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Comment by tim333 | Hacker News Reader

Nitpick that the 'trek' is to basecamp generally and fairly safe - the odd heart attack amongst the unfit. The climb above there to the summit is the dangerous bit.

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I was flown out of base-camp with pulmonary edema along with a Sherpa on a climbing team who was dying from the same thing. Happens to everyone. This is probably the biggest scare if you're doing the trek to base-camp. Drink plenty of water. Don't go too fast. Try not to catch cold before your trek. If you can, get your hands on some meds that help you acclimate easier/faster. And I almost forgot, get yourself travel insurance. Costs $90 but could potentially save you a $10K heli ride out of the mountains and a couple of grand in hospital expenses if shit hits the fan.

> Drink plenty of water.

Cannot stress on this enough.

Dimox is usually advised for anyone doing a high altitude trek in which case one has to drink more water than usual.

>> get your hands on some meds that help you acclimate easier/faster

Do such drugs safely assist with acclimation, or do they mostly mask symptoms? It would be very dangerous to take them if it's the latter. I'm thinking of any similarity to pain killers - just because you can't feel the pain does not mean you should be running around trying to operate at 100%.

We had a number of people in my team who started taking prescribed drugs 2 weeks prior to the trip. Now, I never took anything, but from us measuring blood oxygen levels a few times a day, the drugs seemed to have helped absorb and retain oxygen levels in your blood stream better. It didn't seem to mask symptoms. In fact, by the time we got to base-camp nearly every single person on the team had some mild symptoms of altitude sickness (headache & dizziness). It's just that nobody's symptoms escalated to a full-blown HAPE (except for mine that is). Having said that, I don't think anything but proper acclimatization will help you with HACE. Once you get it, which typically happens at very high altitudes, you're pretty much screwed which I believe happens nearly every season on Everest climbs.

I've carried Diamox but never used it. I'm probably pretty lucky in that I've never had a noticeable issue at modest (3-4K meter) elevations and I've only had bad headaches a couple times when getting back from climbing up to around the 6K meter range.

I haven't been up to that altitude for a fairly long time. I can't say I'm up on the various recommended protocols.

> Drink plenty of water.

FYI, this is true anytime you go from sea level to any altitude. Live on the coast and go to Denver for ski trip? Drinking a ton of water will help your body acclimate faster.

Go easy on alcohol too. It hits you way harder and faster at altitude.

It's true. But it can and does kill fit people occasionally too. Some 25% of people are genetically predisposed to altitude sickness above 4000m according to a researcher I met while walking that trek myself. Base camp is well above 5000m.

Amazing trek though. One of the greatest experiences of my life.

Agreed. I have heard of many cases of evacs from Base camp. There are often deals worked out with chopper companies that allow them to claim off your insurance and you get a cheaper trip down the mountain (unnecessary evacuations, fast rides down).

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