Next month, I’ll be on the Big Island and will be taking a tour to the summit. One of the health warnings is to avoid eating any gassy food before you go up because of problems with expansion.
My question is, should I, as a precaution, take Beano with everything I eat a day or two before I go just to make sure I don’t run into unforeseen problems? Or should I just to try to avoid any food that might cause me problems flat out?
Granted, I’ll only be up at the top for an hour, but I don’t want to be doubled over in pain, in addition to feeling light-headed.
Poi…but then again I don’t know many that eat as much as a friend of mine does
Not only does it taste funky (In the words of Dennis Leary “What this stuff taste like? takes a dab Ah yes…Bull Semen.”) but if you eat a lot of it, you may get the power farts. Combine it with pork, and you be able to jetski without the machine
I say this on opinion of surfing with a guy named Chucky Boy and the almost consistent musical interlude emanting from him for 24 hours after a night of poi, pork, and beer.
It’s a big change of altitude (over 13,000’) – probably bigger than almost any 1-hour drive anywhere. I’ve done it, and I don’t think you have much to worry about. At worst, you’ll make the other folks in the tour bus a bit uncomfortable (but, hey, some of them had bean soup for dinner, too).
Look at it this way: on every airline flight that starts near sea level, you undergo about a 7000’ pressure change in perhaps 5 minutes. Another 6000’ probably won’t hurt much.
OTOH, be careful of much exertion at the summit – you definitely can’t acclimate in a few minutes .