I have read that AMS can affect you even if it did not affect you previously at similar altitudes.
BUT...
Wondering about my chances of getting AMS on Whitney. I will be spending a night at 8K and then a day at lone pine before starting the climb.
Did you mean lone pine lake? Lone pine itself will do you no good acclimatization wise.
Like the book says, it is unpredictable. I have had AMS bad enough to descend from places ranging from 8000 ft in Mammoth to 19000 ft in the. Andes. The former was on day 2, the latter day 9 but each affected not by just height but workload and weather. Some studies report that people who go to 14000 foot dayhikes with no or only one day acclimatization have about 40. % chance of some degree of AMS. When I went to 15,000 ft Toluca with Richard P just 24 hrs after leaving sealevel, I stopped at 15000 but the others went to top at 15500 just fine. Longer acclimatization is best . Some need 1 day, others 1 week. Diamox, for all the talk, is a very weak help. If actually FDA tested for this use ( instead of glaucoma) it might have trouble being approved
