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Prepping for high altitudes

Anonymous Sun 31 Mar 2013 18:04:22 No.64837 View View Reply Original Report

Fellow sc/out/s, how would I go about preparing for living thousands of feet above sea level? I'm planning to spend time in La Paz in may but have never spent time above 8,000 ft (and this particular city is around 13,000 ft). Aside from getting my doctor to prescribe drugs for me what else can I do in the meantime? I've heard altitude sickness effects people irrespective of their fitness and age, but there must be something I can do to make life above 10,000 ft easier.

Anonymous

Anonymous Sun 31 Mar 2013 18:19:44 No.64870 Report

Quoted By: >>64889

Being born there helps.
Adjustment to altitude works in 3 ways:
>genetics
>early development
>temporary adaptation

For the first 2, it's too late. So all you can do is adjust gradually (The general rule is 1000 feet ascent max per day once you're above 9000).
Don't exert yourself in that time, you're body is already working at peak performance to produce blood cells.
Drink and eat lots. If you experience symptoms of altitude sickness, get to a doctor in the valley.

Anonymous

Anonymous Sun 31 Mar 2013 18:25:17 No.64879 Report

Quoted By:

>>64837
Build an altitude chamber and sleep there.

http://www.ehow.com/how_7944370_homemade-altitude-chamber.html

Anonymous

Anonymous Sun 31 Mar 2013 18:26:55 No.64880 Report

Quoted By: >>64889

>>64837
If you're going to be living there, you don't have to prepare for it. Just take it easy the first week you're there, and after that, you'll be prolly 80% acclimated. Otherwise, I'd recommend aerobic exercises like jogging.

Anonymous

Anonymous Sun 31 Mar 2013 18:30:44 No.64889 Report

Quoted By: >>64891 >>64899 >>66215

>>64870

The only issue is that when one flys to La Paz they start at sea level and end 12,000-ish ft in the matter of a few hours. I'm not going to be doing any climbing, hiking, or trekking but that's still a change at a fast rate.

>>64880

I back pack a lot in the US but with school things have been slow, I'm trying to get at least one hike in per week to keep my endurance up

Anonymous

Anonymous Sun 31 Mar 2013 18:32:49 No.64891 Report

Quoted By:

>>64889
>I'm not going to be doing any climbing, hiking, or trekking but that's still a change at a fast rate.
Then I wouldn't worry about it. You WILL get headaches if you try to exercise too much at that altitude, you may not have the same appetite and thirst you had before, and you most likely will have trouble sleeping for the first week, but if you take it easy, you shouldn't have any major problems.

Anonymous

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Anonymous Sun 31 Mar 2013 18:35:32 No.64896 Report

Quoted By:

Cities above 10,000 feet amaze me. In Nepal, they have urban centers at higher altitudes than the tallest peaks in the lower 48.

Anonymous

Anonymous Sun 31 Mar 2013 18:38:23 No.64899 Report

Quoted By:

>>64889
Well, then take it very easy in the first week.
Enjoy your sleepless nights, lack of appetite and locals making fun of you. Altitude changes suck as much as jet lag.

Mule

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Mule Sun 31 Mar 2013 19:03:05 No.64938 Report

Quoted By: >>64962

Spend the first day or two relaxing at the higher elevation. Acclimation goes a long way.

Also, water. Drink lots of it. Dehydration is what makes altitude sickness dangerous.

I've always lived at higher elevations (house right now is 5200, used to live at 7200). I start to feel the elevation now when I get up to 11k, and it starts noticeably affecting my performance at 12k.

Spent this weekend at 8k, then rode snowmobiles up to 12k. Hiking around in the snow up there I certainly felt the lack of O2.

Did a photo shoot with a camera crew of 6 based out of Chicago a few years ago. They flew into Denver from Atlanta, then I met them at a McDonalds on the highway and we went up into the mountains.... 14k ft pass first, shoot some photos there, then over to another pass at 11k.
Two of them were obviously not feeling well on the first 14k ft pass, just hiking around near the parking lot. Wouldn't admit it to me, but I ended up playing first-responder with them and had them relax at the cars and drink water. They just wanted to go-go-go-go...
Pic related.

Anonymous

Anonymous Sun 31 Mar 2013 19:13:18 No.64962 Report

Quoted By:

>>64938
I've climbed mountains with marathon runners who live at 600 feet, and some of them just push themselves within inches of death (my dad got pneumonia climbing mt. ranier because he couldn't pace himself and didn't understand the effects of elevation on his body), and some of them just give up halfway through because of extreme headaches.

Anonymous

Anonymous Sun 31 Mar 2013 19:20:29 No.64972 Report

Quoted By: >>64985

The mountain sherpas I heard have actually evolved and have much larger lung capacity.

Not much you can do except take the advice ITT, lots of water, take it easy.

Take some oxygen if you are really freaked out, Mt Everest and other popular climbing destinations have huge dumps of oxygen bottles everywhere starting at about 12k feet.

Mule

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Mule Sun 31 Mar 2013 19:25:47 No.64985 Report

Quoted By: >>65189

>>64972
If you need supplemental O2 at 12k ft, you're doing something very wrong.

The 14k+-ft peaks up here that have staffed ranger/research stations on them almost always have O2 available if medically needed - because people are fucking dumb.

If you have any idea about what you're getting yourself into, 14k shouldn't require too much effort.

Pic at 11,910 ft. Hiked up here from where we stuck the sleds (snow was sugary and wind-blown, hesitated and let off the throttle as I got into the rocks). Take it easy and know your limits.

Anonymous

Anonymous Sun 31 Mar 2013 20:02:55 No.65060 Report

Quoted By:

blood dopamine. Aka inject more erythrocites into your bloodstream. gon' do you wonders mayne

Anonymous

Anonymous Sun 31 Mar 2013 20:37:14 No.65131 Report

Quoted By:

>>64837
Bring lots of Excedrin and water it will get you no matter what.

I went from sea level to 15000 feet. Altitude sickness hit me for a night and I was fine.

However, get your lung capacity up. I remember that first week, when I was climbing stairs, it was like I was 600pounds. After that, I was fine as long as I wasn't exercising. It was quite embarrassing when a 15 year old girl could run circles around you...

Anonymous

Anonymous Sun 31 Mar 2013 20:41:13 No.65142 Report

Quoted By:

Thanks for the comments so far everyone. I do a decent amount of hiking and have no issue deep breathing from the meditation I do, but if there are any other suggestions for increasing lung capacity I'm all ears.

Anonymous

Anonymous Sun 31 Mar 2013 21:00:27 No.65189 Report

Quoted By: >>66218

>>64985
>If you need supplemental O2 at 12k ft, you're doing something very wrong.
The amount of people huffing oxygen I saw a couple summers ago when I climbed Mt. Fuji (a 12k-and-some-change peak) was staggering. IMO, if you're bringing O2 to climb anything short of McKinley, you're just doing it for fun.

Anonymous

Anonymous Mon 01 Apr 2013 06:43:00 No.66215 Report

Quoted By:

>>64889
The morning after you get there you will feel like you went binge drinking. Hydrate, hydrate, hydrate. To adjust to the altitude your body will start increasing the amount of blood in your system, and you need water for all that metabolizing.

Anonymous

Anonymous Mon 01 Apr 2013 06:45:29 No.66218 Report

Quoted By:

>>65189
You don't need bottled gas for Mckinley. You don't need bottled gas for anything 7,000 m and below

Anonymous

Anonymous Mon 01 Apr 2013 06:53:47 No.66224 Report

Quoted By:

A friend of mine climbed some South American 20000 foot mountain totally unprepared and had no problems cause she was chewing on coca leaves the whole time.
OP, get some coca for the first day or so.

Anonymous

Anonymous Mon 01 Apr 2013 07:36:15 No.66260 Report

Quoted By:

i don't think 13k is a big deal
i've been to telescope peak which is at like 11.9k, the altitude wasn't really even a problem. i had never been above 9.4k before that, and i didn't camp at a high altitude. it was just a dayhike.
it is a bit of an interesting feeling, it's like every breath you take just seems to work less well. i think some people tend to get bad headaches but i don't think it's particularly dangerous unless you get above 14k or you have underlying health issues. i didn't notice any of the dehydration issues everyone else here is talking about because i was drinking a shitload of water anyway; the air at telescope peak was so dry it felt like water was sublimating from my lips fast enough to feel it.

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