Mt. Whitney Portal Store & Hostel Forums General Mt. Whitney Portal Store Message Board Acclimation loss timeline?

Basic question is whether I'll retain acclimation with 5 nights at altitude, then a week at sea level to 4,000', then hitting Whitney.

My grand scheme is to climb Whitney Saturday 4/21. I'll arrive Thursday night 4/19 and sleep at 4,000'. Friday climb to Trail Camp, altitude 12,000'.

In preparation I'll be skiing at Mammoth next week. Arrive Owens Valley Saturday 4/7. Spend 6 days skiing at Mammoth, staying 5 nights at Mammoth Mountain Inn (9,000' elevation) We will leave Mammoth Friday 4/13 with another two nights at 4,000' before heading home.

Here's the planned elevation profile of my nightly sleep locations.

0' Now through 4/6
4000' 4/7
9000' 4/8
9000' 4/9
9000' 4/10
9000' 4/11
9000' 4/12
4000' 4/13
4000' 4/14
0' 4/15
0' 4/16
0' 4/17
0' 4/18 EDIT: 4000' Independence
4000' 4/19 EDIT: make this 8600' at Whitney Portal
12000' 4/20
Summit Whitney 4/21

I should mention why I asked the question in the first place...

One possibility is to move the climb up by a few days to midweek- but that reduces chances that I'll find anyone to tag along with on the mountain vs. going for a Saturday summit. Another is to add a day- instead of driving up Thursday night, head up in the morning and hike in to Whitney Portal for the first night. (Also making Friday easier)

Ken and Harvey are probably better authorities than I, but I understand that you lose acclimatization about as fast as you gain it. Four nights at sea level will not help. In fact, those nights at 4,000 will undo some of the benefit of having been at 9,000. My suggestion is to spend 4/19 at Whitney Portal.

Thanks Bob. I think that makes sense. Another day off work is a good trade!

If I was in better shape I would do Whitney as a dayhike the prior Saturday immediately after Mammoth. Unfortunately I'm not in that kind of shape. I can't stretch out that trip 'cause I have to get the kids back for school Monday.

It looks like even Sherpas will lose it within 10 days.

http://www.bodyresults.com/e2deacc.asp

Agree with Bob's comments.

Part of the problem with ascent and re-ascent is that the whole acclimatization thing is so variable. There are people who get away with all sorts of timelines, others do not. Then are those whose bodies have a "memory" for re-acclimatizing quickly after a brief time away. The whole business is one of managing/reducing risks rather than hard-fast rules, flavored with a heavy dose of prior personal experience with one's own body at altitude.

Sorry, this is a very vague/philosophical reply. Chances are that you will do just fine, even better if you reduce the risk of AMS as Bob suggests with a night at the Portal.

I trust Bob's take on acclimation implicitly. He's averaged ascending to a minimum of 10K' almost weekly for twenty-something years, with many different partners - you tend to learn quite a bit about the subject that way. Everyone's different, but Bob's pretty much seen it all.

Jim, I feel your frustration.

In my limited experience, I can say there are few hard and fast rules with respect to acclimatizing and resultant success on a mountain. Now, I've been to 14,000+ feet on perhaps 50 different occasions with climbs up as many peaks, so there are clearly more experienced people here who might be able to give better information for more time spent up high. I also live at sea level. I have not been above 17,000ft, so cannot discuss what it takes there.

With that said, I've done climbs where I did everything right, spent several days acclimatizing, ate and slept well and felt like crap and then retreated, and climbs where I flew in from sea level in the late afternoon and climbed a 14er the next morning with no issues at all. Also vice versa was true on some peaks. I’ve summited Whitney twice and turned around twice (once due to my slow ascent and I was not “feeling it”).

More specifically, in addition to acclimating, I usually target getting enough rest, eating and hydrating appropriately, packing as light as appropriate given the conditions and keeping a moderate pace. I seem to move faster in warmer weather and have more risk for feeling worse in cold weather - don't know why.

I also have found that if I have exercised a LOT in the weeks before a tough climb or set of climbs, I am weaker on the mountain and have done my best climbs after tapering for a couple weeks beforehand. This could relate to a possible burnout factor.

This brings up a point which is key in my eyes which is having a sufficient aerobic base developed (note I didn’t just say doing enough “cardio” exercise or being "fit" whatever that means). There are many ways to do this, getting out and actually hiking is a great way to accomplish this without going too anaerobic too often- a heart rate monitor helps in this regard. As I've increased the proportion of truly aerobic workouts relative to higher intensity sugar burning workouts, I have found my success rate increasing on longer climbs irrespective of the amount of time acclimatizing, which is interesting... I’ve also reduced my climbing times on peaks I’ve done more than once, in some cases significantly compared to climbs a year or two earlier, when I thought I was also “fit” but lacked a good aerobic base.

The first time I climbed Whitney, it took 17 hours-car door to car door and I was burned out and legs in pain – and had 4.5 solid days to acclimatize and spent it above 10,000ft.
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The second time, I climbed it total roundtrip time in 12.5 hrs and felt solid after with zero pain in my legs and did it on LESS acclimatization in only two days spending it at 4000ft in Bishop.

Conditions were similar both times in mid autumn, with some snow, crampons needed in some spots, but otherwise dry.
Something to think about…