altitude on breathing, drinking.

I am back from Denver, and already in Houston to begin my new year. I just had my first classes today, and luckily, my entire afternoon is free.

Denver:

Beautiful weather, really sunny sunshine(my friend and I got sunburned-sneakily!), Mt. Evans is beautiful, and I loved seeing the mountains in the distance. It's calming and reassuring. My friends are just so lovely, and I was so happy to have spent relaxing and laughter-filled times with them before school started.

Flipping through the hotel welcome book, we found that the book warned us about staying hydrated and drinking mildly, all because we're in the Mile High city(5280 feet above sea level). We took the advice to heart, and wondered, what is it about higher altitude that makes us more prone to being dehydrated and more drunk?

First, staying hydrated is important because Denver has much drier air than other places due to high altitude and low humidity. 

Since the altitude is higher, the atmospheric pressure is lower, which also lowers the partial pressure of O2. Now, human lungs function best at sea level, where the partial pressure of oxygen is about 20.9%. When the partial pressure of O2 is lower, hemoglobin's ability to take in oxygen is compromised, and therefore, consuming alcohol which interferes with oxygen consumption by the tissues, is magnified up here, among the mountains.

Yep, we definitely felt it. We took a tour up to Mt. Evans and hiked the last 10 minutes up the top, and wow, it was extremely difficult to breathe though we were only briskly walking.

Beautiful views. The drive was winding and fun, our tour guide Ron was funny, and the mountains. Just beautiful, beautiful, beautiful.

happily(freezingly) at the top!