High Altitude Pulmonary Edema

I had woke in the middle of the night not being able to take in a deep breath, like this tight rubber band was wrapped around my chest and with each inhale a gurgle sound would echo inside. I sat upright and struggled to breath. I woke my climbing/tent partner and as he pressed his ear against my chest knew right then that something was very wrong. We had done a high carry during the day and I had felt fine but something went wrong during the night. Tim sat up with me until light and once morning came I moved outside to figure out what our options were. As there was several other expedition groups camped near us my friend was fortunate to find a physician who after examining me demanded that I head down to a lower elevation as soon as possible, which we did. I did feel better but once I lay horizontal my lungs would quickly fill up, so for one more night I sat upright against the tent wall. We hiked out to the landing area and I was quickly flown back to Talkeetna. It would take over a week at sea level before my body absorbed the fluid that had accumulated in my lungs. My two climbing partners who had turned around and headed back towards the summit of Denali were hit by a severe storm and a long fall down the headwall resulting in Tim getting pretty broken up (shoulder and arm) but surviving. It was a very bad climbing season in Alaska for our team. Denali, Alaska