Hiking this summer ~ mountains around 10,000 ~ 14,000 feet elevation

Lassen Peak & Lake Helen

   This summer I went hiking to Mt. Whitney (14,505 feet / 4,421m), Lassen Peak (10,457 feet / 3,187m) and Mt. Dina (13,061 feet / 3,981m).  Unfortunately, I did not wear the heart rate monitor when I hiked to Mt. Dana.  Therefore I did not really detail comparison.  But based on the elevation gain, distance and duration, I compared the three cases.

   For fair comparison, I use a data between Trail Camp and Trail Crest.  Since this section is a similar elevation as Mt. Dana.

	Elevation Gain (Vertical speed)	Distance (Speed)	Ratio (Elevation/Distance)	Duration (H:MM)	Elevation
Mt. Whitney	6,100 feet 1,900m	11 miles 17.5km			14,505 feet 4,421m
(Trail Camp to Trail Crest)	1,700 feet 518m (4.8m/min)	2.2 miles 3.5km (32m/min)	0.15 (8.5 degrees)	1:49	13,700 feet 4,176m
Lassen Peak	2,000 feet 609m (6.8m/min)	2.5 miles 4.0km (45m/min)	0.15 (8.8 degrees)	1:29	10,457 feet 3,187m
Mt. Dana	3,108 feet 947m (6.4m/min)	2.9 miles 4.7km (32m/min)	0.20 (11.6 degrees)	2:28	13,061 feet 3,981m

   They are different elevation, Trail Crest on Mt. Whitney Trail is the highest, Mt. Dana is the second and Lassen Peak is the last.  The average slop for Mt. Whitney (Trail Crest) and Lassen Peak is a similar and Mt. Dana is the steepest.  All cases has a similar weight on the backpack for a day trip.  Obviously, data for Lassen Peak is the fastest.  I did not really see much impact for the altitude.

   Mt. Whitney (Trail Crest) and Mt. Dana is a similar elevation, although Trail Crest is a bit higher than Mt. Dana.  Overall speed is almost the same.  But Mt. Dana is steeper, if we look at the vertical speed, the vertical speed for Mt. Dana is much faster than the vertical speed for Mt. Whitney (Trail Crest).  This indicates, the steepness is the reason the walking pace is slower.   Since the vertical speed for Mt. Dana is close to the vertical speed for Lassen Peak, I think there might not be much impact for the altitude in Mt. Dana case.   It could be possible I was acclimated after Mt. Whitney Hiking.   However, it was 2 weeks after Mt. Whitney hiking and I only stay there for 2 days.  It might be hard to believe I did.   So my opinion, since Mt. Dana hiking is short and I was able to push myself and I could make faster pace without much problems.  Although I did not have heart rate monitor, I believe I managed my heart rate / walking pace very well except really last portion of the summit.  I did not feel any obvious symptom of high altitude sickness when I hiked to Mt. Dana.

   It might be hard to tell if hiking to Mt. Dana helps the acclimation to the altitude or not just from this data.   For this conclusion, I need to collect more data to see if there is any data point to indicate the acclimation.

Mt. Whitney Hiking Guide “Hiking the highest mountain in California”

·         Go to Amazon.com

(Or you may go to your local Amazon site and search “ASIN: B01IFSFBV6”)