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Altitude Sickness: Don’t Let Your Mountain High Lay You Low

Members of an expedition to reach the summit of Mount Everest stand by their tents at the Everest Base Camp in Nepal on April 28, 2025. (AP)
Members of an expedition to reach the summit of Mount Everest stand by their tents at the Everest Base Camp in Nepal on April 28, 2025. (AP)
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Altitude Sickness: Don’t Let Your Mountain High Lay You Low

Members of an expedition to reach the summit of Mount Everest stand by their tents at the Everest Base Camp in Nepal on April 28, 2025. (AP)
Members of an expedition to reach the summit of Mount Everest stand by their tents at the Everest Base Camp in Nepal on April 28, 2025. (AP)

Be it on Mount Kilimanjaro, in the Andes, Himalayas or somewhere else, mountaineering can give you an unforgettable high. But it comes with a risk that's often underestimated though: altitude sickness.

According to the German press agency (dpa), climbing too quickly can cause serious health problems, experts said.

“The risk of getting altitude sickness significantly increases at an elevation of about 2,500 meters,” said Dr. Tomas Jelinek, scientific director of Germany's Center for Travel Medicine (CRM).

Symptoms include headache, nausea, fatigue and dizziness.

Depending on the region, the number of affected climbers can be quite high.

According to the CRM, as many as 21% of climbers develop symptoms in Nepalese high mountain areas, and from 45 to 75% on Kilimanjaro.

“Altitude sickness is a serious but avoidable problem,” remarked Jelinek, the cause of which is lower oxygen levels in the ambient air: at 5,000 meters they're only about half those at sea level.

“The most effective way to prevent it is to take precautions,” he said.

He recommended that mountaineers plan their climbing tour carefully, get travel medicine advice before setting off and critically examine bookable tours - also with an eye to the ascent profile of the climb.

To help your body adapt to lower oxygen levels, Jelinek said it's good to prepare with high-elevation day treks so long as you sleep at lower elevations afterwards.

Train high, sleep low, in other words.

Rest for a day after every elevation gain of 1,000 meters at the latest.

Beginning at an elevation of 2,500 meters, the elevation at which you sleep shouldn't increase more than 300 to 600 meters daily.

And be sure to drink sufficient fluids, since dehydration can aggravate altitude sickness symptoms.

Increased breathing and heart rates are a normal reaction when acclimating to mountain ascents and have no pathological significance, according to the Institute of International Health at Charité University Hospital in Berlin.

Experts there said signs of an early stage of altitude sickness are headache, nausea and vomiting, fatigue, loss of appetite, dizziness and difficulty sleeping.

If you have symptoms such as headache or dizziness, which usually occur six to 12 hours after quick climbs at elevations over 2,000 meters, you should stop your ascent. The symptoms then typically disappear within one to three days.

If they don't, or your condition worsens, you should descend immediately. The symptoms generally abate after an elevation drop of 500 to 1,000 meters, the health experts said.

In severe cases, you should receive medical assistance if possible. Transport to lower elevations is then imperative. At worst, altitude sickness can be life-threatening, causing your lungs to fill with fluid or your brain to swell.

The experts also pointed out that certain medications, such as acetazolamide and dexamethasone, can help prevent symptoms of altitude sickness. Both are available by prescription only.

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No More Taking Out the Trash at Your Airbnb

A general view of apartment and office buildings in Hanoi, Vietnam, 21 October 2026. EPA/LUONG THAI LINH
A general view of apartment and office buildings in Hanoi, Vietnam, 21 October 2026. EPA/LUONG THAI LINH
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No More Taking Out the Trash at Your Airbnb

A general view of apartment and office buildings in Hanoi, Vietnam, 21 October 2026. EPA/LUONG THAI LINH
A general view of apartment and office buildings in Hanoi, Vietnam, 21 October 2026. EPA/LUONG THAI LINH

The days of having to take out the trash or wash the dishes before leaving an Airbnb are numbered as the short-term rental platform is tightening rules on what conditions hosts may impose on guests.

"Our rules regarding accommodations allow travelers to receive guidelines from hosts; however, our community has let us know that they can be confusing, restrictive, and difficult to manage," Airbnb said Thursday to AFP.

New rules published this week that will apply to reservations made from November 20 will seek to reduce that confusion.

In particular the new rules will generally prohibit hosts from asking guests "to complete tasks that require significant effort or time, or would typically be performed by a cleaner, including stripping the bed, taking trash offsite, or washing and putting away dishes."

Hosts can still ask guests to put dirty dishes in the sink or separate trash and recyclables.

Hosts will also no longer be able to impose fines or penalties on guests, who instead must seek compensation for any damage from insurance provided through Airbnb.

Varieties

Champion-chip: Best Fries Contest Heats Up Belgium

Fries are a national passion in Belgium. Nicolas TUCAT / AFP
Fries are a national passion in Belgium. Nicolas TUCAT / AFP
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Champion-chip: Best Fries Contest Heats Up Belgium

Fries are a national passion in Belgium. Nicolas TUCAT / AFP
Fries are a national passion in Belgium. Nicolas TUCAT / AFP

Thick or thin, greasy or crispy, with samurai sauce or a more traditional mayo dip? A TV show has been on a quest to find the best fries in potato-mad Belgium.

For four years running "La meilleure friterie" (the best chip shop), a lighthearted culinary competition aired by broadcaster RTL-TVI, has been seeking out perfection among fry peddlers in the country's French-speaking region.

Watching it is a "sacred Thursday night ritual", said David Antoine, the host.

Crowning a winner among a dozen contestants is no picnic.

"There's sometimes friction among the judges, but we always find that famous Belgian compromise" over a portion of fries, Antoine told AFP in a joking reference to the country's penchant for lengthy political negotiations.

Fried potatoes are a national dish and symbol of pride in Belgium, home to about 4,600 diners specializing in the dish known as "friteries" in French or "frituren" in Flemish.

That number "has remained stable for many years," said Bernard Lefevre of the National Chip Shop Union, an industry group, noting the "market is doing well".

Each has its own flair.

To Lefevre, a good chip is preferably cut from a Belgian potato of the Bintje variety and double fried in beef fat. And size is paramount.

"Anything under nine millimeters is too thin and anything over fourteen is too thick," he explained.

- Hand-peeled 'gold' -

At Hill's Burger, a diner in Brussels, chef Massimo Sefa has gone for a "size twelve" -- that is "a two-millimeter crust and ten millimeters of creamy flesh", he said.

The 23-year-old smiled nervously when the TV show's judges entered his joint and the cameras started rolling.

But the stress is worth it, he explained. The broadcast will shine a spotlight on his friterie and a win would likely send sales skyrocketing.

Sefa opened up shop with his two younger brothers, Lorenzo and Marco. For them chips are a family matter: their grandfather ran about 10 chip shops in Brussels.

"Wow, delicious, crispy, and peeled by hand," Fabienne De Corte, one of the judges, raved upon tasting the goods.

"Fries in Belgium are our gold," added her husband Patrick De Corte, who is also on the judging panel.

"Every little detail makes a difference."

The show has a devout following, including some who tag along for filming sometimes dressed as fry cones and chanting "We've got the fries, we've got the potatoes!".

It has also had its share of controversies, particularly on the hot topic of sauces.

A technical glitch caused trouble during public voting in the first season and some grumbled the winner had bamboozled jurors with dazzling sauces, while the fries were not to everyone's taste.

Still the show has established itself in the French-speaking Belgian media landscape at a time where fries are sometimes changing along with Belgian society.

"There are halal, vegetarian, and vegan fry shops -- that's perfectly normal; society is evolving. We're not a museum of bygone folklore," Lefevre insists.

Varieties

Aging Japanese Village Turns to Peru in Search of New Residents

A general view of Nanmoku village, Gunma prefecture is seen on September 26, 2026. (Photo by Rie KIKUCHI / AFP)
A general view of Nanmoku village, Gunma prefecture is seen on September 26, 2026. (Photo by Rie KIKUCHI / AFP)
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Aging Japanese Village Turns to Peru in Search of New Residents

A general view of Nanmoku village, Gunma prefecture is seen on September 26, 2026. (Photo by Rie KIKUCHI / AFP)
A general view of Nanmoku village, Gunma prefecture is seen on September 26, 2026. (Photo by Rie KIKUCHI / AFP)

In a misty mountain village in Japan, residents recently welcomed unlikely guests from a Peruvian district along the Amazon River, seeing a chance to revive an aging community facing extinction.

The mayor of Belen and two young women visited a care home on their trip to Nanmoku, a village of just 1,300 people in Gunma Prefecture, greeting the elderly with broad smiles as some looked on slightly puzzled.

"From the moment I arrived, I began to admire everything about this place," 19-year-old student Wendy Sangama told AFP during a week-long tour of Japan that followed the signing of a sister-city agreement between her hometown and the village last year.

"And yes, it's a town where I could see myself living and settling down," she said.

The village is the oldest municipality in Japan, with 70 percent of its residents aged 65 or above. A 2014 think tank report described it as "most at risk of disappearing."

The main street along the Nanmoku River is lined with houses and shops, some abandoned, and appeared largely deserted on the rainy weekend AFP visited.

Village officials hope the sister-city agreement, which promotes cultural and people-to-people ties, will ultimately attract young people from Belen to live in Nanmoku, although how they might obtain residency remains unclear.

While Peru has the world's third-largest population of Nikkei -- Japanese immigrants and their descendants -- Nanmoku Mayor Saijo Hasegawa told AFP the pact was down less to strategy than to a chance meeting with a Japanese-Peruvian businessman.

The village needed "to broaden its horizons and attract more residents, including foreigners,” no matter where they came from, he said.

"Without them, we could reach a point where even public transportation stops operating."

Despite its rapidly aging population and labor shortages, opposition to immigration is growing within Japan, prompting a push by Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi for tighter regulations on foreign nationals.

Nanmoku has tried various initiatives to attract young people from elsewhere in the country, but employment opportunities remain scarce, and farmland is limited in the mountainous area.

"Around 60 people die each year here, and just two or three babies are born," Hasegawa said.

Belen, meanwhile, is young. The impoverished district of Iquitos, a remote Amazonian city in northeastern Peru, has a median age of about 27 years old.

Home to more than 60,000 residents, the "Venice of Latin America" -- accessible only by plane or boat -- is filled with wooden houses built on stilts to withstand seasonal flooding.

"I think the young people would be more enthusiastic about wanting to settle in other cities because of the economic situation we have," Mayor Lina Arista Lopez told AFP.

The district's residents rely largely on informal trade and agriculture, growing crops such as yuca, rice and corn.

"We have a harsh reality in Belen," Lopez said. "There is no work."

Ketsi Yahuarcani, a 23-year-old student, called the visit to Nanmoku "incredible,” citing the sense of warmth she felt.

"If I had the opportunity to settle here, I would," she said.

Sangama, the other student, said moving to the Japanese village could be "a better option" if it allowed them to build a brighter future and support their families back home.

Not being able to see her family regularly, however, would "certainly be a challenge", she conceded.

While municipalities near Nanmoku have accepted foreign workers, particularly caregivers, it has typically been via short-term programs for skilled workers and technical interns.

Mayor Hasegawa said his vision was different.

Rather than attracting people who stay only a few years for work, he hopes to welcome residents of Belen as fellow villagers ready to build long-term lives in Nanmoku.

"The approach of simply bringing in workers from an agency just because we're short-staffed isn't right for our village," he said.

Yuki Wanibuchi, 34, who moved to Nanmoku several years ago from the Kyoto area, said potential newcomers would face hurdles, including the language barrier.

"You cannot live here without a car, and getting a driver's license will require Japanese skills," Wanibuchi said.

"But personally, I think it's more interesting when people from different backgrounds come here to live."

Hiroshi Ihara, an 87-year-old villager, told AFP he had watched his community grow greyer and greyer, with young people, including his three children, moving to bigger cities to make a living.

"I want more younger people to come and live in the village," he said.

"The Japanese population is shrinking. I think it would be best if people from overseas could come here and do what they can to support us."