Altitude sickness avoid rapid ascents · Avoid rapid ascents in Altitude sickness
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Avoid rapid ascents in Altitude sickness
Avoid rapid ascents in Altitude sickness
Rapid ascents are the opposite of acclimatization; you make a rapid ascent when you're gaining altitude faster than recommended. This may mean climbing and camping higher than recommended, but you can also make an even more rapid ascent by driving to a high altitude location, and flying from low altitude to high altitude is an even more rapid ascent. For example, flying from sea level to Lhasa, Tibet, which is 3700 meters (12,000 feet) high, is distinctly unwise. Consider spending a week or so at an intermediate altitude; see Overland to Tibet for some possibilities. If you are going to travel around Tibet ? where some inhabited areas are over 5000 meters (16,000 feet) and some mountains over 8000 meters (26,000 feet), so do not set out until you are thoroughly acclimatised in Lhasa.
Where possible, avoid ascents more rapid than recommended above, particularly any sudden ascent to 3000 meters (10,000 feet) or higher. Even if you are taking Acetazolamide (below) a rapid ascent makes it more likely you'll get AMS and makes AMS progress to serious illness faster, so you will have less time to respond and descend.
Be particularly wary with oxygen equipment: some tourists have died at altitude when their equipment failed and they were utterly unacclimatized.
Consider road or rail travel rather than flying directly to somewhere with a very high altitude — but remember that the surface option often involves a lot higher altitudes: the Manali-Leh road for example will take you from below 2000 meters (7000 feet) to 5000 meters (16,000 feet) in less than a day. Or fly in stages, stopping somewhere at moderate altitude in between. If you must fly to any destination about 3000 meters (10,000 feet) at least spend a few days at some intermediate destination en route. If flying to a more moderate altitude above 2500 meters (8000 feet), you will still want to spend several nights at that altitude before setting off into higher country.
Refrain from smoking and alcohol when you arrive by plane in a high altitude area from lower altitudes.
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Altitude sickness Travel Guide from Wikitravel. Many thanks to all Wikitravel contributors. Text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0, images are available under various licenses, see each image for details.