The Most Important High Altitude Strategy

In this episode, I explore the single most important factor that will determine your chance of success and comfort when hiking at high altitude. 

Episode Transcript:

[0:00] Right, hello, hello, ladies and gentlemen. So in today's episode, we are talking about the most important high-attitude strategy that you can

[0:10] use if you're leading into a big expedition. This is an incredibly important strategy for anyone who maybe is a little bit nervous about leading into a high-attitude expedition. You haven't done it before, you're not sure how you're going to respond to altitude, or even more so for people who've been to altitude before, They've struggled, but they still want to go on another adventure. Now, over the years of this podcast, I've talked about many, many, many different things which a hiker, mountaineer can do when preparing for high attitude. We've talked about training methods. We talked about breathing. We talked about nutrition. We talked about practical strategies and a bunch of other things. But I realized there is one strategy which I haven't really talked about before.

[0:58] And one, beyond all of that stuff, which actually makes so much more of a direct impact on your chances of success and comfort and attitude than any training or nutrition could. Even though training nutrition and all of that other stuff is beneficial, what I'm about to say is so much more impactful. Now, the reason I haven't really talked about this is purely for the fact that I thought it was kind of common knowledge. I thought it was sort of something that had been talked about so much. It was so prolific out there around information that kind of everyone already knew it. And I honestly thought it was the first thing that people learned when they are researching and looking at high-attitude adventures.

[1:40] But while that may be true in the sense that it's common knowledge, I have realized there are actually quite a few people who are not aware of this, or maybe they have heard it before but never really taken it seriously or whatever it is. So I figured today I want to cover it and go through. Now, the strategy I'm talking about for high attitudes.

[2:03] Is giving yourself time to ascend and giving yourself time to acclimatize in the sense that when it comes down to seeing success rates on high-attitude adventures, the slower you can go and the longer time you can give your body a chance to acclimatize, the better chance you're going to have on the mountain. Now, there's some really interesting stats from many, many years ago, looking at Kilimanjaro. Kilimanjaro, very popular high-attitude mountain, tallest mountain in Africa. Now, these stats aren't super, super current, but they were released years ago. Essentially, they show the difference of success rates between a five-day adventure up to a nine or a 10-day adventure. Essentially, they showed people who were doing five days from the bottom to the top, taking five days, they had an incredibly, incredibly low chance of success. Six days, a little bit more, seven days, a little bit more, eight days, a little bit more, nine days and 10 days, way, way, way higher success rates. This isn't because Kilimanjaro technically is like a crazy technical mountain. It's not because people at five days were running up the mountain and they were getting so overly tired and this and that, but purely for the fact that they just were not giving themselves enough time to acclimatize. They were not giving themselves enough time for the body to adapt.

[3:25] When you're looking at any high-attitude adventure, if you are nervous about your risk of success or your chance of success, if you've had a bad experience in the past, you know, like, I'm not sure if I'm really cut out for adventure, this is the number one thing you want to look at. Is there an opportunity for the type of hike that you want to do that you can have a bit of a longer trip? You can have a bit of a slower ascent. Kilimanjaro, simple example there. you know five six seven eight nine ten days go as long as you can go makes a big difference other trips around the world you know can you sort of look at an itinerary is it going to take seven or eight or nine or ten days is it possible that you extend it out a little bit go a little bit towards the longer the slower it every single day you can give yourself is going to give you better chances on top of that is if you maybe there isn't a huge amount of wiggle room on the trips themselves, is there an opportunity where you can actually, for a few days,

[4:24] get a bit of exposure beforehand? If you are, say, going to Peru to do like the Inca Trail, can you arrive in country and just hang out in the cities for one, two, three, four, five, six days? Just enjoy yourself, have a holiday, but get a bit of altitude exposure before you go. When you're in Nepal, is there a possibility of getting in early and maybe doing some day hikes or whatever it may be before you tackle something else.

[4:49] Have a think about that because that's another really, really,

[4:52] really significant thing. Now, obviously, the biggest drawback to this is cost in the sense is if you're going and doing an organized hike and you're spending, say, want to do more days, that's going to cost significantly more money. Same thing as if you're spending days in another country, if you arrive to Peru and spending three or four or five or six extra days, or if you go into Colorado and spending a bunch of extra days before you actually start hiking, you know, every day you're going to pay for a hotel or a hostel or whatever it may be. That's going to be more money. And I fully understand that's a limiting factor. But you kind of want to weigh the two things up. What is the longest you can realistically spend on.

[5:29] Leading into either on the trip or leading into the trip. Such a simple thing, but as I said, I realized a few people maybe don't really take this seriously or haven't really heard it enough or whatever it may be, so I wanted to bring it up today. If you're someone preparing for a high altitude adventure, you're a little bit nervous or maybe had a bad experience in the past, don't forget this. Sit down, do a bit of logistics, do a bit of planning. It is the single most important thing you can do. And then beyond that, once that's done, then you can start thinking about your training. Then you can start thinking about your nutrition. Then you can start thinking about your sleep and all those other bits and pieces that goes into it. But do not skimp on this. So with that being said, I think that's enough on this today.

[6:09] As I said, a lot of listeners probably already know this or hopefully already know this, but maybe there's just one or two or three or dozen people who needed this today and may help them.

[6:20] So I hope it helps. And last thing I will say, as I always say on this podcast, if you were leading into a big high-attitude adventure, you were feeling a little bit nervous, maybe you've looked at your logistics, you've done what you can, but you're like, you know what, I want to give myself the best chance possible. I want to nail my training, want to nail my preparation, want to nail my nutrition and all of that. I would love to chat with you. If you want to find out a little bit more about what I do through Summit Strength, you can go to summitstrength.com.au online. On that page, is a big video, talks through a lot about our program, which has helped hikers all around the world tackle high-attitude adventures, regardless of where they live. It's been very, very successful. So if you want to learn more, go to summitstrength.com.au online, and we can take it from there. So thank you so much for listening. Hope it was useful. Hope it was helpful. And we'll talk to you very, very soon. Bye.

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