Altitude sickness, acute mountain sickness or "AMS" is a serious medical condition brought on by travelling too quickly to altitude, and/or performing physical exercise at altitude when unacclimatised.

Tolerance to altitude varies greatly amongst individuals, but a fit person who does not go too fast will not strain their cardiovascular system as much as an unfit person for the same amount of exercise and will therefore be at a lower risk of developing AMS. Even a very fit person however is still very likely to develop AMS if they attempt Kilimanjaro without some days spent acclimatising or they walk too quickly

Altitude sickness can occur in some people as low as 8,000 feet, but serious symptoms do not usually occur until over 12,000 feet. Even then it is not the height that is so important, rather the speed in which you ascended to that altitude.

It is a mistake to think that AMS is the result of a gradual worsening of mild altitude symptoms such as breathlessness and headache. AMS is in fact a sudden and dramatic onset of symptoms and leaves the person hardly able to walk or look after themselves.

Our guides are all expert in diagnosing AMS and they have absolute authority to bring you down if they feel it is necessary.

AMS symptoms

Headaches are a primary symptom used to diagnose altitude sickness, although a headache is often a symptom of dehydration.

A headache occurring at an altitude above 2,400 meters (8000 feet ) with any one or more of the following symptoms, can indicate some degree of altitude sickness and should always be reported to your guide.

  • Lack of appetite, nausea, or vomiting
  • Fatigue or weakness
  • Dizziness or light-headedness
  • Insomnia
  • Pins and needles
  • Shortness of breath upon exertion
  • Persistent rapid pulse
  • Drowsiness
  • General malaise
  • Peripheral edema (swelling of hands, feet, and face)

Often such symptoms are not serious and will improve with a little rest but they should never be ignored. Carefully monitoring your own health for is critical in ensuring symptoms do not deteriorate.

How to avoid AMS

The great benefit of a private climb with Private Kilimanjaro is that you have the best possible chance of acclimatizing properly and thus avoiding AMS. We have a simple point 4 plan to reduce the risk of you getting AMS.

1. Walk high sleep low
As we go higher up the mountain we encourage everyone to do a short walk after arriving at camp each day to go to a slightly higher altitude and to rest there for half on hour. On the Machame and Lemosho routes we take a detour to Lava Towers at 4600m and then descend to 3950m to sleep, which helps acclimatisation greatly.

2. Don't rush
You need to keep your breathing rate down to that at which you can still maintain a conversation. If you are breathing too hard to do this slow down: if you work your heart and lungs hard the risk of illness increases dramatically. Climbing Kilimanjaro is the classic tortoise challenge.

3. Drink, drink and then drink some more
Being properly hydrated massively benefits acclimatization and you simply cannot drink too much. If your pee is yellow you are not drinking enough (and don't forget the pee bottle unless you like getting up in the middle of the night and going for a freezing stroll to the toilet)

4. Consider using Diamox
There has been a lot of research on diamox (which you can find by googling) that shows is that it has been reasonably well proven to be helpful in avoiding AMS. We take it ourselves when climbing Kilimanjaro. It is though a prescription drug and some GP's will not prescribe it. You must therefore take your own medical advice.

There was some controversy about Diamox, which is why some doctors will not prescribe it, because some people thought that if they were taking it they could ignore serious symptoms and this had fatal consequences. The key thing is that if you get symptoms and you are taking diamox that is because the drug is not being effective and YOU SHOULD GO DOWN!

Diamox has to be taken prophylactically, i.e. before you start climbing to prevent altitude sickness not when you are climbing and have symptoms. The recommended dose is between 125 milligrams (mg) to 500 mg per day, starting a few days before going to the higher altitude. If you are going to take Diamox then we would recommend you take half a 250mg tablet morning and night. It is particularly recommended for those ascending from sea level to 3000 meters (9800 feet) in one day, which is typical of a Kilimanjaro trek.

If you do take it you must always remember Diamox is not an absolute fix for acute mountain sickness . For the avoidance of doubt diamox speeds up part of the acclimatization process which in turn can help to prevent symptoms. If however, symptoms do develop and deteriorate YOU MUST STILL GO DOWN.

Common side effects of using Diamox include numbness and tingling in the fingers and toes. By far the worst effect is that it makes all fizzy drinks including beer taste awful. Fortunately if you stop taking it after summit day by the time you get to the bottom your taste buds will have recovered. You will also experience more frequent peeing if you take Diamox and with drinking all the time the combined effect can be really amazing : don't forget a pee bottle when you pack!