Doing Nepal for July trip: what should I do to prepare for elevation?

June 9, 2023 9:57 AM

51 year old guy. Mostly decent health but I've had the elevation related racing heart in Mexico City. Currently living at sea level. Not climbing anything crazy but might do the basecamp. What can I do to prepare for the trip? Thinking about living in the heights of Colorado until the trip.
posted by rileyray3000 to Health & Fitness (6 answers total)

I did the trek to basecamp 20 years ago. Unless there have been some significant changes in our understanding of altitude sickness, the best preparation is taking it slow and it's hard to predict who will be hit hard by it. Living in Colorado would probably help (provided you didn't spend weeks back at sea level before going to Nepal). But the most important thing would be to not rush the trek to basecamp. I think 10 days to get to basecamp is considered reasonable, and then 3-4 to get back. According to my journal, I took 19 days round trip.

Acetazolamide can help quite a bit for some people, but discuss with your doctor first.
posted by justkevin at 10:19 AM on June 9, 2023

I spent a week in Colorado, well above Denver, and when I went home to sea level, it felt fantastic! Later lived near Denver for a while and it really helped me feel in shape when I got back to my usual sea level home. Spending a couple months at altitude should help.
posted by theora55 at 10:26 AM on June 9, 2023

If living at altitude in CO is an option, that is by far the best way to prepare than anything else we could brainstorm.
posted by Dashy at 11:12 AM on June 9, 2023

If you start feeling altitude sickness symptoms on the base camp trek, the easiest solution is to descend about 500 m and spend a night there. This worked for me on my base camp trek.
posted by monotreme at 2:12 PM on June 9, 2023

How's your fitness generally? I live at 8k feet - higher than Denver - and wouldn't presume I could just bimble on up to Everest base camp at 17k feet... which by the way is higher than Colorado's highest peak. I'm slightly younger than you, outdoorsy, and train for backcountry skiing. So, get those conditioning miles in; you don't have much time.
posted by Ardnamurchan at 6:47 PM on June 9, 2023 [1 favorite]

I did the Mt. Whitney/Tumanguya (14,505’) summit last October. I live at sea level. I did basically nothing to prepare for the hike aside from maintaining my usual level of fitness (walking 15-20 miles a week and doing several multi-night backpacking trips of 30-50 miles each year).

My husband and I drove to Lone Pine (3,700’) two days before our summit attempt and spent a night there. The next day we hiked up to Trail Camp at 12,000’ to sleep. The next morning I got to the summit. (Woo!)

I felt fine the entire time—no headache, no nausea or vomiting, normal appetite, slept as well as I ever do in a tent. I left the effects of the altitude on my athletic performance to be sure—my pace was slow and I had to stop and catch my breath frequently—but otherwise I felt completely normal.

On the other hand, my husband was basically incapacitated by the altitude and stayed behind at Trail Camp while I went to the summit alone. He couldn’t eat, couldn’t sleep, had a terrible headache, and threw up all night long. (I was very hesitant to leave him behind alone but he insisted I go to the summit without him and promised me he’d leave everything behind and descend to a lower altitude without me if needed. He was still at Trail Camp when I came back down and was feeling well enough to hike back to the car with me.)

All of this is to say that there’s no way to predict who will get altitude sickness and who won’t. Even very active, very fit people can get it. The only way to prevent it is to give yourself more time than you think you need acclimating very gradually.
posted by jesourie at 12:14 PM on June 10, 2023 [1 favorite]