Mt. Whitney Portal Store & Hostel Forums General Mt. Whitney Portal Store Message Board Altitude Conditioning Hikes

I've got permits for Sept 2005. I can do conditioning hikes every month until then at 7,000 ft. We're also planning on spending one night prior at the campground. Will spending two nights the week before the trip at 7,000 ft, coming back home to sea level for 3 nights, then driving up to Whitney be of any real benefit to mitigate altitude sickness?

I think it will help -- you won't completely lose the altitude conditioning effects in three nights. But staying higher would be better.

<a href="http://userwww.sfsu.edu/~stevec/" target=_new>Steve C</a>

If you never experienced elevations over 7,000' you may be in for a shock when you travel higher and for extended periods. It's tough on the ego when octogenarians blow by you at Trail Crest, this is speaking from personal experience ;-).

I agree with the last post. 7,000 feet is usually in the tolerance range of most people and most commercial airliners are pressurized to the equivalent of 8,000 feet elevation. If you really want to test yourself at higher elevations try going to places further north such as Tuolumne Meadows in Yosemite, Mammoth Lakes, or the Mono Pass near the Little Lakes Valley area (Tom's Place). The trail up to Mono Pass is fairly short (compared to Whitney) and goes up to around 12,000 feet in elevation.

Fred

There also is some good information in the adjoining thread: <A href="http://www.whitneyportalstore.com/cgi-bin/ubb/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=1;t=002858">Getting ready for the altitude!</A>