High-altitude rarefied air and snow glare induce soroche mountain sickness
Evidence
I was at a height of 12,000 feet, where, of course, the air was highly rarefied, and the snow was so pure and dazzling that I was obliged to keep my eyes shut as much as possible to avoid snow blindness. The sky was a different and terribly fierce color; and when I caught a glimpse of the sun, he was white and unwinking like a lime-ball light, yet threw off wicked scintillations. I suffered so from nausea, exhaustion, and pains from head to foot, that I felt as if I must lie down in the snow. It may have been partly the early stage of soroche, or mountain sickness. — Isabella L. Bird, A Lady’s Life in the Rocky Mountains, 409
Categorization
- DEFINE: Introduces ‘soroche’ — the local term (from Andean Spanish) for altitude/mountain sickness.
- XREF: Pairs with the earlier South Park detail that rarefied air causes lung oppression and bleeding in new arrivals.