Inquiry 2
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High Altitude Mountaineering is one of the most physically demanding and dangerous sports in the world. With people being able to summit mountains over 8000 m in height, what separates people taking 30+ days and others only a fraction of that time. When ascending mountains every meter you climb the oxygen becomes thinner and thinner. To adapt to this, climbers have to wait every thousand or so meters. A study showed that every 1000 meters in elevation you must wait a week and a half for your body to acclimate. This is why most expeditions take so long. So then how are other climbers able to avoid hypoxia and altitude sickness? Well for starters they can bring supplemental oxygen with them. But what about Kilian Jornet and others like him. Jornet was able to summit Everest from base in 26 hours with no supplemental oxygen. To cut down on time he decided to solo the mountain. Going alone means that you have no protection if you fall, but it also means you spend no time setting up safety. This method can cut down hours of the climb. To survive the extreme altitude he trained for a month by spending time in hypoxic chambers. This adjusted his body to be able to survive the extreme conditions. He also went and acclimated in the alps right before his Everest ascent. There are forces that can't be controlled that affect how fast a climb is such as weather changes, atmospheric pressure changes, avalanche conditions, and genetics. However, the most notable difference between your average high altitude climber and the fastest in the world is the type of training and preparation. For expeditions such as Jornet’s, they will wait until the weather is at its best, often waiting weeks at base camp for the perfect moment to ascend. Before their expedition starts they will also train in very specific ways to combat what they are trying to overcome.
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