Challenges of Hiking at High Altitudes

John Hoyt Williams is a self-employed tax planning and investment management leader in Madison, Mississippi. When he isn’t working, Hoyt Williams enjoys adventuresome outdoor activities such as high-altitude hiking.

The challenges of high-elevation hiking will differ depending on the health level of each individual hiker and the elevation level of their home location. This is because the human body naturally acclimates to the atmospheric pressure that surrounds it.

In general, humans operate at optimum physical and mental capacity at sea level. When they reach roughly 7,000 feet above sea level, the lack of atmospheric pressure and oxygen concentration begin to affect most people. In terms of hiking, high altitude is considered to be roughly 4,900 to 11,500 feet above sea level. Very high altitude is roughly 11,500 to 18,000 feet above sea level, and extreme altitude is roughly 18,000 feet and above.

Hiking at high to extremely high altitudes can dramatically impair general physical and mental performance. This impairment and the various health conditions it can cause are generally defined by the umbrella term “altitude sickness.” Symptoms of altitude sickness may range from nausea and headache to loss of breath and balance. Extreme cases of altitude sickness include the potentially fatal conditions HAPE (high-altitude pulmonary edema) and HACE (high-altitude cerebral edema).