Swelling of Feet at different altitudes

Hello,

Can anyone tell me the general guideline for swelling of feet at different altitudes?

If we start at sea level, when do you swell a 1/2 size? 1 full size?

Kevin

i've never swollen as much as a half size going up to 20,000 feet.

Kevin, up to 23,000 I haven't noticed this much, either. Perhaps a little 'volumetric' swelling, but not as much a length thing. My boots have always been fit appropriate for local altitude, and I can't recall ever having discomfort due to swelling at altitude.... (never thought, 'geeze, my boots are too small' when pulling them on).

Then again, I use custom foam liners and it may not be as apparent. I have lost toenails, but think that is usually due to something dumb like descending 10k' in a day or when I've had frostnip.

I'm not a doctor, I don't play one on TV, and did not stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night (thank dog)...but in my experience high altitude pedal edema isn't (and shouldn't be with proper ascent management) a significant phenomenon.

Either poor ascent planning or some predisposition to pulmonary artery hypertension could result in some nasty edema, but there isn't a solid heuristic that says at x feet your feet swell y, it varies a LOT.

Personally, I haven't noticed a major difference, and like the others my foot problems in high alpine environments have more to do with beating them up :).

Again, I'm not doctor, but if you're getting appreciable swelling in your feet HACE and other nastiness can't be too far away and/or you have some serious cardiac issues impending :(.

I've been up to a little over 18,000' and have never experienced any swelling of the feet. Let us know if you find any legit info.

Thanks everyone.
Kevin

I think most people ( everyone person is different keep in mind )
but they start to swell anywhere from 18,000 to 20,000 +

I would say it is pretty standard to fit you normal ice/mountain boots a half size up from your street shoe size for things up to 14,000 or so. from there depending upon weather you use intuition liner, aftermarket footbeds and various sock combos i would go up antoher half to whole size from that. I would fit your 8,000 meter boots a size to a size and half above your normal foot size.
Again everyone is different so jsut cause jo schmo doesnt swell at 20,000 doesnt mean you wont. make room :)

Call Chuck at Neptune's in Boulder and talk to him about it...being one of the best boot fitters for mountaineering he should have an idea.

I've been to 8,000 meters and I would say you should go maybe half a European size bigger at the most for that kind of altitude. I bought my boots for that expedition so that they felt a little sloppy, but still functional here in CO. and they felt fine on summit day. Of course, I have to give the caveat that I was hypoxic and largely incoherent on summit day and the fit of my boot was the last thing on my mind.