Oxygen tank necessary hiking Inca Trail?

Hi

My friends and I are planning on hiking the Inca Trail. We are in okay
shape (mid 30s and relatively active). However, one of us has a
medical condition which does not allow her to take concentrated oxygen
(i.e. no oxygen tanks). I read that buses in Peru carry oxygen tanks
and some Inca trail guides carry oxygen tanks. How likely is it that
one needs to use the oxygen tanks on Inca Trail? What about on any
other parts of Peru?

Thanks,
JGoo

You should not need oxygen on any of the trails. Oxygen is not commonly
used by mountaineers below 24,000 feet elevation or so.

What is most important is to spend a couple of days acclimatizing to the
altitude before starting your hike. The worst thing that you could do
would be to fly from sea level on Monday and hike to 12,000 feet on
Tuesday, altitude sickness would be veru likely. If you can find a town
at 5,000 to 8,000 feet, that would be ideal, maybe take some day hikes
at higher elevation before starting a more significant trip. Take the
time to find out what the town and trail elevations are, this should
help you plan better. It usually takes three days for your body to
acclimatize to a higher elevation.

Look up altitude sickeness on Google, you should find lots.

Richard


jgoo wrote:
Hi

My friends and I are planning on hiking the Inca Trail. We are in okay
shape (mid 30s and relatively active). However, one of us has a
medical condition which does not allow her to take concentrated oxygen
(i.e. no oxygen tanks). I read that buses in Peru carry oxygen tanks
and some Inca trail guides carry oxygen tanks. How likely is it that
one needs to use the oxygen tanks on Inca Trail? What about on any
other parts of Peru?

Thanks,
JGoo



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Sculptures in copper and other metals

jgoo wrote:

How likely is it that one needs to use the oxygen tanks on Inca
Trail? What about on any other parts of Peru?

****************
Except for a medical emergency, totally unlikely. Nevertheless,
you will have to acclimate or else you will be miserable. The
change in oxygen from sea level to even as low as 10,000 is
perceptible. Some people, because of some medical condition,
cannot withstand elevations much over 10,000 feet.

The bottom line is that when oxygen is used in climbing, it
amounts to a stockpiled assault tactic. It is good for a short
time, and the bottles are often abandoned (left as trash) on the
mountain. This is not even remotely close to what you would
be doing on a hike.

Michael