue analysis have confirmed this theory to be true.
The snake dwells in the dry lowlands of north and east Kenya, as well as in Uganda and Ethiopia.
It is named after James "Jimmy" Ashe, a prominent herpetologist who founded the Bio-Ken snake farm and research center in Watamu, Kenya, where the snake is commonly found. Bio-Ken milks snakes for their venom and sends it to labs to develop antivenin.
The findings were first published earlier this year in the animal taxonomy magazine Zootaxa by researchers at the University of Wales and the Biodiversity Foundation for Africa in Buluwayo, Zimbabwe.
But they gained wider notice on Friday when the researchers announced the new species through the nonprofit conservation group Wildlife Direct.
Royjan Taylor, the director of Bio-Ken, said the paper's authors had asked him to wait several months to give time for other herpetologists to challenge their findings. None did.
Spitting cobras eat eggs, carrion, snakes, lizards, and birds. Their venom has two uses: to kill prey and for defense. The reptiles can spray venom several yards and usually aim for the attackers eyes, giving the snake the best chance for escape.