Scary indeed, and it sort of hits home with me. I had a massive case of AMS the first time I went up Whitney. I was stumbling around like a drunk; could hardly think. When I got back down to Trail Camp though, I was a new man.
Recently, I've been fine going up, but got the bad headaches as I was going down. Case in point was on San Jacinto. I was grinning and enjoying myself all the way up, and had a great time on the summit. No sooner than than when I was 200-300 ft down, I could barely walk in a straight line, and did not feel good even after I was back in San Diego. Seems to be happening more and more that I get massive headaches as I come down, but feel nothing going up. The only exception lately was when I went up the North Fork last week, but I attribute that to getting past 14k with only one night of sleep at the Portal. Nothing helped at that time. Neither Ibuprofen or Diamox made it go away. I usually do at least another night at the Horseshoe Meadows.
Anytime I go to higher elevations, this is the one thing that scares me more than the exposure of any route. No matter who I tell, they always seem to scoff at AMS like its an old wives tale.
EDIT: I cannot forget, Mike, glad you're okay. I'm a person who is very prone to AMS so I feel your pain, and congratulations on the summit wazzu.
This story, and the one of Diane that Steve linked, is scary.
It illustrates that for HAPE (and also especially for HACE) that (1) the warning signs and symptoms may be subtle or missing, and (2) once someone has the ball rolling with HAPE, it can continue to roll even though they make it back to the safety of lower altitude.
The medical reasons are mysterious, but basically it is a cascade of multiple factors like fluid shifts and metabolic changes in the lungs, brain and other parts that are set off by the initial time exposed to lower oxygen. This can be reversible, or fatal. I am glad for the fortunate outcome in this case.
