Concerns of altitude sickness?

Question

I'll be hiking a mountain that reaches almost 11,000 feet in elevation within the next few weeks.

A little background on myself...I'm young, healthy, relatively fit, and live essentially at sea level. However, I've never done a hike that gets nearly that high in elevation, and I don't think I've ever even been that high in elevation in general.

As for the hike, it'll be a day hike. When we arrive at the base we'll be at about 2,000 feet, which doesn't concern me. However, what concerns me, is that we'll take a tram that'll take us up to 8,500 feet within 20 minutes. Then, from 8,500 feet, we will attempt to hike to the summit at 11,000 feet. Obviously I'll be hydrating the day before and day of, but I feel as though it's inevitable that my body will produce some type of altitude sickness symptom due to the quick gain in altitude.

For anyone who's done something even remotely similar, how can I expect my body to react? Any tips? Thanks

T F · Accepted Answer

Being fit and in shape has nothing to do with elevation sickness. 
It gets some people and not others. I've been at 14K with no problems whatsoever. I've been out with people who feel it at 8K. It's just luck of the draw.
You're clearly taking the tram up to Mt. San Jacinto. (Enjoy). The only thing you can do is make sure to stay hydrated and you may want to pop an aspirin before you go. 
You won't have much time to acclimatize obviously so I would suggest keeping a slow pace to begin the hike. Maybe even hang out for a bit before you head up to see how you feel. You'll be breathing harder either way when you get on the trail so just accept that it's part of hiking at elevation. Your breathing will level out. 
Of course, THINKING that you're going to get sick makes the odds of it happening higher because of how our minds work.
But if you start getting ripping headaches or become very dizzy it's not something you want to mess around with. Descend. It will go away as soon as you're at a lower elevation. 
Don't sweat it. There's no point to that. Just go and see how you feel. I'm sure you'll be fine.

◦•●◉✿ plυмdυмplιngѕ ✿◉●•◦ · Answer

There is a drug that prevents altitude sickness. It's called Diamox. You might want to talk to your doctor about it.

Here's a very detailed page with all kinds of information about altitude sickness when climbing http://www.traveldoctor.co.uk/altitude.htm

Personal experience from going to Cuzco, Peru which is at 11,000 feet: There were four of us. We all felt pretty dizzy the minute we got off of the plane! One of us went down within 12 hours. Bad. Really bad. Like a horrible flu - fever, chills, vomiting, etc. No amount of coca leaves helped. Oxygen didn't do much either. He made it to Macchu PIcchu (it's lower) but returned to Lima instead of continuing on to a higher altitude with us. The surviving three went to Puno at 12,500. One got fairly sick, one got a bit sick, and one (me) was fine the whole way.

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Concerns of altitude sickness?

2 Answers