Has anyone ever hiked a 8k meter/26k ft. mountain?

[swede123]

The advice about trying some fourteeners is good; high altitudes aren't for everyone and it definitely helps to build up by doing some relatively easy hikes before setting your sights on the serious climbs.

Colorado has something like 48 peaks over 14K. I have hiked four of those (four of the easiest in terms of technical challenge) in the past several years and even for a fairly fit person used to living at Denver's altitude it's definitely noticable how much less oxygen there is at 14K feet.

Swede

[Rushmore]

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Just read into thin air by Jon Krakauer and it has piqued my interest in doing some big mountain climbing. Does anyone here have any experience climbing any of the huge mountains in the world, or even some of the 2nd tier type mountains like Kilimanjaro, Denali, or Vinson? Any info or trip reports would be greatly appreciated, as I think I am aiming for a Kilimanjaro trip about a year from now. Thanks!

James

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Into Thin Air was a great book, really riveting.

One thing that cannot be underestimated is the effect of altitude on certain people. I went up a paltry 14,000 feet (the Matterhorn) and felt like I was huffing glue with a hangover while on chemotherapy. Little old ladies were walking past me like I was standing still. I was in the ice cave, waiting for the sweet lord baby Jesus to come and take me with Him to Heaven above.

But that didn't happen.

[The DaveR]

James, I read Banner in the Sky in 6th grade and thought it would be awesome too. If you start this hobby I'll have to call you Rudi.

[Banks2334]

James,
Kilimanjaro is more like mountain hiking than climbing. Most of the snow has melted and the hardest part is adapting to the altitude. You would be better served by starting with smaller peaks and actually learning some skills and seeing if you even like the activity.
Just like the poker boom has brought out a lot of wanna be poker pros, Krakauer's book brought out a bunch of wanna be mountaineers. The mountains are full of people who don't know what they are doing, just see the current Everest show on the Discovery Channel. You'll definitley be safer and probably have a better time avoiding the zoo of people on the popular "yak routes".

[Thremp]

Entity,

I was talking about just hiking and him dying. He seems like a prime candidate to die on just a walking type hike.

[peachy]

I climbed one of the tallest point in Central America, it was not easy!! It was the Santa Maria Volcano, I was the only American in our group to make it!! At the top it was over 12ft (4k m), nothing compared to some mountains, but I was proud!!! Ive climed a good deal of other things too, conditioning is obviously key...

[Badger]

There's mountain climbing by climbing, and there's mountain climbing by hiking. I'm not too well versed on the worlds tallest peaks, but I think Kilimanjaro may be one of the few big ones that you can do by just hiking. One of my hiking buddies did Pico de Orizaba which is the 7th tallest peak, and not a difficult hike for being nearly 5000 meters.
I've done some 14ers in Colorado, and as others here have mentioned if you're in the states that's a great place to start out.
I've only needed technical equipment on one of my hikes, and that was Jebel Toubkal in Morocco. This was an amazing hike, and could be done easily, were it not for the conditions I arrived in. This was actually my first real hiking trip ever, and it's what got me hooked.
I was living in Spain and took a bus to Marrakesh (30 hours of hell). From there we went to Asni and then got a cab ride to the small village of Imlil (I think). I was almost certain that this crazy taxi ride past winding ravines on narrow roads without guardrails was going to be how I died. There's a Refuge built by French Alpinists about 2/3rds of the way to the peak where we stayed, although you can summit it in one day with an early start.
Our climb involved a lot of waste deep snow and I was wearing jeans, tennis shoes and a hooded sweatshirt under a heavy raincoat. Crampons were necessary to reach the top and ice axes sure helped. When we arrived there had not been any succesful summits for a week or two, so we were lucky that it was clearing up. There were three of us that went on this hike. My one friend who was an experienced hiker had no problems, and my other friend who was out of shape barely made it. The day we summited was difficult because we climbed to the top, and then descended all the way down to Imlil, which was like 1000 meters of ascent and 2400 of descent. It was a lot for my first hike.

Nothing quite like what you are talking about, but I thought I'd share my first time. Jebel Toubkal is Northern Africa's tallest mountain, which is dwarfed by Africa's tallest mountain, which you want to hike.

[James282]

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Why don't you try to hike something like 12kft first with a rise of 5k feet in a day first then decide?


Odds are you might get yourself killed on this one.

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Rofl, get killed on Kilimanjaro? Are you crazy? I know it happens, but with good guides and good physical fitness(i ski ~70-75 days a winter, exercise in the summer) the death rate is absurdly low compared to most extreme-type adventures. The most common cause of death in big mountain climbing is altitude related sicknesses, and good guides are notorious for being overcautious with signs of hape and hace so I'm not overly worried about that aspect. I also have lived at mile+ altitude for two years and skied 10k+ altitudes many times and have had no trouble with altitude sickness, so I don't think I'll die. But thanks for your concern!

James

[James282]

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Entity,

I was talking about just hiking and him dying. He seems like a prime candidate to die on just a walking type hike.

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What makes me such a prime candidate? I am not planning on going tomorrow, I'm planning on going a year from now and doing plenty of training in the meantime. I have to be in better shape right now than most people who attempt this sort of thing as a male in his physical prime who has been a competitive long distance runner and who exercises 4-5 days a week. If you have any advice or cautionary tales I'd really appreciate them, but your pessimism seems unwarranted.

-james

[James282]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Why don't you try to hike something like 12kft first with a rise of 5k feet in a day first then decide?


Odds are you might get yourself killed on this one.

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Odds are good that James won't get himself killed on Kilimanjaro. The majority of the mountain is walkable, and it's not nearly as technical of a climb as many other peaks of similar height. It's considered the worlds highest "walkable" mountain.

James,

I haven't done a ton of mountaineering, especially on higher peaks, but I would recommend getting some basic mountaineering experience and determining how you feel about the sport first. Learn the basics, roping up, crampon techniques, crevasse rescue, etc. You can learn most of these on a lot of technically moderate-to-difficult climbs that can get you a taste of what you'd be in for when climbing a more difficult route like Denali.

I would personally recommend something like a seven-day training course on Mt. Rainier (14,410ft), which will certainly test your abilities while helping train you for something like Denali or other climbs.

Keep in mind the differences between Denali and a climb like Kilimanjaro are very very large.

Rob

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Hi Rob, I'm fully aware how different all of these mountains are. I'm mostly interested in hearing stories from people who have done any of them - not saying I plan on doing any technical climbs myself(i don't at this point). As far as basic hiking experience, I have it. I'm not sure if I came across like reading Into Thin Air is the only experience I have with climbing, but it isn't, don't worry.

James