Mt Whitney Zone Forums General Discussion AMS chances

I have read that AMS can affect you even if it did not affect you previously at similar altitudes.
BUT...
I want to hear about the experiences of folks on this forum. if you were able to previously climb a 14er and were not affected by AMS under similar conditions, how likely are you to suffer from AMS on whitney?

I my case, I did Shasta about over a month ago and I had no trouble whatsoever. 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.

The fact that you have done another 14er with no problems is a good sign that you will be OK. Did you do Shasta in one push or spend the night to acclimate?

That being said, it is still possible for you to get altitude sickness. It really depends each individual person and if you go too high/too fast. If you are really worried, I would suggest talking to your doctor about Diamox.

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

I am staying in Mammoth lakes (roughly 8K elevation:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mammoth_Lakes,_California). Same as my staging area for Dana hike a while ago as well. I will also walk around a bit on the day before the hike at whitney portal.

I'm fairly active (work out 30 min a day 5-6 days a week). My bag is about 18 pounds. The weather will be ~65 at the base to ~42 at the top. So not too cold (don't know if it helps or hurts).

AMS IMO is 50/50 you can prepare by trying to acclimate a couple of days before. Obtain prescription pills.

I was fortunate and didn't suffer from AMS during my hike. I didn't acclimate or have prescription bills. A group of hikers I met the day of the hike obtained prescriptions pills and suffered from AMS.

I have run about 400 miles this calendar year and still am pretty sure I got the beginning stages of AMS. Most will tell you your level of fitness has nothing to do with it.

I AM susceptible to mountain sickness, so I worked REALLY hard on hydration and nutrition on the way up, and even days before the trip. At the summit, some experienced hikers taught be about paying attention to your breathing, taking lots of rapid shallow breaths when I started to feel head pressure etc. This could be nonsense, but it seemed to help.

Never heard the breathign thing before. Pressure breathing, yes but for shortness of breath.
People have all kinds of weird theories about AMS. Nutritiion and hydration can be factors in severity of AMS symptoms, but only acclimation and preventive diamox (and that is only a definite maybe) have really been shown to work.

I am susceptible to AMS, and although this may not be directly applicable to a Whitney day hike, it shows what can happen:

Thu: drive in, sleep at 10k Horseshoe Meadows
Fri: 10k - 11.6k, sleep at 11.6k
Sat: 14k - 10.8k - 11.5k  (puked that night.)
Sun: 11.5k - 12.6 - 10k 
Mon: 10k -  9.5k - 11.5k
Tue: hike out: 11.5 - 13.3 - 8.3

I was not hungry at all during my 5 days on the trail, after the first day. On the second night, I forced myself to eat a Mountain House Mexican Rice with Chicken dinner, and just after the last bite, I stood up and lost EVERYTHING! Felt better afterwards, though.

I ate so little on the hike that I didn't need to dig a cat hole the last three days.

I was taking 125 mg Diamox, and sometimes half (2x per day) that for the first 3 days. I only had a light headache once in a while. Fingers tingled several mornings. But I am pretty sure my exhaustion from hiking/climbing too much each day contributed to my AMS issues.

I’m one of the lucky ones. I took a little Diamox for mild Cheyne-Stokes breathing above 14,700 on Denali 21 years ago. Otherwise, I’ve never had any symptoms. No problems on over 250 14er summits.

From the lucky dude that lives at 4,500' elevation. If AMS is an issue of how high you go compared to where you reside, that renders a level of acclimatization that makes going to a 14er for you like going to a 10k peak for me.

Thanks for all the replies. I successfully sumitted Whitney this past Saturday with little to no AMS issues.
Here's is how it went.

Thursday night: Drive from SF Bay area (sea level) to Mammoth Lakes(8K ft) via Tioga Pass in Yosemite. Stopped by for an hour for (packed) dinner near east entrance(10K ft). Stayed overnight in Mammoth Lakes.

Friday morning: Drive to Lone Pine to collect my permit.

Friday afternoon: Lunch at Whitney portal. Then hike up the trail till 9k ft to check it out. Drove back to Independence (45 min from portal) to stay in a hotel.

Friday evening: Wanted to sleep for 5-6 hours. But could only sleep for 2.5 hours. Got up, got my backpack ready and had a light dinner.

Saturday 12:15 am: Started driving to Whitney portal.
1:15 am: Started the hike.
5:50 - 6:35 am: Break at trail camp
9 - 9:30 am: Break at Trail Crest
11:10 am: Arrived at Summit

12:10 pm: Headed back down
6:25 pm: Arrived at Portal

Total Ascent time(including breaks): 9:55
Total Descent time: 6:15


I attribute the relative slowness (I expected to be faster than this) to
1. Lack of sleep
2. Reduced food intake ( I only consumer about 2100 calories instead of the 4000 I was carrying)
2. Longer breaks than expected - I was chitchatting with fellow hikers

AMS was not an issue (then again may be the breaks helped). The only issue that can relate to AMS is that I noticed I had a small nosebleed after climbing all the way down.

All in all, brutal but good hike.

Glad to hear that you had no issues. For anyone else reading this, I have found that a steady dose of ibuprofen works for me.

I had encountered early AMS symptoms on the two shorter peaks in the 3 Saints last year, but didn't know I had. On Mt. Baldy (San Antonio), we weren't up there long enough for me to know that's what I was starting to feel (plus it was my toughest hike to date, it was raining/hailing, etc., lots of things to distract). On Mt. San Jacinto, I had mild motion sickness from the car ride up before I even started, so I didn't notice the subtle change when we got close to the summit.

Mt. San Gorgonio is where I got bit. I had hydrated plenty, slept enough, ate enough, and drove myself (so no car sickness). Between 9500' and 10K' is where I started to feel nauseous, dizzy, and faint. I would rest, do about 10-20 steps, and have to rest again. I had prepared by bringing ibuprofen, and after taking just a single 200mg dose and resting for 20 minutes, I was fine the rest of the hike.

So when it came to Whitney last year, I figured I better just dose up ahead of time. I took a single 200mg pill every 3 to 3.5 hours (so the effects didn't wear off) starting at the trailhead at 4AM. However, the last dose I took was around 10:30, and we came off the summit around 1:45. For some reason I didn't think I needed anymore ibuprofen since we were descending, but boy was I wrong. I got very dizzy and temporarily blacked out twice on the ridge trail, and both times all I thought was "fall left", so I didn't fall off the trail. (Banged up my left arm/elbow pretty bad on the rocks, as a result.) I was not hungry the entire rest of the way down (we finished at 6:45PM), but I forced myself to have a bar along the way. Even at dinner at 9 or 9:30 that evening, I barely ate a few ounces of food, and didn't get back my appetite until the next morning.

I'm between 135 and 140 lbs, 39 years old next month, and I rarely take ibuprofen for anything - your dosage requirements may vary. I am also fairly active besides hiking (playing soccer twice a week), and I tend to metabolize quickly (anesthetics wear off before they "should"). I live in Los Angeles so get no altitude benefits. I have heard aspirin also helps in case you have a tolerance to ibuprofen.

Side note about acclimatization. I read a lot about this in preparing last year, and bottom line is that it takes between 24 and 48 hours to get a meaningful benefit from it. In other words, even sleeping in Horseshoe Meadows the night before probably doesn't do you much good. In fact, if you don't sleep well, the lack of sleep will have more of a detrimental effect.

Regarding Diamox - I have heard more bad things about it than good. When the side effects are as bad as what you are trying to prevent (or worse), best to avoid. Side effects could include dizziness, blurred vision, drowsiness, and upset stomach. Plus, it's a diuretic, which you don't want when you're trying to stay hydrated.