I'm not a published researcher in the field of altitude biology or hypoxia. I'm not a physician with expertise in the treatment of altitude illness. So why am I writing this book? Frankly, the challenge of writing a scientifically rigorous but accessible book appealed to me. It was my lot to end up an educator rather than a researcher and I tried to apply the approaches that have worked in the classroom in this book.

As an 'outsider,' I've been able to approach this project with no preconceptions and no personal history with those who did the actual research that I discuss. If you think about it I have nothing to lose, professionally speaking, by expressing my personal opinions. I've done so, and I hope you'll let me know where you disagree with me.

My goal was to write a text that could be used as a secondary text in undergraduate courses or used as a stand-alone resource by the layperson. I've assumed little scientific background but sometimes discuss quite difficult topics. We'll see how this works!

This fall, I will post copies of the graphics files of the figures used in the book. I will make these freely available for use, even if you don't use the book in class.

Here's pdf file of the Literature Cited.

For desk copies, contact Falcon. They don't handle many textbooks, so if you have any problems let me know.