There were guests from almost everywhere the other night in our house for dinner. Twenty-eight in all, and the following afternoon we had our regular open house tea from 3 to 5 in the afternoon. That were probably another 50 people or so.

As near as I could figure out they came from 23 different parts of the world on 23 different airlines carrying at least a dozen strong and highly infectious microbes with them.

For example, one couple had traveled halfway around the world from western Australia on the Indian Ocean. Only the stronger of anything can survive that trip, especially since it took them a long trip to eastern Australia then a 14-hour flight to San Francisco and another flight to Bozeman, Mont. I figured that they had at least 10 gazillion different microbes waiting to jump aboard anyone from Montana as soon as they were within breathing distance.

The guests came from Florida, Venezuela, China, Texas, Boston, Alaska, California, Seattle, the heat of Palm Springs, and Mexico, too.

If I thought that the guests were all having a grand old time, imagine how the microbes were doing. Those infectious germs met all kinds of new friends and as they do in their society, instantly started propagating just for the fun of it and leaving all manner of breathing problems behind them.

Everyone who lives full time at 7,000 or more feet above sea level is wide open for these bugs.

I remember when the site for Sun Valley, Idaho, was selected in 1935, Von Gottschalk said, “You should not have to sleep above 6,000 feet because of potential resperatory and pulmonary problems.”

A lot of people complain when they first try and sleep above that magic altitude. They have trouble breathing. That's because of the lack of oxygen. It can be avoided if you take two aspirin a day for three days before you go to altitude and for three days after you get there. This is enough to thin out your blood so that it can get more oxygen from your lungs.

This is something I have been doing for years and have been able to get a lot of sleep the first night at altitude. I think it also helps fight off those 10,000 different bugs and stuff that were floating around in our living room for those evenings.

Unfortunately, my wife was not so lucky because she never stops working to sit down and rest or take a nap like I do. I figure if it has waited my entire life without being done, whatever it is can wait another hour or two to get done. I know it drives my wife crazy, but I did not have to spend a week in bed playing hostess to a 143 different kinds of bugs from 87 different locations that she inhaled at our two parties.

If you cannot handle aspirin for any reason, there is an even better way to get used to the altitude, and you have a couple of options. Try windsurfing or just plain surfing instead at sea level. Or if you are going to altitude, have your doctor give you a prescription for Diamox. That is what I use because I am taking Coumadin, and aspirin has a very negative effect with it. If you take Diamox for three days before and three days after you go to a ski resort you will not have any problem breathing.

That first morning when the sun is out and the snow is perfect, you will have had a good night's sleep and can crank out 15 or 20 ski lift rides with no problem. That is, of course, if you did your exercises before your trip.

All of these microbes and germs and stuff I talked about earlier seem to really thrive in the warmth of a mountain house, and they would sure rather jump from the person who carried them all of the way from Australia to you than to go outside tomorrow and have to hunker down while being carried around by someone skiing or snowboarding.

Imagine for a moment if you were an Australian germ that had traveled halfway around the world to Montana. First off, you would probably talk with a funny accent, so any other germs you get up with would be a little taken back and based on the macho reputations of Australians, would want you to prove how strong you were. The best way for you, the germ, to prove your strength is to infect as many people as you can in as short a time as possible.

I don't know whether or not my wife was ravaged by Australian, Japanese, Chinese, French or Czechoslovakian germs, but she has been flat on her back for the last week.

The only way I have been able to fight the germ invasion is after every evening with people and lots of hand shaking, I wash my hands thoroughly and then take a cup of hot water with a product called Airborne dissolved in it.

So far this winter I have been able to dodge the many germs that have some my way. If it is a potentially bad night with lots of people in a crowded room, I drink the Airborne, followed by a glass of water with a dose of Alka-Seltzer Plus in it.

So far it has worked for me. What works for you?

Filmmaker Warren Miller lived in Vail for 12 years, and his column began in the Vail Daily before being syndicated to over 50 publications. For more of Miller's stories and stuff log onto Warren Miller.net. For information about his foundation, The Warren Miller Freedom Foundation, go to www.warrenmiller.org.