Why our ears pop, water boils faster and our breath feels short in the mountains
By Paul Swenson EBS COLUMNIST
Driving up to the mountain for the first day of skiing is always so exciting. The anticipation of great snow, carving nice long turns down the groomers and visiting with people on the chairlift. But I find myself always having to yawn two or three times going up the road, then again another time or two riding up the lift. It’s a type of, say,gaping, that looks like a fish out of water. I see others doing it too, in the tram cabin, on the lift, or sometimes other drivers or passengers. Most people will call this “popping your ears.”
So why does one have to pop the ears? Looking at the anatomy of the ear, there are three major divisions; outer, middle and inner. The outer ear is the part that you can access with your finger or a cotton swab. It passes through some cartilage, then enters your skull through the temporal bone. At this point your ear canal enters the middle ear where your eardrum, the tympanic membrane, is located. Behind your eardrum, the middle ear continues with one of nature’s most amazing sets of bones and organs. There is also a structure connected to the sinuses and nasal cavity that drains the middle ear and equalizes pressure inside the ear. That is called the eustachian tubes.
What causes the pressure differential on each side of the eardrum? Altitude.
Atmospheric pressure depends on the weight of the air above your elevation, so at sea level the pressure is defined as one atmosphere, then decreases with elevation. Compared to sea level, at 6,000 feet atmospheric pressure has decreased 20%, at 8,000 feet down 26%, and at the top of Lone Mountain, 11,166 feet, down 34% compared to sea level. That’s enough decrease from the meadow to the mountain to make the pressure differential inside and outside my ears become noticeable and make me open wide, gaping to clear the pressure. I guess I am a gaper after all.
There are other aspects to our lives that are also affected by this change in atmospheric pressure. The first is the boiling point of water.
At sea level, water boils at 212 degrees Fahrenheit, versus 200 degrees in the Meadow and 197 degrees in the Mountain Village. If you work at the top of the tram, the hottest you can get your coffee is 191 degrees. When I visit my family that live at sea level their tea and coffee is ‘wicked’ hot compared to what I’m used to. If you’re a cook or baker you have noticed the challenge: it takes longer to cook some dishes and you need to follow “high altitude” directions for some recipes.
Of course, the most concerning effect of altitude is that there is less air to breathe. Looking at the percent changes presented above, if a person travels from sea level and goes straight to the top of the tram, they will have 34% less air in each breath. This leads to a whole host of physiological problems that collectively are called altitude sickness, or Acute Mountain Sickness.
AMS displays over a whole range of symptoms; dizziness, shortness of breath, headache, muscle aches, decreased physical performance, nausea, dehydration, and increased blood pressure and heart rate. While not life threatening for most healthy people, those with preexisting conditions should take caution while travelling where rapid altitude changes will occur.
To remedy AMS, visitors to higher elevations just need to be patient and not try to do everything the first or second day after their arrival in Big Sky. Take the first day for a nice long breakfast, lots of fluids, a couple long slow groomers, and call it a day early. Get some rest, drink water, drink water, then a little more. A person’s body recognizes the lack of oxygen in the blood stream and sends signals to increase respiration rate and to increase red blood cell production. Usually after two or three days, our bodies have adapted enough to make those longer, more challenging runs more enjoyable.
The symptoms of AMS sound really similar to the symptoms of a hangover. So if one does decide to party while visiting Big Sky, just be aware that hangovers can be exacerbated by high altitude. I have picked up plenty of people early in the morning for guide trips that did not look good or feel good.
“We only had a couple drinks,” they say. “What is it about this place that makes us lightweights?”
Now you know.
Paul Swenson has been living in and around the Big Sky area since 1966. He is a retired science teacher, fishing guide, Yellowstone guide and naturalist. Also an artist and photographer, Swenson focuses on the intricacies found in nature.
