It’s Everest climbing season again, and as I speak several teams are attempting the summit. High altitude climbs fascinate me and I was wondering if any dopers have climbed above 25,000 ft.
Jon Krakauer, in his excellent book Into Thin Air, (Which chronicled the 1996 disaster on Everest in which several climbers died) describes the “death zone” as somewhere around 25,000 ft., where lack of oxygen, even when using masks basically makes one a zombie so to speak. Not to mention various flavors of altitude sickness.
With the great diversity of Dopers here, anyone climbed that high? If not, how high?
I am aware that several people have summited Everest and other high peaks without oxygen, which blows my mind. (pun intended)
My personal milestone is Sandia Peak near Albuquerque, an astounding 10,670 ft, which I barely did without oxygen, but was helped with Camel lights and Budweiser. I rode the tram
Doper high climbers, tell your story.
Note: I would like to avoid arguments regarding Krakauer’s version of the disaster compared to other participants.
Not even close. I’ve done several Colorado 14’ers (Evans, Long’s, Bierstadt) and I came to the conclusion that climbing is painful. And this is at a lower elevation than Everest Base Camp!
I am hugely impressed by those that can climb at those altitudes, but it is not for me.
Do you really feel short of breath that high? I’m a long-time Easterner, and so never have gotten past 6K, but when I do reach that level, my lungs feel fine. Just, when I start to exercise, its my HEART that feels like its gonna burst: it starts beating a lot faster than it seems it should relative to the exercise I’m doing.
But I dont feel out of breath. Does anyone else recognize the heart-rate phenomenon?
I’ve gone over peaks at 16,000 feet in Tibet and was sucking some serious wind. Holy bat crap, I felt almost paralyzed, and that’s just up a peak and back down.
Hey, there is a test you can do to check altitude. IIRC it’s 15,000 feet. You put your hand in the shade and arm in the sun. You hand will go numb from cold in about 10 minutes while your arm will sunburn. Neat trick huh?
I once went from about 6,000 feet to probably 12,000 feet. As I layed down in my sleeping bag that night, my heart rate was 120 bpm as opposed to the normal 60 bpm. When I woke up in the morning it was down to 90 bpm. That’s the day I did 16,000 feet up a buddhist holy mountain.
I can not imagine going up real high, especially death zone high. Of course, you acclimize over time. Some people are much better at higher altitude than others and it has nothing to do with fitness. Tibetans for example are very good up high, no wonder considering that’s what they’ve done for thousands of years.
Here’s what altitude sickness feels like. You walk 10 feet, head spinning and feel like throwing up and passing out. OR you say about 3 words, pause, then keep pausing, then finally say 3 more words to finish your sentence while panting for breath. Then you want to throw up and pass out. Enjoy
When climbing (not technical, mostly climbing over rocks) I was very short of breath, having to stop every 50 feet or so. On flat stretches (there is a big one between Evans and Bierstatdt) I was fine, not too much different from normal.
As for the heartrate, yes it feels like it is pumping out of your chest. At one time I could hear a rythmic whooshing sound that would not go away. I really thought I was hallucinating until I finally realized that I was hearing the blood pump through my temples. I put my fingers on my temples and sure enough, it matched the rythym of the sounds I was hearing.
You are more of a man than most of us. Most people start to see an effect starting at 8-10K feet. Myself, I climb a lot in colorado and can tell when I get above 9K. Very hard to breath at 14K. When climbing uphill (after 2 weeks acclimation, and I am in good shape), a step, beath, step, breath … Of course I live at elev 80. Yes 80.00.
Good point, much easier to go uphill on a chairlift than on your feet with 75 pounds on your back. BTW, I have seen several people x-country ski to the top of 14K peaks in colorado. Worse yet, they the ski back down. More man than I.
My last trek in Nepal was the Annapurna circuit. I started walking at Besisahar at about 2493 feet ASL. The high point of the trek (and, indeed, the high point of my life) was the Thorung La pass at 17,768 feet ASL. I have no desire to ever walk higher than that.
I started getting mild symptoms of AMS (“acute mountain sickness”) while sleeping at Letdar at about 13,900 feet ASL. I went on Diamox at that point and had absolutely no problems with AMS going over the pass. Oddly, the previous fall I had slept considerably higher in the Everest region with no AMS symptoms at all. I wonder if the colder weather (my water bottle would freeze up overnight in Letdar) during the Annapurna trek may have made me more susceptible to AMS.
Just to explain, “Diamox” is the trade name for the drug acetazolamide. More information about Diamox and it’s use in treating AMS is available here, http://www.thebmc.co.uk/world/mm/mm3.htm
