Snow blindness at altitude forces travelers to keep their eyes closed

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, 190

Categorization

• DEFINE: Names ‘soroche, or mountain sickness’ as the diagnosis for her symptoms.
• STORYSTEM: A narrator crossing a 12,000-foot snowfield half-blind against a lime-ball sun, navigating by faint footprints, is a ready-made scene of disoriented high-country travel.