26/07/2020
Another successful summit of Mt Whitney. The weather lined up perfectly for us.
One of the main reasons summit attempts can be thwarted is due to attitude sickness. Altitude sickness or otherwise known as AMS “acute mountain sickness” can be very dangerous and sometimes fatal. When flying in from the east coast it’s especially important to plan for a couple extra days on the front end of your trip to acclimatize and give everyone on your team the best chance to summit. While there is still no way to 100% predict or prevent altitude sickness some of the effects seem to be able to be mitigated by the following steps. 1. sleeping at an altitude above 8,000’ a couple nights prior to the hike and maintaining activity while there. 2. Hydration, getting hydrated and staying hydrated. 3. Medications, Although I’ve personally never taken it, some medications like diamox can be used to treat altitude sickness.
