Mt. Whitney Portal Store & Hostel Forums General Mt. Whitney Portal Store Message Board Any experience with oxygen?

$5.50 per can seems a bit steep for grapefruit-flavored oxygen, but for strong mint it's a bargain! :-)

Well it may seem silly to some, but I've been struggling with AMS when at altitude for about 5 years now. I'm very fit and I was really looking forward to what should have been a relatively easy climb (even with the snow). I deliberately took 4 days stopping at Portal, Outpost and Trail Camp. No luck. Got sick at Outpost. Recovered by the next day. Went to Trail Camp, got ill again (even with a very leisurely ascent) and didn't recover until I went down the next day. This is even with using Diamox which I have had success with in the past.

Even though I've been using this board for several years, I actually found this thread after googling for mt whitney supplemental oxygen. If I'd known that Diamox combined with a slow ascent wasn't going to work for me this time I would have brought oxygen as my choices besides that are to take a ton more time (which is limited as it is) or get used to staying under 10,000'.

Ellen

Ellen, read what DocWoods wrote about using oxygen from Big Ox in this thread:


<a href="http://www.whitneyportalstore.com/cgi-bin/ubb/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=1;t=004526#000001">Main Trail Conditions 6/23</a>

Since you have such a terrible time with the altitude, it could be worth trying.