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Ascending too quickly above 10,000 feet elevation can cause nausea, headaches, or sleeplessness due to acute mountain sickness (AMS, altitude sickness, or soroche in Spanish).
For most people, the best way to acclimatize above 10,000 feet elevation is to “climb high and sleep low.” In other words, day hike to higher elevations, but sleep no more than 2000 feet (600 meters) higher each day. Take time to naturally adjust to higher altitudes without relying on a drug with side affects such as Diamox — compare with the safer Ginkgo Biloba herb below. How fast you acclimatize is unpredictable and can vary for the same person on different occasions. Descending quickly towards sea level is the best cure if you become altitude sick.
If tight trip schedules restrict time available for safe acclimatization, try the natural herb Ginkgo Biloba (available over the counter without a prescription), which has fewer undesirable side effects than Diamox (Acetazolamide), the drug most commonly prescribed by doctors for preventing altitude sickness. Common side effects of Diamox include frequent urination (risks dehydration), numbness and tingling in fingers and toes, taste alterations, blurred vision, and risk of kidney stones. Ginkgo Biloba has much fewer side effects (though it may not prove as effective as Diamox, and pregnant women and people taking antidepressants should first consult their doctor). Don’t take the two together, as they nuetralize each other’s effect.
Directions: Take 100 to 120 milligrams of Ginkgo Biloba herb twice a day starting 3-5 days before ascending, and continue for 2-3 days at maximum sleeping altitude. A Ginkgo Biloba clinical study on Pike’s Peak with 40 college students in 2000 reduced altitude sickness by 50% compared to the placebo group.
Starting at sea level, my sleep was significantly better in my first 2 nights in Cuzco (at 11,000 feet) when taking Ginkgo Biloba herb in 2003, compared to my trip in year 2000 without the herb. On our high altitude Huayhuash Trek in the Andes of Peru, most of our group of 11 men took 120 milligrams of Ginkgo Biloba herb twice a day starting 5 days before ascending, and no one experienced serious problems from mountain sickness. In Nepal we took extra time to acclimate by trekking Annapurna Sanctuary before the higher Gokyo Valley in the Mount Everest area, and had no altitude problems.
Before trekking in the high altitude Cordillera Huayhuash in Peru, we acclimatized as follows:
That prepared us well for the following 8-day high altitude trek:
| Trek Day: | Day 1 | Day 2 | Day 3 | Day 4 | Day 5 | Day 6 | Day 7 | Day 8 |
| Highest/Pass | 10,660 feet | 13,448 | 15,580 | 15,370 | 15,250 | 15,744 | 15,700 | 15,700 |
| Camp Height | 10,660 feet | 13,448 | 13,776 | 14,100 | 13,940 | 14,270 | 14,500 | 14,400 bus pickup |
At 18,000 feet you breath only half the oxygen compared to sea level. Research indicates that humans cannot live permanently above an elevation of 18,000 feet without suffering a gradual physiological deterioration that eventually leads to death. Mountaineers who anticipate spending time above 18,000 feet must fatten themselves before the climb to offset their inevitable weight loss.
Workers at the Aucanquilcha sulfur mining camp in Chile lived for years at 17,500 feet above sea level, and ascended each day to work the mine at 18,800 feet. A settlement in Bolivia matched this 17,500-foot record altitude maximum for permanent human habitation. As of May 2003, National Geographic Magazine reports that 16,730-foot La Rinconada, Peru, is the highest permanent human habitation.
Air retains a constant 21 percent of oxygen content (the rest is mostly Nitrogen) throughout all surface altitudes. But as you climb to higher altitudes, the weight of the air column above you decreases, thus lowering air density. As you ascend, the oxygen available per lungfull decreases as follows:
Altitude | Available Oxygen, Compared to Sea Level (average observed at 45 degrees latitude**)
**The above figures are averages that apply only to the mid latitudes (45 degrees latitude, North or South). Oxygen available per lungfull also varies slightly by latitude as follows: you will gasp for air about 5 percent harder when climbing at 20,000 feet on Alaska’s Denali (Mount McKinley) than when climbing at the same altitude in the Himalayas. Denali is at 63 degrees north latitude, the Himalaya at 28 degrees north latitude, and the Cordillera Huayhuash at 10 degrees south latitude. Denali rises to 20,320 feet but has the oxygen availability of a 23,000 -foot peak in the Himalayas.
At a given altitude, oxygen available per lungfull is highest at the equator (0 degrees latitude) where the atmosphere is deepest (such as at Mount Kilimanjaro, Africa), and lowest at the poles (90 degrees latitude) where the atmosphere is shallowest. The centripetal force of the earth’s spin shapes the atmosphere (and the earth itself) into an “oblate spheroid”, flattened at the poles and bulging at the equator.
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