How to acclimate to high altitudes of Mount Everest and Annapurna Nepal 2025/ 2026?
March 11, 2025
nepalguide
Effects of high altitude on humans
Climbing Mount Rainier.
The effects of high altitude on humans are considerable. The percentage oxygen saturation of hemoglobin determines the content of oxygen in blood. After the human body reaches around 2,100 m (7,000 feet) above sea level, the saturation of oxyhemoglobin begins to plummet. However, the human body has both short-term and long-term adaptations to altitude that allow it to partially compensate for the lack of oxygen. Athletes use these adaptations to help their performance. There is a limit to the level of adaptation; mountaineers refer to the altitudes above 8,000 metres (26,000 ft) as the “death zone”, where it is generally believed that no human body can acclimatize
How to acclimate to high altitudes of Mount Everest 2025 / 2026?
It is very important to acclimate yourself to high altitude on Mount Everest, others part trekking and high peak in Nepal if you want to climb it. There is a base camp at the height of 17,500ft (5,400 m) and other four higher camps before climbers reaching the summit. The whole trekking trip will last for about 30 days.
How to acclimate to high altitude of Mount Everest
Altitude sickness can hit you one trip and not the next and it varies from person to person. The usual symptoms of not being used to high altitude are: headache, lightheartedness, hyperventilation, trouble sleeping at night or frequent waking, weakness and upset stomach. If you get some similar symptoms above, don’t keep go any higher on the mountain or you can go lower for a rest until your symptoms go away. These symptoms maybe just normal physiological changes and you will get used to the higher attitude soon, or they will be come severe.
More server symptoms can be: feeling difficulty breathing even when resting, Coughing, feeling Confusion, trouble walking in a straight line and vomiting. If the above symptom occurs on your body, you should go lower and find a doctor.
Climbers will move up and then down again to allow their bodies getting used to the high altitude with reduced oxygen content in the air. This is the acclimatization process. It is very essential for ascending to high altitude safely. There are some tips for acclimatizing to the high altitude:
♦ Ascending to the high altitude slowly.
♦ Stay a day at a lower elevation.
♦ Have one day rest for each 1,000 ft they ascend.
♦ Drinking plenty water, more then 1 gallon per day, to help your kidneys flush out the bicarbonates that accumulate due to a higher respiratory rate.
♦ Eating digest food, increase the carbohydrates and eat less protein and fats.
♦ practice a rule of thumb: climb high, sleep low. Ascending high and then going lower could help the body’s build up and worn from the low O2 content, with fresh oxygen.
Climbers should stay down to have a rest but not good to stay too long, cause it will lose some function of the acclimatization in process.
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