SummitPost.org

I would like to know if it is safe to climb from santiago chile 650m to the summit of La Parva 4100m in a day as i can only get a single day free from work.This would be during my layover (am airline crew) and as the aircraft has a cabin altitude of 5000 feet will this help me slightly.

Just depends on the person and day. I've done elevation gains similar to what you are suggesting several times, sometimes it doesn't phase me, other times it cripples me. No way to know for sure than just to try. Worse case scenario, you start feeling bad, and head down. Drink plenty of water the day before and of!

As McCannster says depends entirely on the person your mindset, mental atitude and you could get lucky !
I,ve done some hard rock climbing in the Alps on the first day `Contamine` route on the Aiguille du Midi, not quite 4,000m but close, drink plenty of fluid and if you start to feel dizzy/dehydrated think about turning back down...

I figure it would be fairly irresponsible to say that you could get away with it. Lots of people do, but some people will get altitude ailments to various degrees from fairly minor altitude sickness to severe altitude sickness including HACE.

Myself when I used to live at sea level I used to do 4000-5500m+ within days fairly often, but know that I am older (but not any smarter) i look back and figured I was rolling the dice and it was a total crap shoot. Nowadays I am more conservative (go figure since now I live at 7000ft altitude).

This is one you need to decide on your own. You could do it and just be fine, or you could get into trouble. Asothers say, if you do decide on doing it, be very aware of symptoms of altitude sickness, and if the start to develop, don't be afraid to turn around and head down.

cheguevara wrote:...in a day as i can only get a single day free from work.

If you go straight up, turn around and come down chances are you will be fine. It's staying up there for more than a few hours, or overnight, is the problem. Altitude takes a while to fully kick in.

So depending how fast you move from, say, 3000m to 4100m, you may just go a bit slow, you may feel like crap, or you may start to feel sick. The first is OK, the second and the third? You should turn around, go down and actually enjoy your day off.

sjarelkwint wrote:Cabin has altitude of 5000ft in a pressure way not in an oxygen way?

Airliner cabins are typcially pressurized to the equivalent of 7,000 ft. Since the percentage of oxygen is fairly constant regardless of altitutude, the effect is the same as being at 7,000 ft.

Last time I did that - 2006 - I barfed and crapped for 24 hours straight and finally bailed. Good Luck.

Pop some aspirin beforehand (will help if a headache comes on and also is a blood-thinner), drink lots of water, and hope for the best. Many of us have done this kind of thing before, with mixed results, so you never really know. Just remember the advice to turn around and head down right away if you start feeling nauseous, weak, etc.

I think jet-lag is also a factor . I've always felt better when my internal clock was finally in sync with the place where I was climbing. Airline staff usually complain that they never were rested enough to do much on layovers.

That's like what, 13.5k? Have you been that high before? If you know you generally do fine at 13+, this isn't going to be a problem. I'm sure you could add a couple grand to that and still be fine, for a piece of a day.

Endurance.... can't help you with that. But you're not taking any huge risks with the altitude itself.

Like some others have said, you'll probably be fine- assuming you've at least been at that altitude before and know how it affects you. When I was living at sea level, I'd fly in, drive up to the mountains, and skin up to roughly that high in the same day. Outside of some shortness of breath (still unclear if that was because of the altitude or how extremely out of shape I was), I was fine.

Just don't be afraid to turn around if you start feeling funky.

You can climb as high as your body will let you - so long as you are receptive to signs that it is becoming too much (which it might be, going as high as you say). But the crucial thing is that you do not stay high - ie try to sleep up there, or at pretty much any altitude much above 3000m - then you'd get ill.

UIAA guidance says don't try to raise your sleeping height by more than 300-400m per day - and have a rest day at whatever altitude you have reached every 3rd day.

So the sort of thing that'd be asking for trouble is if you went too high to leave yourself time to get down and had a night out up high... expect AMS. Worse things like Pulmonary or Cerebral Oedema generally (but not always) take 24 hours+ to develop. Anyway, from the sounds of your timing you have to be down anyway, so you will make sure you turn around in time to be able to guarentee getting down.

As a personal example: I took my wife up the Monch (Switzerland) a few years ago - as high as you are going at 4107m. We caught the Jungfraujoch railway from around 900m up to 3400m and then were on foot from there. I knew we were't acclimatised but expected we'd grab the summit and then get down quickly before we had time to get ill. We did indeed get the summit - a bit short of breath but nothing special. But I didn't allow for my wifes slow speed descending the rocky sections of the route (she hates loose rocks!) and we missed the last train down. So we were forced to spend a night at the Monchjoch Hut at 3500m. We managed to enjoy the evening meal... but then we both got ill. I had a splitting head and my wife had that plus throwing up. Needless to say we caught the first train down in the morning!

Good luck!
Mark

In the eastern Sierra (of California, USA), people often go to 4400m from 1200m in a day. AS said above, your response is highly dependent or your particular physiology.

Just be ready to slow down as you rise. Force yourself to breathe harder if need be, and expect activities will take longer than they would near sea level. IMHO, the main cause of high altitude sickness is inappropriate exertion. People feel unusually tired --- which is natural at altitude-- and try to push harder.

Which La Parva?

So what are the symptoms that would cause you guys to turn around in a situation like this? Nausea seems like a no-brainer. What else? How about, say, a headache? Or just feeling "weird"?

I'm asking from the perspective of someone slated to go above 11k (looking at various 12-14k'ers) for the first time next year. I'll be alone so I don't want to take chances, but also don't want to end up psychosomatic-ing myself away from my summits for no legitimate reason.

I've gone from sea-level to 13k ft and my dad from sea-level to 14k feet in a day.