I think one very significant factor is the mental one. I hike/climb with a few people who don't acclimate particularly well and it seems like it might be sort of a self fulfilling prophecy, where you get so focused on altitude and it's effects that you inevitably start feeling those effects. I think a good excersize would be to find a hike that you know you are going to be at a high altitude and bring along an iPod or an entertaining friend so you can work on not focusing on the altitude. Don't look at a map, gps, or altimeter and try your hardest to not even think about what altitude you're at. While the problem is certainly not all mental, I think that this sort of mental training will help you deal with the acclimating and help you enjoy climbs and hikes much more.

Also, I know it's obvious, but I drink a whole lot of water and take two preventative aspirin before bed (good night's sleep is imperitive) and after I wake up.

Thanks AlexeyD and drpw.
I've been talking with a Belgian friend who's summited six out of the seven summits (all but karstenz) again. He told me that he's been consistently sick when getting above 3500m. He's taken diamox on every trip since he started. And still, he confessed to feeling miserable every single time. It's not the way I'm hoping it to be for me, but... .

Yeah. That seems to be the magic number. 3500-3700 M (11,000 - 11,550 ft or so) is the point. When things start to happen. I really think you need to do 4 days there. Or one day middle and 3 days at that number. Getting sick in the opening few days really reduces your chances of a favorable outcome.

Bon Chance in August!!

Thanks John! Last year we couldn't climb cheget peak as acclimatisation due to border zone issues and recent problems. Hoping we can do it this year.

poonam wrote:In order to devise an efficient acclimatization procedure, ...
it must be light, small, and reliable, and it must be simple and foolproof since the acclimatized
man may be unhandy and impatient. No smell or dust must .

lol "the acclimatized man may be unhandy and impatient". I wonder if there's actually a human in control over these postings - if so it must be a pretty retarded one. If it's a bot I'm impressed.

phlipdascrip wrote:

poonam wrote:In order to devise an efficient acclimatization procedure, ...
it must be light, small, and reliable, and it must be simple and foolproof since the acclimatized
man may be unhandy and impatient. No smell or dust must .

lol "the acclimatized man may be unhandy and impatient". I wonder if there's actually a human in control over these postings - if so it must be a pretty retarded one. If it's a bot I'm impressed.

99.9 % sure that it's a bot. They should also delete his posts though, not just the user. Or ideally, upgrade this forum so this doesn't happen every two hours.

WouterB wrote:

phlipdascrip wrote:

poonam wrote:In order to devise an efficient acclimatization procedure, ...
it must be light, small, and reliable, and it must be simple and foolproof since the acclimatized
man may be unhandy and impatient. No smell or dust must .

lol "the acclimatized man may be unhandy and impatient". I wonder if there's actually a human in control over these postings - if so it must be a pretty retarded one. If it's a bot I'm impressed.

99.9 % sure that it's a bot. They should also delete his posts though, not just the user. Or ideally, upgrade this forum so this doesn't happen every two hours.

I am a moderator on a forum that is a few magnitudes larger than this and even with the most modern forum software with all updates, anti-spam modifications, etc, you still get spam. Some people are just REALLY hell bent on spamming forums with links to knockoff iphones and nikes. We IP-ban any user who spams the forums. We even disallow users from creating posts/threads outside of special 'newbie' forums until they have accrued enough actual posts in those newbie forums but we still get spam.

In other words, there's nothing you can do to stop them except never clicking the links and never buying from them... and you need a responsive moderating staff to constantly clean their crap from your forums.

Unfortunately, you live in a flat country Wouter. Getting on altitude on a regular basis has made a HUGE difference for me. When I started going in the mountains, I got headaches as low as 2500m (!). Now I can go from sea level to 4000m+ without problems.

Unless you want to spend serious $$ on all kinds of equipment, I'd suggest just going a few days earlier and gaining height slowly as suggested earlier in this thread. Also drink lots of water prior and during the trip.

Good luck!! Take some more pics this time

In addition to the tips mentioned above (e.g. drinking a lot of water and taking it slowly (~300 metres a day)): eating a piece of garlic a day (even a couple of days at home before leaving on the trip) might help (a bit like ginko?) (or it might just have a placebo-effect? ).

Also possibly chili, and (if you are in Nepal) the spice called timbur.

peladoboton wrote:dont be hatin' on us flatlanders

LOL Well, I'm technically a flatlander too. I just live a bit closer to the hills now

stefschuermans wrote:

Luciano136 wrote:

peladoboton wrote:dont be hatin' on us flatlanders

LOL Well, I'm technically a flatlander too. I just live a bit closer to the hills now

You came from belgium, moved to suisse and than you started living in california. It's only there where you started being hooked to this climbing bug Lucky man!

I never actually lived in Switzerland (just spend a lot of time there) but you are correct! I was just an alcoholic when I lived in Belgium . That was a lot of fun too though