Acclimatizing to altitude has two basic components. The first is going up slowly enough that you don’t get serious altitude sickness, which is High Altitude Cerebral Edema (HACE) or High Altitude Pulmonary Edema (HAPE). That is the reason we took a week to reach base camp (5150m), rather than two days, which the drive could take.
The component now which matters to us is getting stronger at altitude, which is also a process that takes days, indeed weeks and seems to be helped by exercising every day. Although there is saying, “Climb high, sleep low”, this is simplistic and if we really followed the 300m a day gain in altitude guideline, we would actually take around 9-10 days to reach 5150m, indeed our normal trek itinerary on the south side. So here we are heading down in altitude for the first few days trips, rather than higher.
Yesterday we headed down to visit Rongbuk Monastery and most of the crew joined for part of the way too. It turned out to be a very special experience thanks to the nuns of the monastery, and the generosity of a Tibetan guide we met previously.
Everything is going well, perhaps more photos this evening - Jamie
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