PellucidWombat wrote:MoapaPk wrote:OK, I said I'd shut up, but one last comment:
http://www.high-altitude-medicine.com/A ... .html#HACE
"I have not yet seen a case of HACE in which the patient didn't ascend with AMS symptoms."
(Not my words.)
Personally I saw just one case where the person was supposedly diagnosed with HACE. I always heard that HACE was the endpoint of AMS, and the person usually presents with the familiar symptoms of AMS beforehand. In the case I saw, the person had been vomiting and had a severe headache, and eventually was totally unable to walk; but the other symptoms had been going on for at least 2 hours.
One thing that frustrates me and has me wondering what happened is thinking about AMS symptoms. Not only had Tom been at or above 10-14,000 ft several times this winter with no problems, but on Shasta he was showing signs of good acclimatization all the way to the summit. He and I were both stronger and felt better ascending the Whitney Glacier Saturday than we had Friday when we climbed the Bolam Glacier to ca. 14,000 ft. Tom was urinating clear and frequently over Friday and Saturday, and when climbing technical ice in the icefall, he had plenty of energy and coordination.
As I think back, I can only recall symptoms of improving acclimatization, rather than any signs of AMS.
That lends credibility to the 'sudden event' theory, which doesn't mean that you immediately keel over, bur rather that your symptoms rapidly deteriorate. Hopefully the autopsy results will give you the peace and answers that you seek.