Mt. Whitney Portal Store & Hostel Forums General Mt. Whitney Portal Store Message Board Acclimatization, Training and AMS

Hi All.

With all the discussions about acclimatization, AMS- those who get it and those who don't and general performance on a mountain - for my own research, I'd like to pose two questions to everyone to respond:

1. Do you often get AMS or have you gotten AMS when going higher up? (or have you felt like crap high up and not attribute it to AMS) and

2. How do you train on a weekly basis? - here, be as specific as possible, i.e. # times/week; duration/intensity, and importantly, what is your heart rate while doing your activity (running, biking, climbing, hiking, rowing, swimming, etc...Do you formally exercise in a gym with weights and machines or is daily/weekly hiking/climbing your primary exercise? Do you even keep track of your heart rate?

3. What elevation do you live at and/or do you spend a lot of time above 10,000ft?


I am testing a theory I have, based on my own experience (I am not publishing anything nor work for any scientific establishment).

Thanks!

Rob

what is the theory?

My simple regimen: about 50% of days I walk for one hour, up and down a 70 ft hill 10 times. Half the time with a pack.

HR? 110 maybe - that is just under my 130 or so anaerobic threshold for my age (61) and state of conditioning. No gym stuff, just lots of yardwork and projects.

Had incapacitating headache/AMS for 24 hrs once at 19,000 ft on day 9 with heavy workload and bad weather, another time at only 10,000 in the Sierras, but that was day 1. Many many other trips no symptoms except usual slow pace upon arrival at new altitude level.

I live at 200 ft above sea level. 10,000ft to 22,000ft trips 1-3 times per year over the last 25 yrs, so the incidence of mild AMS has been small for me. But one of those described above could have been early HACE.

How often...some symptoms most every backpacking trip above 10,000' and long duration day hikes, and I take Diamox during my Sierra trips and any backpack which will take me over 8,000'.

Training...I'm currently on the DL because of illness. However, when this is not an issue. I run 3 days a week about 12 miles, and a weekend day in the Traverse Ranges of SoCal. I try to get to the Sierra once a month from May to October.

Live...at 1,620' and am rarely over 10,000', since most of my mountain training is in the high peaks of the San Gabriels.

1. My symptoms: Light to Moderate headaches the first time i get to each of these elevations: 12,000, 15,000 and 18,000, improves after 12 hours or upon decent. Lack of appetite at 18,000, improves second night.

2. This depends on the climb I'm preparing for. For most 14ers I don't do any specific training, but I do other activities such as rock climb, swim, hike and kayak regularly to stay in shape throughout my work week. When I'm preparing for a big climb I hit the gym 2-3 times a week which involves a half hour of swimming and normally running for about 30 minutes. One night a week is an intense hike, which vary from long distances, to short hill climb repeats. Weekends are spent skiing, snowshoeing, hiking, biking, again what ever I have fun with (i think that is the number 1 thing to keep a regiment, even though mine aren't strict)

3. I live at 5,000 feet, and spend a lot of time in Tahoe (6-10,000), and Mount Rose (10,776) is my normal training ground for hikes.

Hope this helps!

I recently hiked Whitney Jul 6th, with group of 4 of my friends. All live in bay area, CA and we never trained above 5K. All our practice hikes were in bay area with elevation gain of 2K-4K.

We did Mt. Dana, went up to 12K altitude and next day we back packed to TC and following day, 3 of us summited and other person had to return cause of AMS. It got really worse when he got closer to Trail Crest.

I had a mild headache at 14K, but felt better after getting below 10K.

We were so lucky as this was our first Whitney hike attempt as well backpacking.

So it all depends...

Stalin

Thanks. Basically the theory relates to level of/intensity of exercise relative to one's HR training zone and ability to acclimate/perform well at altitude. So, while you might not track your HR at all, you can usually infer to a fairly decent probability ones HR range in an activity; i.e. a light run, casual hiking or tempo bike ride have different intensities and train your ability to process/utilize oxygen differently.

I picked up this book a couple years ago and read it while climbing Kilimanjaro. It was great to read about the things that my team and I was experiencing as it was happening. I think this helped me be able to identify it in others as well as myself, which, in my opinion, is one of the most important things you can do for your team.

As you probably know, it's a highly unresearched subject field.

When I used a HRM, I was in between 125 and 145 climbing in the Sierra. I could go all day in the mid 130s. I was in my mid to late 50s the last time I used the HRM.

I had problems when I pushed very hard. Usually, a lose of appetite and malaise, this while taking Diamox.

Thanks, I picked up the kindle edition today. It is a quick read with some real practical info. There is some humor in there as well.

Hi,
The question of AMS and the potential impact of Diamox is such an interesting one and one that is very difficult to generate useful data on.
How the body reacts in thin air can change due to so many factors.
Take my better half, she has summited Kilimanjaro without issue and on her first attempt to summit Whitney, trained quite hard took Diamox and got AMS just before base camp. On her second attempt, didn't train, didn't take Diamox and had no AMS issues on her successful summit.
I have summited 4 times and always taken a light dose of Diamox for two days before, never had a real AMS issue. Suffered oxygen debt to the leg muscles on last summit a few weeks ago making me slow down but this was all.
WARNING !! If you take Diamox for a couple of days before a summit, it makes beer taste really nasty.

On a more serious front. I am a track coach specializing in distance running and one thing has occured to me before. AMS is due to the body reacting to the lack of oxygen. We train athletes to get used to oxygen debt when racing by doing anearobic workouts. Could this help to combat AMS, I have yet to prove my theory.

The one thing we know about AMS is that it is depenedant on so many factors, speed of ascent, level of exertion, hiker fitness etc etc and can affect anyone not spending large amounts of time at altitude.

ValenciaBrit,

Intriguing, I'd be interested to know more of your findings with regard to anaerobic work and success at higher altitudes and specifically when you employ this (i.e. intervals for example, or other). DO you use it only after a specified base training period?

One other factor I didn't mention, but think has a strong impact is you state of mind before and during the climb, how positive you are thinking, nervousness, etc.