I've had good luck with Diamox for quick ascents of Whitney and Shasta, but taken in advance per the protocol described above. If you wait until symptoms appear before taking Diamox, be sure you're fully hydrated before you go down that path.
On the backside of Whitney coming from Bishop, I started having trouble catching my breathe and I felt a little weak. I took a 1/4 tablet of Diamox and things got much worse. Looking back, I'm pretty sure my breathing symptoms and lack of energy were related to dehydration. Diamox made me pee out any water I drank and then some. I couldn't overcome the diuretic effects, plus I had to ration water going up from Guitar Lake. A few times I actually thought I couldn't make it and considered going back down to the Ranger at Crabtree. I even thought about hitting the SOS button on my InReach. You know its bad when your mind thinks about that. It took all my strength to self-evacuate over Trail Crest, got down to the spring on the switchbacks and guzzled water until I felt human again. I was still weak and peeing all the way down to the Portal. Didn't fully recover for a few days. Learn from my mistake.
Last edited by SierraNevada; 09/02/17 12:15 PM.
