A recent study published in this month´s medical journal ´The Lancet´ shows that the bigger your lung size relative to your body size, the less likely you are to develop High Altitude Pulmonary Edema (HAPE). The researchers spent 3 months on the summit of Monta Rosa (4559m) in the Alps and tested 262 climbers for HAPE. They found that their theory about lung size was correct, but also that many of the climbers were suffering from sysmptons of the condition because they had ascended too quickly and were not properly acclimatised. The study concludes that: ´The risk of HAPE might not be confined to a small group of genetically susceptible people, but likely exists for most climbers if the rate of ascent and degree of physical effort are great enough, especially if lung size is normal or low.´ But then we knew that didn´t we? ( Source: OutdoorsMagic.com )