Acclimatization is a key to successful and safe mountain climbing. The keyword here is safe. Since many people die or get into accidents every year because of incorrect, imperfect acclimatization. According to some researches people mostly die in Everest due to cerebral or pulmonary edema, in the “death zone”. Not taking into account individual cases, for example individual inability to adapt or bad weather, the reason for this is mainly incorrect acclimatization.<\/p>\n
The main reason of altitude sickness is hypoxia, or in simple words, oxygen starvation. Acclimatization process is a totality of complex biochemical processes in the body. But the main one is the release of a large number of red blood cells into the blood, which is an increase in hemoglobin level. Red blood cells “grab” oxygen molecules in the lungs and transport them throughout the body. Since the partial amount of oxygen in the mountains is less, more red blood cells are needed to increase the efficiency of gas exchange in the blood.<\/p>\n\n