Mt. Whitney Portal Store & Hostel Forums General Mt. Whitney Portal Store Message Board Acclimatization Plan???

Hello, I have been a member for a little while now but this is my first post. We entered the Lottery and will be hiking July 12th!! I am so excited but have a lot of research to do before hike day. I have read the Orientation notes and they were very helpful... and the post about Acclimating without camping... But still have a question and am looking for some suggestions as well. I really do not want to camp... I am not a big camper... but am a little worried about acclimation because of it. We are planning on staying in lone pine... We will be arriving on a Thursday... so we have Friday and Saturday for day hikes before our big hike on Sunday. My question is to you think that even though we are not sleeping at a certain altitude do you feel that the 2 day hikes will give us as good shot at Acclimating??? Or shoud I suck it up and just camp :-( I am from Mo and there is no way to prepare for high altitudes here so we are at a disadvantage.

Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated....

Also... if anyone has any ideas on what hikes are better for acclimation the days before Mt. Whitney I would love some ideas!

Thanks in Advance!
Brandy

Small dayhikes and sleeping in town at the hostel would be a great plan. You get the benifits of hiking in altitude to acclimate and also sleeping in comfort - a good formula leading into your big hike.

Enjoy !!!!!

Thanks... We are actually planning on staying at the Hostel. I called in reservations yesterday! I am very excited but a little nervous about not sleeping at altitude...

Thanks again,
Brandy

If you are not used to sleeping at altitude, you probably would not sleep anyway. Better to sleep and get the benefits of rest.
Climb high - sleep low

You can have your cake and eat it too.

There are places to stay at over 9,000 ft. elevation that offer all the creature comforts you crave. Mammoth Mt. Inn is at 9,000, and there are cabins / lodges at Rock Creek (up the road from Tom's Place), as well as Parcher's resort and Bishop Creek resort up around South Lake (up the road from Bishop) that are all a bit higher than that. Also: Tioga Pass lodge is a ways further, but even higher.

Not everyone has trouble at high elevations, but you'll greatly increase your odds of a successful stroll up Whitney if you can stay higher up than Lone Pine for 2 - 3 days beforehand.

Brandy,
Obviously, the more time you spend at altitude the better. There are those who say that sleeping at altitude is especially beneficial. I don't know if that is true but it seems reasonable to me. Since you're coming from Missouri I would suggest you rent an SUV and sleep in it at Cottonwood Lakes trailhead. It's 10,000 feet that you can drive to and the hiking is easy for a pre-Whitney excursion. It's beautiful to boot. Anyway that's one way to get some acclimatization without really camping. Most people who have altitude problems have them at the 10 to 12,000 foot area so you should be able to tell something from a night or two at Cottonwood.

Yes, I have considered these options... but money is a concern. I am just trying to figure out if saving money is worth the risk... We just adopted 2 little ones and with the economy the way it is I am trying to save as much as possible... We are coming from Missouri so we already have air fair and car rental...

Brandy

Hi Brandy. There is no one answer to your question, because different people react to altitude differently. When my wife and I climbed our first fourteener, I huffed and puffed in the thin air while my wife was not phased at all.

I would play it safe and sleep at the higher altitude. The day hikes will help you, but sleeping higher will likely also help. You don't want to fly all the way from Missouri,spend all of that money, and not summit.

Different people tolerate altitude differently. I've been up Denali with minimal effects. A friend of mine, who is younger and a better athlete than I am, had trouble on Whitney, even though he lives at 4,500 feet and spent a night at Whitney Portal and another night at Iceberg Lake to acclimatize.

Spending one or two nights as high as possible before a Whitney day hike will increase your chances of success. I would suck it up and camp high at least one night.

When I climbed Denali in 1995, many people used Diamox (Acetazolamide), a prescription drug, to help acclimatize. I don't know whether that's still considered a good idea, but you might look into it.

Hi Brandy, it sounds like you are planning a 1 day attempt on July 12? If so, you pretty much need to sleep at the portal the night before to get the required early start. I would recommend that regardless of what you do Thursday and Friday nights. Otherwise you will spend the better part of an hour driving up to the trailhead, and every minute counts when you attempt Whitney in 1 day.

I'd do a search on Diamox...

That's a long way to come for a climb of Whitney and unless you're one of the lucky ones who doesn't seem to be affected, two days is only going to help a little.

The trailhead is 13 miles. I allow 1/2 hour to drive up - which easily offsets the time of folding up sleeping bag and getting cold achey bones moving.

Hi Brandy,

The general rule is climb high, sleep low. As others have mentioned, you could also sleep high in lodging, the Motel 6 in Mammoth, for instance.

If you want to stay in Lone Pine, you can go on very nice dayhikes out of Horseshoe Meadows. The PCT will take you to some wonderful spots from there. You can also dayhike from the Portal to Lone Pine Lake without a permit and hang out up there, have a picnic or whatever. Just hanging out at the Portal will also work.

You don't need to sleep at the Portal to get an early start. Just set the alarm for 2 am, make coffee in the room and scarf something down.

You have a good plan, a couple of days at altitude will have you ready for the Big Hike. Have fun, it really is beautiful up there.

Brandy,
I'm in the same boat you are regarding acclimatizing and the length of the trip. This is my first Whitney trip, I live at sea level in San Francisco and I don't have flexibility with my dates to add extra days to hang out in the mountains. Our permit is for a day hike on Sat July 25. We'll be out there Thurs afternoon and Fri and will climb on Saturday. We also are not camping. I already have made reservations at motels for Thurs/Fri and Sat night. 2 nights in Independence (Thurs/Sat) and Fri night in Lone Pine. Our goal was to keep our costs down as well because of other things we have planned this year. We will be hiking as high as possible on Friday and will be hiking the wknd before up in Tahoe above 10,000 ft so hopefully that will help us. For what its worth, when I climbed a 14er in Colorado (14,197), I spent about a day and a half at 9,000 ft at my boyfriend's moms house and our climb went well. At approx 13,000 ft, I developed a very small headache which went away with some water and tylenol (or whatever I took) and I moved very slow the last 200-300 ft before the summit because it was tough breathing. I'm in much better shape now but I don't know if that will matter. I guess all I an do is train as much as I can and hope for the best. Enjoy your trip!

As others have said - do some day hiking at altitude and sleep low. With your limited time, sleeping up high might hurt more than it will help.

I think with two days hiking at altitude, sleeping in Lone Pine should be ok. Just try to get as high as possible for as long as possible.

Here are some hiking options.
2 days before your Whitney climb: My first choice would be to hike to Kearsarge Pass from the Onion Valley trail head out of Independence. You drive to 9200' and hike to 11800. The view from the pass is outstanding, and you hike past some beautiful lakes. Stay at the pass for an hour or more -- eat lunch, read a book, take sunscreen.

There are several other options, longer drives: Visit White Mountain -- you drive to 12000, but there are 10+ miles on bumpy gravel road. The Bristlecone Pines are the oldest living trees in the world. Spend a long day up there, maybe hike the loop in the forest.

Another option: North of Bishop, by Crowley Lake, drive up the Rock Creek road (at Toms Place) to 10000', and hike into the Little Lakes area. Excellent scenery there, too. You could even hike to 12000' Mono Pass there. Someone mentioned above you could stay overnight at Rock Creek resort/lodge.

For the day before, I would drive up to Horseshoe Meadows at 10000', and hike up toward Cottonwood Lakes. There is less elevation climb here, so easier on your body, in preparation for your big dayhike the following day.

Hope you have a great trip and successful Whitney climb.

Brandy,

Being from the equally flat and lowlanded Ohio, I have done Whitney both ways -- camped at the Portal and slept in Lone Pine. Like you, I'm also more into day hikes than overnighters, and I found that when I tried sleeping in a tent at altitude (even just at the Portal), I got little sleep (which is fairly common) versus a great sleep in town. Plus there is the High Sierra Cafe in town, which is open 24 hours, meaning you can eat a great breakfast any time in the wee hours before heading up the relatively short drive to the Portal to begin your hike.

As others have said here, everyone has a very individual reaction to the altutide. I've personally done what you are planning to do -- a couple of days of day hikes before going for the summit on the final day. Other than a general reaction to the thinner air, I had no problems with altitude sickness. But that's just me.

In addition to the usual suspects of staying hydrated and eating enough, my feeling is that there are two other things you can do to swing the pendulum in your favor when it comes to minimizing the risk of potential altitude sickness: (1) getting a good night's sleep the night before your hike; and (2) being in good physical shape. Of course these things are not requirements to do Whitney, but they sure do make the effort somewhat easier, and most certainly help with overall endurance -- something you'll need on a 22.5-mile round trip hike covering 6,100 feet of elevation gain on the way up, and all at an altitude that you are not used to.

Although I have never had altitude sickness, per se, I did grapple more with the effects of the altitude on those occasions when I had little sleep the night before and/or was less in shape than I should have been. As for sleep, the many advantages of sleep in normal life, to say nothing of a Whitney day hike, are greatly underrated.

CaT

The first time I did Whitney as a day hike I did Kearsarge Pass the day before and stayed at the top of the pass for a couple of hours having lunch and talking with folks so I echo SteveC's endorsement. It's spectacular scenery. I've been doing 14ers since I was 16 (now 50)and never had an altitude problem so I don't know if my acclimatizing schemes are efficacious or not as I've never taken a chance and done nothing. I had some friends from montana come out two years ago that were extremely fit and had trouble at trail crest (13,700)so they turned back and felt fine at trail camp (12,000). They were and are far more fit than I but I summited and they couldn't. The point is that everyone's different and since you've done a 14er in the past with little ill effect I would guess you'll be fine with your plan. My one tip for you is to take some aspirin (I've been told to take aspirin over other pain killers because it thins the blood a little and aids circulation)before you start. Altitude headaches are easier to beat when you beat them to the punch. Have a great hike and stay safe.

I think Tomcat and Wingding hit it on the head. Plus I dont care how much you acclimate you will feel some physical effects at the summit from altitude, just be in good cardio shape when you get here.
And if you could bring a rack of those ribs from KC MO I would be willing to help you guys any way I could.

Brandy:

I'm sure you were hoping for some simple advice on acclimatization, and we've given you conflicting advice, if not a full-blown debate. I quickly dashed off my earlier post before taking my horse to the vet. Now that several people have recommended sleeping in Lone Pine, I'll explain why I think that's a bad idea.

Some people tolerate altitude better than others, and this is independent of fitness. There are people who can drive from sea level to Whitney Portal, get out of their car, start hiking, and not have a problem. Some people can't climb Mt. Whitney no matter what they do. You won't know how you perform at altitude until you get there.

Look into getting some Diamox. Half of a 250mg tablet might be all you need. If you feel good, don't take any. It's available as a generic, so it's cheap insurance.

The phrase "climb high, sleep low" applies to climbing really big mountains, expedition style. You "climb high" to carry loads and establish higher camps and "sleep low" to avoid altitude sickness, to avoid being caught high on the mountain if the weather deteriorates, and to avoid consuming all the supplies you just carried to a higher camp. "Sleep low" doesn't mean sleep at sea level; it means sleep low enough to minimize altitude symptoms.

If you had lots of time to acclimatize, you would climb high enough to exert yourself and possibly begin to feel a little uncomfortable due to the altitude. Then you would go back down and sleep low enough that the altitude didn't interfere with your sleep. You would climb a little higher each day, and sleep a little higher each night. The higher you sleep, the better you will acclimatize, as long as you don't sleep high enough to bring on serious symptoms.

Few of us have the time (or the need) to go through a long acclimatization process before climbing Mt. Whitney. We do the best that time allows and then go for it. Taking hikes from Whitney Portal or Horseshoe Meadows will certainly help. However, you obviously have to sleep somewhere the night before your climb. Lone Pine is nearly 11,000 feet lower than your objective. You will lose much of your acclimatization if you spend even one night in Lone Pine. As I said before, the higher you sleep, the better you will acclimatize. Spending the night at Whitney Portal will help you acclimatize. Sleeping even higher (e.g. at Horseshoe Meadows) is even better, but you'll have to get up much earlier to drive to Whitney Portal.

There have been hundreds of times that I left work on a Friday night, drove to whatever trailhead I was using, spent the night there, and headed up a mountain the next morning. Others will disagree, but I think acclimatizing while you sleep is more important than any day hikes you might take. Besides, it doesn’t take any extra time or effort to sleep higher. Of course, if having to sleep in a tent is worse than having to tell your friends that you quit 500 feet below the summit because of altitude sickness, spend the night in Lone Pine.

Good luck!