What Happens to Your Body When You Climb Truly TALL Peaks

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There is something about climbing at altitude that I really enjoy. I liken it to what accomplished off-width climbers talk about in terms of really testing your whole body… maybe even more so. At altitude, we get to the point that we are testing our entire physiology, even the completely unconscious elements of our cardiorespiratory (heart and lungs) and endocrine (hormones) systems. We have to worry about our brains (cerebral edema risk). We have to worry about our veins (thrombosis risk). And then there is still the psychological, emotional, and fitness components of moving up into increasingly dangerous places.

That is not to say that I want to do this type of climbing all of the time. There is something to the idea that increasing frequency of a risky activity increases the likelihood of those risks coming to fruition. But I do long for the occasional expedition to the heights and that full mind/body/spirt test that high altitude brings.

But, while I may be talking about peaks in the 6000 and 7000-meter range (I actually have no interest in the 8000-meter peaks because I prefer more isolated and exploratory climbing), the same altitude tests can come in lots of forms. I read in a study about altitude related illness that, if we exclude Antarctica, 2.5% of the worlds land mass is above 3000 meters. There are very few places on the planet where altitude is high enough to be a health risk. That also means that most people don’t live near those altitudes. I happen to be - in my opinion, given my love of the alpine - lucky in that I do live near higher altitudes. I can be above 3000 meters in an hours drive… and not much longer to be above 4000 meters. But most of the human population does not have such easy access to the heights. So, while me going from my home at 1500 meters to a climb at 4000 meters is not too big of a deal, it can be a very different circumstance for someone who lives at sea level. My point is that the need to properly acclimatize is pretty relative to your living elevation. The kind of altitude test I get at 5500 meters in South America, Alaska, or Asia might not be that much different than a sea-level dweller might get at 4000 meters going to the Alps or even a Colorado 14er (a peak in Colorado taller than 14,000 feet or nearly 4300 meters).

It reminds me of a Nick Bullock observation: that the 5.7 rock climber can have a pretty similar experience to the 5.13 rock climber when they are both climbing at their limits.

So, if any of use are going to test ourselves at altitude, no matter what that test is in terms of a number of meters, I think we need to take seriously the potential hazards that come when our bodies need to adjust because, well, there isn’t a goo way to know how our bodies will adjust. There is very little, in terms of immutable characteristics, that we have found that correlates with whether or not people acclimate well. Rather, it seems to be all about the process: the gradual exposure to higher and higher elevations that lets our bodies take they time they need to adjust.

We need some tactics, then, that will improve our odds of adjusting well. We need to be familiar with altitude related illnesses so that we can be aware of the warning signs, and we need to understand what our bodies are going through so that we can take some measures that will help (not guarantee, but help) prevent those illnesses for impacting us. This video gets into all of that.