Opinion – It’s Right There: Acclimatization is halfway to the high peaks

A few years ago, after completing the Camino de Santiago, I thought I was ready for more daring undertakings. I decided that the next expedition would have to include a climb to the top of Huayna Potosi, a mountain in the Andes mountain range, in Bolivia, with 6,088 meters of altitude and a beautiful peak of eternal snow. He knew, by ear, that it would be necessary to do some acclimatization, that is, to get the organism used to the atypical altitude. For this, I dedicated the previous three weeks to hiking trails in different regions above 4,000 meters, and some above 5,000, such as Chacaltaya (5,421 meters).

What I imagined to be the ideal preparation went smoothly, convincing me that I was ready for Potosi. silly! An American we met and who was suspicious of the exaggeration of our goal suggested that we test our breath and physical preparation on a smaller mountain, but with a climb technically classified as difficult, the peak Austria (5,320 meters). With little time for the task, we climbed the Chacaltaya one day and the next we went to Austria. The next day, we would face the Huayna Potosi.

Is it ignorance that calls, or is it pride?

Long story short: just under 40 meters from the summit of Austria (which would require at least another 3 hours of zigzag up the mountain), the illusion is over. Every few steps, the clock ticked 180 heartbeats per minute, a barbarity for a half-assed sixty-year-old. The feeling was like an empty bag, zero energy, the legs were shaking in the midst of the loose stones of the trail and the hands refused to hold the poles. In short, it’s trouble announced on sight.

We then turned around and, swallowing our pride, went all the way back down. I was kindly advised by the guide that the ascent, less than 24 hours later, to Potosi, should be cancelled. There would be no time for proper acclimatization.

“This story of yours is typical”, consoles me Rúbia Silva, from Vertex Treks, an agency specialized in taking groups to high mountains all over the planet. “People think it’s just going up and sleeping, going up and sleeping and moving on, but it’s not quite like that”. Among the basic rules (and which, unwary and inexperienced, we don’t follow) she mentions going up and down more sharply, with breaks proportional to the mountaineer’s preparation.

“Without proper acclimatization, you can be a medalist athlete with five hundred Olympic gold medals, who won’t get anywhere”, guarantees Rúbia, a mountaineer for nine years with experience in some of the highest mountains and trails in the world – such as the star trekking to Everest base camp. She also points out that physical preparation for the mountain is not exactly going to be pulling iron at the gym, in the best Arnold Schwarzenegger style. “A body that is too muscular is going to have a harder time acclimatizing, because the more muscle, the more oxygen the body requires.” Because the air is thin at higher altitudes, balance is key, she explains.

Mountaineer Thais Cavicchiolli Dias, who recently returned from a long trip through the main passes between the Himalayan mountains, explains that, to face the severe altimetry (difference in altitudes faced in each section of the route), she adopted two different techniques.

“The first was to slowly gain altitude, trying each night not to sleep more than 300 meters higher than the night before,” she says. “And I combined this acclimatization model with what they call a ‘climb high sleep slow’, which is basically going high and sleeping low.” That is, if one day she climbed a higher mountain, she would descend to sleep at the level of the previous night. “I would spend two days at the same altitude and on the third day I would gain around 300, 400 meters maximum,” she says, adding that hydration was also critical to her performance. “I drank at least 4 liters of water a day, which is not easy, but as the climate is very dry and cold at altitude, people sweat a little and feel less thirsty, so drinking lots of fluids is important.”

Digestion, continues Thais, was also slower, which was resolved by reducing the first meal of the day before the start of the walk to a minimum and dividing food consumption into small doses throughout the walk. “Only when she knew that she would no longer walk, that she would be able to rest, would she eat a bigger meal, to let her body digest without pressure”, she says.

Well, now that I know how much I did wrong on that mountain that humiliated me, maybe one day I’ll find a way to go back there and make things right, right?