Altitude discussions can go on forever. I'm not going to get into any endless debates, but here are a few quick points from an old guy with 242 summits above 14K (including Denali):
Don't let anyone tell you that you don't need to eat while climbing. Eat a little bit often, rather than a lot all at once. Eat what you like, but take it easy on the fat. Digesting fat takes a lot of oxygen that you probably can't spare.
Conditioning and acclimatization are better than drugs, but some people need a little help. If you expect trouble, start Diamox a day or two before you start up. If you consider AMS to be a possibility, rather than a probability, you might want to bring Diamox and see whether you can do without it. Diamox DOES work when you wait until the onset of symptoms, and that's how everyone used it 15+ years ago.
"Climb high, sleep low" is a slogan we hear all the time. It applies to climbing big mountains expedition-style. You spend one or more days carrying loads to a higher camp, sleep at a lower camp, and finally move yourself and the last of your gear to the higher camp. Repeat until you're high enough to tag the summit and return to camp (or lower) in one day.
Some people like to chant "climb high, sleep low" without understanding it. The best acclimatization hike is one that takes you as high as possible without exhausting you or making you sick. What many people don't understand is that the best sleeping altitude is the highest altitude at which you don't get symptoms. You will always be able to climb higher than you can sleep, but BOTH should be as high as you can comfortably tolerate.
Edit: I somehow miss-read the timberlinetrails.net article that I commented on. It wasn't backwards at all, so I deleted that paragraph. Sorry for the "senior moment."
Last edited by bobpickering; 01/24/11 02:41 PM.
