South Fork to San G Summit

[Ellen]

Howdy Harry

Great trip report and beautiful pictures I was stuck in Chicago for a meeting After seeing your photos, I want to go up Southfork NOW.

Miles of smiles,
Ellen

[harryquach]

Thanks all for the comments, it is not fun getting sick on the summit I think one extra day spent at altitude would make all the difference

[myotherboots]

Great job Harry. That last 1,000 ft always gets to me.

After hiking around Nepal on the Annapurna circuit, I can identify with altitude issues. I have found that I could hike all day in altitude as we eventually went over a 17,000 ft pass, but it is the sleeping in altitude that killed me. HJ is absolutely right, sleep low, hike high...unfortunately, sleeping 'low' in Nepal was at 14,000 feet, add one head cold and it is like trying to breathe through a drinking straw all night.

I would be interested to hear if anyone has success with the lightening fast approach, to summit and decend all in one day, so your body does not even realize what just happened. I am thinking in regards to Whitney...basically just sleeping in Lone Pine and doing the trip all in one day? Is this a really bad idea? I feel like I can hike in altitude without sickness from my experience on prior trips, but I also acclimated slowly.

[Andy]

I think the biggest issue for me is my inconsistency. When we climbed Shasta we slept at around 2,500' on the drive up, then base camped at lake Helen at around 10,400', summited to 14k+' the following day and had no issues. The next season we slept at Onion Valley outside Independence at around 9,000' and the subsequent passes for four days were miserable. Oh well, in light of the multitude of other problems I could be plagued with I'll deal with it. Its just frustrating when your handicapped by something so seemingly trivial.

[Hikin_Jim]

Nothing trivial about it, Andy. It can ruin a whole trip, and serious cases can result in death (typically at much higher altitudes than the Sierra).

That first night being so high might have been what did you in. The old climbers adage, "climb high, sleep low" really does work. Keeping it under 8,000' that first night can be helpful -- although there's certainly no "magic bullet" in that sense.

HJ