High altitude climbing

The problem with a cheeky week away for significant altitude is that you wouldn’t get time to acclimatise.

We’ve used this option a few times to acclimatise,  altho there’s no guarantee cos everyone is different.

Drive to Cervinia, catch the early morning cable car to Testa Grigia (3500m), walk up the piste to summit of Breithorn (4164m). This is def. the easiest 4000m peak in the alps and only about 3hrs round trip. you can walk most of it unroped up the side of the piste ski runs. You cross a couple of piste and then rope up and do the final summit slope. I’ve done it with 4 others as acclimatisation and we were back in Cervinia before any of us got altitude headaches, so I’m pretty confident the same in your case. Don’t make any plans for the afternoon as you’ll probably not feel great. 

You could do something similar in chamonix going up to the high cable car station there (can’t recall the name right now). The advantage with the other option is you get up a 4000m peak

‘Ti’s true. I soloed the Breithorn whilst my climbing chums had lunch :-)

Toubkal was a great trip. Did it with MrsDTs before kids in 2006 I think.

Easy to fly there from most of UK I think, we were on the first flight from BRS to MAR. There was even a band there to welcome us!

Feels proper foreign, and has a different culture, and very different landscape to Euro Alps. We did it in Spring but very late snowfall made it seriously cold and very snowy/icy. Used to being at altitude skiing but 4k m was a good intro. Felt hard but wasn’t difficult or challenging climbing wise.

Not busy at all for us at the time. Just us and a small bunch of UK scouts that were all an absolutely great bunch of kids. We had the summit to ourselves, just the three of us.

We did a 3 night / 4 day trek with guide, mule (Muffin, Obvs) and muleteer carrying our gear which was brilliant. We stayed in local houses some of which were very excited to be getting electricity for the first time the week after we were there.. Probably very different there now..

Edit. I went to see Kenton Cool last night. I have zero interest in anything like K2. It sounds bloody terrible. His comment was that when he did K2 in 2021 he was about 270th person to summit K2. This year the 750th person summited..

I’ve been up Mt Blanc a few times via different routes, always starting from the Midi, and various routes down.  Despite the moaning about the crowds, this that and the other I’ve always enjoyed it and found it good value. Never used a hut.  But I’m not sure I’d want to do it with a guide, rather get some experience and find a friend.

If you want a better trip with a guide I think I’d look at the Aiguille Verte BUT at the moment it’s a dog of a walk as the Montenvers telepherique is still being repaired . Still…. https://www.chamonix-guides.com/en/activities/details/legendary-summit-aiguille-verte

I’ve heard it said many times, but don’t know if it’s apocryphal, but smokers often adapt better to it than non smokers.

Sounds like nonsense to me. How well/quickly* you adapt is largely down to genetics but you can stack the odds in your favour and get the most out of your genetics by being as fit as you can.

*These can be different things, some people that take longer to acclimatise actually do better in the end.

Sounds like nonsense to me. How well/quickly* you adapt is largely down to genetics but you can stack the odds in your favour and get the most out of your genetics by being as fit as you can.

Yep, quite. I seem to remember that Ed Viesturs, who went very well at altitude, also benefitted from having a colossal VO2 Max. Also, my mate who acclimatised appallingly badly, was also a smoker, a fit smoker, but still a smoker.

I went to see Kenton Cool last night. I have zero interest in anything like K2. It sounds bloody terrible.

I think there’s a lot to be said for not climbing hard-ish things at extreme altitudes. Like not dying. There’s some K2 stuff on YouTube that’s quite sobering.

I think there’s a lot to be said for not climbing hard-ish things at extreme altitudes. Like not dying.

When I was a kid starting out climbing, I thought I’d get into Himalayan climbing. This was mainly because I’d read a bunch of books about it. Then I realised that it’s just massively hard work both before and during. And also bloody scary. So I didn’t.

Saas-Fee has a fine selection of 4000m peaks.

I have found it’s more or less random who suffers from altitude sickness. I had to pull a pal who’s a 30 year experienced Everest climbing IFMGA guide off the mountain at 5500m who suffered very uncharacteristically one year, but was fine around K2 the next. Diamox definitely helps acclimatisation and being fit makes the whole thing less miserable. Big mistake most people make is going too fast, too high, too soon.

Same as Supernova, a number of partners of various  physical  attributes, preparation etc. At the extremes I have one pal who I would consider to be generally slim athletic type  cycled to work every day etc who always suffers quite badly at relatively low alpine altitude, we were once pinned down for a few days in bad weather at monchjoch hutte 3658m after spending a few day working up to that altitude and he started to suffer from pulmonary Oedema (fluid in the lungs), we had to catch the train down to Grindelwald after a few days. A 2nd pal walked straight up to the Margherita hut 4554m and spent the night there without issue, he was pretty unfit and a recent reformed smoker/boozer.  So, it’s a complete lottery IME at 3000m – 4800m euro alps sort of range.

I was plodding up a 5000m ridge line on an acclimatising day and felt what I can only describe as a grape being squashed in my head. Instantly lost all depth perception and felt totally exhausted. Told my climbing partner I was ok and I’d wait for him to come back down. Wobbled back down several hours later and could barely walk the next day. Spent most of the day sat next to a horse in a tea house kitchen by the fire. It was cold out and the horse wanted to be warm!

Next day felt great and got going again, joys of altitude, go up slow come back alive.