Has anyone been up to the Alps or high up in the mountains wearing their pump (specifically the tslim)? I’m going travelling soon and getting really nervous that my pump will just alarm like crazy up at the summit. I’m beginning to think this is a bad idea - me going up.
You’ll be fine. Don’t stress it. I live in Colorado and have played in the surrounding 14,000+ ft mountains often. That’s a little shy of the Alps, but not much.
The volume of fluid doesn’t change under pressure the same way air does, so it won’t affect anything.
You might get an altitude alarm when you’re first going up to the higher altitude, though. I get them a lot driving around here, because we’re constantly going up and down. The pump doesn’t like it when the air pressure inside the cartridge is different than the air pressure outside the cartridge. But that’s like a 2 second fix. All you have to do is pop the cartridge out so it can breathe momentarily, then pop it back in. You don’t have to go through the load process or anything like that. Just make sure you have a coin or something handy to dislodge the cartridge when/if you do get that alarm.
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Plenty of people fly at much higher altitudes than you get in the mountains. Don’t have to do anything special there. It seems it would be fine.
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However, high altitudes may affect your need for insulin. I found that I needed less insulin when I was at higher altitudes. That is easy to adjust on a pump.
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Thank you so much. Thats reassuring. After popping it back in, how soon will it alarm again if i’m still at that altitude?
I wasn’t looking forward to it beeping every 3 minutes and being a nuisance to everyone to almost deciding not to go.
Isn’t flying a bit different, the cabin is pressurise so you won’t experience this as much?
Yes, cabin pressure is typically maintained in a pressurized commercial airplane around 5,000- 8,000 ft., depending on the aircraft and other circumstances.
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Possibly never. It only happens with big altitude changes in a relatively short amount of time. I mostly only see them while driving. Like, I live at 7,000 ft, but a day trip around here could easily take me down to 3,000 and up to 13,000 in the same drive. I don’t always get them, but I may get 1 each direction, going up and again coming down.
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Ok thanks. Wow so much elevation.
Thanks for the reassurance.
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Are you gonna get the drugs for altitude sickness? Are you susceptible to that? Be aware that any high sugars could dehydrate you and make you more susceptible.
I do fine in CO, but I need the drugs in Taos, NM.
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I agree with all the responses and comments you’ve already received.
I learned this early in my diabetes career. Camping in the Idaho mountains while on MDI made me wonder if I needed any insulin! I had no CGM (1984) but the fingerstck meter saved me several times.
In the last 10 years I visited several times the Mauna Kea, Hawaii, mountaintop at just under 14k feet. And that was from sea level within a several hour car ride. I had no problems due to altitude with my Medtronic DIY Loop setup. The CGM data stream was comforting!
Enjoy your adventure!
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Thank you for calling this out. I haven’t had issues with altitude sickness in the past but then again I go up mountains once in a very blue moon. But this was on my mind also.
I get motion sickness sometimes so I think I’ll just be prepared with altitude sickness as well. Probably the same meds .
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I would recommend to always carry syringes (or pens) and extra insulin in all cases, regardless of elevation. A pump can fail for many reasons.
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I frequently have more tandem pump challenges when going to high elevations in Colorado above 9000 ft. I remember a Tandem support person telling me that the pump determines the amount of insulin delivered by the change in the insulin chamber pressure. Please look at the pump specs – from the tslim users guide – shown below.
Atmospheric Pressure: 700 hPa to 1060 hPa (equivalent from sea level up to 10,000 ft.)
** In extreme pressure environments, delivery accuracy may vary up to ±15%. Extreme pressure environments include any rapid elevation change of 1,000 ft.*
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Hypothetically, if it does play up and I can’t get it to stop alarming, can I choose to suspend delivery to stop it alarming every three minutes. I vaguely recall suspending delivery will buy me an hour before it alarms again.
I will have a back up pen with me, but I don’t want to annoy the hell out of everyone and have my stress level hit the roof because of the attention the alarms will attract.
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Whoa. This is false. I live and play in those Colorado mountains. I would be totally screwed if the pump malfunctioned above 10,000 feet. IT DOES NOT. Rapid changes in attitude MIGHT yield an altitude alarm, but all you do is pop the cartridge out, immediately reseat the cartridge again, and hit “okay” on the pump, and then you’re back in business.
The manual says this:
Your pump detected a pressure difference between inside the cartridge and the surrounding air within the validated operating range of -1,300 feet to 10,000 feet (-396 meters to 3,048 meters) and all deliveries have stopped.
All that means is that -1,300 to 10,000 feet were the testing parameters. Given that Denver, Co is considered the definition of “high altitude” in the US, at only 5,280 ft, I’m sure someone figured 10,000 feet was an unlikely extreme. But it doesn’t mean the pump self-destructs above 10,000ft. There are plenty of who can give testimony to high altitude performance. I know two other T1s living out here who are also on the T-slim with no issue.
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I have done lots of high-adventuring with my TSlim pump. This kind of forum helps you plan & having a PLAN is key! Last year I ran the rapids for six days on the Salmon River in backcountry Idaho. The guides had my back-up insulin in their boats that are extremely hard to flip. I kept my pump in a waterproof bag (with me) and had easily accessible sugar. I put the pump back on when we stopped for breaks on dry land. My BGs were fine because I was exercising a lot while on the raft. – Don’t let diabetes keep you from doing fun things. 
YOU CAN DO THIS! 
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@LWithrow Thank you for your encouragement. I missed this post until now😅.
@Robyn_H do you remember whether you can silence the altitude alarm using vibrate mode? I was talking to tandem office here and they said the only alarms you can’t silence are the ones if you go low. For altitude, you can turn on vibrate and it won’t alarm. I’m a bit skeptical of this advice since the altitude alarm will suspend insulin. I would think it will alert and make a racket until you fix the issue.
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