I'm planning a 50 miler ...

Ed,

Good to see you are going out hiking and that you are wanting to prepare properly. Let me briefly reiterate some of the principles from BBA that you are already concerned about.

1) Preparations in 2008, 2009 & 2010 have no bearing on 2011. You need to have training hikes this year like you mentioned. Those previous hikes just tell you about personality, but not current conditioning. I made the mistake one year to assume that I was still in shape. Bad decision.

2) We also recommend more than a single prep hike. You should have prep hikes preceeding the final shake out hike. Hiking is best way to prepare for hiking.

3) Desolation is one place to get elevation. There are other places. I happen to know that if you want to go to Desolation, the permits are now available online at www.recreation.gov (cut & paste into your browser's URL window - webmaster)

4) Your idea about staying a night at elevation before starting the hike will help a LOT. That is not the only precaution. Remember in BBA we talked about trail profiling. You may want to plan the first day such that you are NOT doing extreme elevations or rapid ascents. Everytime I've hiked hwy-50 to I-80 the first day someone got altitude sickness and lost their lunch. Do your plan after you profile the route you will be taking to ensure the first day allows for altitude aclimation.

5) What will you do if someone gets sick? Plan on what you will do and how you will detect a problem before it gets out of hand.

6) Ensure you take other precautions like proper hydration & proper food intake.

It sounds like you are on the right track.

Good Luck!

You can email me directly if you have any follow-up. The email we encourage is "hat.backpack at gec-bsa.org". (replace the " at " with "@") We do this to prevent SPAM.

Ken

HAT Team

BBA Course Director

Ed,
Plenty of trail areas around Carson Pass. Suggest acclimating at Silver or Caples Lake the night before.

It is also highly recommended that you do more than one shake down weekend trip and maybe do two at a minimum and up to three. We normally schedule three to four before our 50 to 70 mile trips. Since snow will be a factor late this year, it may be difficult getting a solid high altitude backpack trip in early than late June. May have to have some practice outings at a lower elevation. Pt. Reyes is always a good early season place to backpack, as well as Ohlone Wilderness near Livermore.
Lynn

Ed,

Desolation Wilderness is the closest place to get some elevation training other than the eastern Sierra's. Overnight in DW and climb Pyramid Peak which is just under 10,000'. It will be a good indicator on how each member of the team handles altitude. Everyone has a different threshold when it comes to elevation so pay attention to early symptoms and treatment. Take some conditioning hikes at 7,000', then 8,000' and finally 10,000' and see how everyone acclimates. Proper physical conditioning is the key to elevation gain along with a gradual ascent from lower elevations to higher elevations. Fluid intake is a must along with regular eating. Foods should be higher in carbohydrates while at altitude.

From your email, I suspect that everyone will do just fine. I would acclimate near the trail head the day before taking off. If possible, take a short hike from the trailhead to a higher elevation and then sleep at the lower elevation. Work on the pack weights and get them to a reasonable number. Not knowing when the higher elevations will be reached on the 50 miler makes it a little difficult to answer the question. Every day on the trail and at different elevations may solve the problem if your passes are mid-week or towards the end of the trek. Hope this helps.

Mike

HAT Team

Hi Ed,

As you have pointed out the JMW can present some challenging hiking conditions with altitude being one that should be carefully factored in. I am glad to see that you are thinking ahead. When climbing to high altitudes you really need to take some precautions. Here are some things to think about.

1. You should make sure that all of your participants have had a physical for strenuous activity since any pass of 10,000 ft or higher will take a great deal of effort to make it to the top. It’s a matter of oxygen deficiency and stress on the body; particularly carrying a heavy pack. It might be a good time to challenge your group to ultra-light backpacking.

2. Around here it is a little hard to find high elevation trails along the 80/50 corridor, but you can get some by heading up into the Carson Pass area and points south as well as the Desolation Wilderness Area.

3. It is a good idea to use a trailhead that offers some reasonable altitude as a kickoff point. No doubt spending the night before heading out will be of some help, though it will not guarantee that your trekkers will escape being affected by the altitude, it just stacks the cards in your favor. It also gives you a nice head start up the hill instead of adding on the travel time. If you can, plan an overnight stop at a lake somewhere in the middle that it even better. Just keep in mind that the solution to altitude sickness is to head back down the hill.

4. You should make sure to sure to plan plenty of extra time for the hike up to the pass along with sufficient water. I would also have lots of snack food to munch on along the way. Don/t forget that your body needs to replenish itself to keep from running out to go power. For the adult trekkers I also recommend that a couple of aspirin prior to the climb makes a big difference too.

5. This year we have had a lot of snow so you should keep an eye out for snowpack in the areas you plan to hike. Most of these areas can be treacherous areas to lose your footing.

6. Make sure to be prepared for the SUN and HIGH WINDS that are coming on high passes. When I took my son up over a 12,000 foot pass in the Mono Lake area he could hardly stand up against the wild. It is a good idea to have warm clothes handy. Wind will make it cold and leads to dehydration.

Plan it well and you will have a great trek. When you get back drop a note and let us all know how it went.

Jeff

HAT Team

ASM

Ed,

Our Troop is doing a 50+ Miler in July as well. Plan A is Big Meadow to Tahoe City.

We're doing a series of "Prep Hikes" at least 5 and in some cases 8 to get the boys used to all the ins and outs of the whole experience.

For "Acclimation" we're doing on overnights at 8600 Feet where we'll climb, sleep, and climb down.

The day of departure we're hike a very short distance to right at 9000 feet (I know acclimation shouldn't be too much of an issue at that level but it's good to prepare as I've seen younger scouts get the woozies at around 8k ).

One thing about the prep hikes, since we have a wide range of experience levels, we put them to the test during the prep hikes to insure that they not only make it but actually enjoy themselves. For instance, we're planning on mostly 6-8 mile days but our prep hikes will be 12 and above. I strive to get them to "work through discomfort" during the prep hikes so we can avoid a boy deciding he cannot continue day 4 into an 8 day trek.

I'd be happy to share our plan with you if you're interested.

YIS
Scott

Ed,

One of the problems when hiking in high altitude is the body needs to shed excess lactic acid that is produced while strenuous exercise (hiking). Your body has two whys to shed this acid, one is sweating the other is urination. When hiking at high altitude either way is hard.

Avoid any citric acid in our meal planning, this includes oranges, and drinks that include citric acid. Altitude sickness can take 2 forms, one is head ace from lack of water and swelling of the brain the other is stomach sickness which is usually caused by excess acid. When we climbed Shasta and Whitney (+14,000') we made sure we had a large quantity of Tums or Rolaids. Taking 5-10 per day and especially if some one gets a whozzy stomach. One of the things we found helpful in training is STEEP HILLS with your packs. Find some 5-8 mile hikes that are up steep hills. This builds up your legs and allows for quicker release of the lactic acids. Your body needs to get efficients at getting ride of the excess acid. DRINK LOTS OF WATER!!

Since we have snow in the high country, you may look into snow shoe at high altitude with packs.

Just another opinon, good luck and send pictures.

John

Shingle Springs

Ed;

It is farther away but Mt Shasta might be considered. Tough hike in any case (snow or loose shale). Not recommended as a first training trip.

Head gear strongly suggested (Helen Lake up) and the ability to rope up if necessary. If attempted in snow be aware that there are fissures; I never saw the bottom of them. The Chimney section is a rock (gear) fall hazard area.

Parking lot is approximately 7,000ft, Sierra Club cabin approximately 8,000 feet, Helen Lake (glacial) is over 10,000 feet and then another 4,000+ feet to the summit. Overnighting at each elevation (not at summit) helps.

A day at each elevation might be educational. It might still be snow covered into June and …….

Coming down (7,000 feet over 6 miles or so – summit to parking lot) from the top can be on the final day after summiting. Consider leaving some gear at the Lake unless you want the full grunt experience of full packs to 14, 162.

Downhill shale slides will be a real test. Stride length got to be more than 10’ with pack and trying to stay upright. We were so stiff after driving into Mt Shasta City we had to use our arms to pull ourselves out of the car.

Jerry

HAT Team

Hi Ed,

I thought I'd add my experiences to the discussion. I've had three sons involved in the scouts so I've been lucky enough to chaperone twelve 50-milers, many of which were of the higer elevation kind. It sounds like we did a similar trip to yours, hiking over Donahue Pass on the way toward Tuolumne Meadows and looping back over Koip Pass returning to Agnew Meadows. This is truly spectacular country.

In all of the trips, we never had a confirmed case of altitude sickness. There have been some flu-like symptoms, but more likely due to the flu. Like others have pointed out, I attribute this to conditioning, experience, and a bit of luck. Even people who have never exhibited a prior tendency to altitude sickness can be stricken on a trip. The experience factor has to do with both equipment and exertion/pace. If you have folks that are comfortable with minimizing their gear and know what level of pace they can sustain, you should be good.

Just to prove there are always contradictions in the medical field, I read an article a few years back that agrued against a short acclimation period (1-2 days). Their agrument was based on the biological changes that improve efficiency at high altitude take several weeks to complete and the initial changes are actually detrimental to hemoglobin transportation. Typically, we had a hard enough time carving out 4-5 days for the trip so acclimation was not in the schedule. Plus, most of the trailheads are at the base of Sierras guaranteeing a difficult first day. But, our kids (and adults) always did well and had a great time. I'm sure the enthusiasm offset some of the more milder altitude sickness symptoms.

Have a great trip.

Regards,

Steve

Newcastle

This page revised April 8, 2011