 Put it this way, your body knows it can survive without your fingers, toes, or even your hands and feet, but it's a different story for your heart and lungs. In the end, frostbite amounted to getting away lightly. She was at risk of so much more. Hypothermia. Altitude sickness. Exhaustion. Acute mountain sickness. High-altitude pulmonary edema. High-altitude cerebral edema.