Keep getting bad headaches after coming down.

[MaroonPlatoon]

I've just started hiking easier 14ers, and almost every time without fail I get a terrible headache after getting back to the car. I'm concerned that with longer or more technical climbs the headache will hit earlier and I'll be in trouble. Or that I'll need to drive on the way down.

Right now I just focus on drinking as much water as I can before, and during the hike. This helps a lot but I was wondering if there was anything I can do once I get down to help the headache?

[12ersRule]

Hike more slowly. Also do something besides water for hydration with electrolytes. Advil at the summit. The night before, try staying at higher elevations to give yourself more time to acclimate.

There's probably a ton more threads like this out there. Search is your friend. It's a common issue. Hope you figure it out, I think you will!

[ChrisRoberts]

I've just started hiking easier 14ers, and almost every time without fail I get a terrible headache after getting back to the car. I'm concerned that with longer or more technical climbs the headache will hit earlier and I'll be in trouble. Or that I'll need to drive on the way down.

Right now I just focus on drinking as much water as I can before, and during the hike. This helps a lot but I was wondering if there was anything I can do once I get down to help the headache?

Amongst other things that you may learn from this thread, I'd continue to look at water consumption. I often get headaches when I return home from the mountains, and I attribute it to dehydration. Drink before going to sleep and when you wake up...when you're asleep you're going several hours without any water intake. This especially true if you've been drinking beer or alcohol the night before.

[aweskamp]

One thing you could try is taking 600mg of Motrin (aka Ibuprofen) a couple hours before you start the hike and then another 600mg 4-6 hours after that. There are a couple of recent studies that say that doing this limits the adverse effects of altitude during the hike, headaches included. Just make sure to drink plenty of water!

[tlerunner]

Have a thermos of coffee waiting for you in the car. That had helped me in the past, even on a hot day. But make sure you have plenty of water too.

[Tim A]

How much sleep are you getting the night before? I've noticed that even if I'm hydrated (2L of gatorade during the hike/drive out) and peeing every half hour, I'll sometimes come down with a big headache within the first 2-3 hours after leaving the TH if I've only gotten a few hours sleep the night before. I've since gotten into the habit of taking a nap, usually 2-3 hours long after a hike, after which I'm feeling much better. For some 14ers where I'm starting up at 130-2am (Conundrum or Uncompahgre from the lower THs, trying to reach couloirs by 5am), I'm only sleeping 1 or 2 hours the night before, and as the adrenaline falls off once I'm safely down, my body starts reminding me that its tired.

[Garrett]

I've had this happen to me several times in the past after doing big and little days and the conditions leading up to it always vary widely. I've found its more related to diet and hydration. Most times when I get the headache afterward I didn't eat very good during the day, in that I ate any type of energy bar for breakfast and as a snack later. Best I've found to prevent it beforehand is to bring real food with you like salami/cheese, a sandwich, a piece of fruit, etc. or whatever you like that is not gummy or some variety of wrapped oat brick. I also have a liter bottle of the powdered gatorade mixed in my pack, the powdered type seems to work better for some reason in my opinion and that helps with the hydration. I always drink that by around midday or on the summit. It rarely to never happens to me any more whether I'm feeling the altitude or didn't get enough sleep or whatever. Ib profen is fine in the aftermath but if you're like me and don't like to take to much of that, when you're back at your car and feel it coming on try eating a snack, drinking some electrolyte and take a 10-15 minute nap.

[DArcyS]

Are you on a low/no salt diet? Drinking a ton of water on top of that may lead to an electrolyte imbalance (i.e., hyponatremia). It's good to stay hydrated, but you also don't need to drown yourself in water either. You might be overdoing it with the water consumption -- more is not necessarily better.

When I first started hiking in the winter, the cold would stress my system and I'd get headaches. To battle that, I found V8 to be helpful. You might try taking some V8 (and not the low sodium product) on a hike and see if sipping on it, versus gulping it down, makes a difference. These electrolyte drinks, like Gatorade, are good, but I've always wondered if V8 might not be better in some respects because all of the salts and carbs within it are all natural (or akin to what somebody else mentioned, V8 is more like a real food than these energy drinks).

[peterkfes]

After experiencing headaches on descent of my first peaks ten years ago I've solved the problem, for myself at least, by taking Ibuprofen on the summit and concentrating on deliberate and forced deep breathing during descent. My natural breathing on descent was relaxed given the lower level of exertion which I thought was welcomed compared to my flat land gasping during ascent. I now talk to myself out loud "breath Peter, breath" which serves another purpose, it gives my loopiness at altitude real meaning! Coupled with a dependable three day acclimation routine coming from Boston, I've been headache free 27 peaks into my fourteener journey.

[rob runkle]

Caffeine and alcohol are both diuretics. If you are peeing a lot, then you are not hydrated. I don't touch either of these when I'm in the mountains.

Also, as others have mentioned, low electrolytes will cause you to not absorb your water. Again, this will probably show up as having to pee alot. My son - 6 yo last year - has Cystic Fibrosis, which can mess with his electrolytes pretty bad (salt). When we did Handies last year, he was peeing every 15 minutes. He was strong almost the whole way, but had headaches and such at the top. It didn't dawn on me until later that he was dehydrated, even though he was drinking a ton. He was just peeing it out.

[alpha]

As most said, try hydration first.
I'll throw out an alternate theory though...Do you drink a lot of coffee and/or energy drinks? If so there is a chance you aren't getting the same amount of caffeine on days you're hiking and are experiencing a caffeine withdrawal headache.

[Jim Davies]

I used to regularly get bad headaches (to the point of nausea) during camping trips. Like alpha said, it was caffeine withdrawal. I now make sure to have something with caffeine available, especially backpacking. Excedrin has caffeine plus aspirin and acetaminophen, which handles most headaches for me. Some Clif bars also have caffeine. Or you could just use caffeine tablets.