Camping rules?

[halhiker]

Having read various articles and books on acclimatizing I found that sleeping at the trailhead has no benefit and actually is detrimental. I think Medicine for Mountaineering talks about this. When you sleep your respiration slows down which hastens altitude sickness. By sleeping low you get more oxygen during this period of rest and it helps during an summit attempt.
It also takes a few days for your body to start acclimating so one night at the trailhead will not help you.

As for living high and training low it's really the same thing in reverse. At lower elevation you get more oxygen during times of high exertion. By living high your body gets accustomed to using less oxygen and so the extra oxygen during training helps your performance.

I've done Whitney where I've slept at the Whitney Portal to get an early start but I think next time I'll get a hotel in Lone Pine. And one the next night so I don't have to drive home right away. It's not that long of a drive up and I won't have to break camp in the dark.

One time we drove up from the desert, slept at the trailhead (getting there about 11p.m.), did the Mountaineer's Route and drove home (getting home about 11p.m.). Then we went to work the next day. I don't think I'll do that again.

So, lower elevation means more oxygen which is good for sleeping before a big climb and training for a big race.

[KathyW]

If doing something in the Whitney area, I tend to sleep down at the Tuttle Creek BLM campground. The elevation is just over 5,000 feet and is higher than the 1500' where I live, but lower than the trailheads at 8000' to 10000'. If the trailhead I'm starting from is less than 7000', I can sleep there and feel okay in the morning but once the trailhead is higher than that I almost always wake up with mild altitude sickness. If I'm backpacking then I have little choice but to sleep high sometimes, so I deal with it and move slow. The altitude sickness has never gotten so bad that I've had to turn around, but it sure makes it difficult at times. I have tried Diamox, but I haven't seen much benefit from it and the side effects are not fun.

Everyone's body is different, so what works for me may not work for others.

Sorry in advance if I'm way off topic.

[Hikin_Jim]

Sorry in advance if I'm way off topic.

Hey, it's all good. If people have more questions/comments about the origninal topic, they can still ask them.

Kathy, my experience is the same as yours: If I sleep high (Whitney Portal for example) before the hike, I don't sleep well, and I'm not operating at 100% the next morning.

In the Wilderness First Aid class I took last year, they recommended taking Diamox not in the old 2 x per day standard dosage but rather before bed. Apparently more recent investigations have indicated that Diamox works really well in aiding sleep at altitude. Might be a good thing to bear in mind when planning to sleep high.

Thanks for the tip about Tuttle by the way.

HJ

[Rob]

Kathy, my experience is the same as yours: If I sleep high (Whitney Portal for example) before the hike, I don't sleep well, and I'm not operating at 100% the next morning.

Lake Louise AMS score recognizes sleep difficulty as a significant symptom of altitude sickness. Jim, I agree with your observation. In 2007 I experimented several times with sleeping one night at altitude (Saddle Junction, Barton Flats) to attempt acclimatization prior to a hike, and the resulting poor sleep degraded my hiking performance.

In the Wilderness First Aid class I took last year, they recommended taking Diamox not in the old 2 x per day standard dosage but rather before bed. Apparently more recent investigations have indicated that Diamox works really well in aiding sleep at altitude. Might be a good thing to bear in mind when planning to sleep high.

I've experiment with Diamox three times in 2008 on calibration hikes, and it's not the magic pill I was hoping for. If someone were considering taking Diamox as a sleep aid, I would not recommend taking the initial dose just before bed because the diuretic effect may force you to urinate urgently a couple of times during the night. It might be better to take the initial dose of Diamox in the afternoon to give your body 6 hours of awake time to flush out the initial tsunami of water before you crawl into the sack for the night. (After the initial flush, the urine flow rate slows down.) Diamox tricks your body into breathing deeply, and the result is that you're supposed to sleep soundly.

[Hikin_Jim]

"Tsunami," eh?

Thanks for the tip.

[Cy Kaicener]

Here is an interesting article on what to do when camping and bad weather strikes (scroll down)
http://skinnymoose.com/adventurist