In reply to: Would love to hear about that trip posted by DBCooper
It included a 12 day trek. We went to the Gosainkunda Lakes region. It was absolutely stunning. While I was with a group, most days I trekked alone just behind the sherpas. For whatever reason, the altitude didn't bother me after the first day (we had a steep climb the first day). I'd never had that much time in complete silence. It was glorious. Someday, I would like to go to Bhutan. I love that part of the world.
Mountain climbing and/or high altitude trekking is something I have a big interest in and want to get involved with. Not sure what type of condition you have to be for that.
I go for a couple hikes a year in the Rockies with greater than a mile of elevation gain in a day. I try to stay in shape throughout the year by jogging up inclines, but one thing that always gets me is that my hip flexors tire out from adding a 25 pound pack. Try to do some training with some weight on your back to get conditioned.
I am walking around a bit, but I can't really prepare for the altitude.
We will do Bear Mountain or Breakneck Ridge either 29 or 30 June just to get used to walking uphill.
Frankly it will be a challenge, but not insurmountable. That altitude is not fun, but at the very lower bound of hypoxia danger. As we are healthy with no lung or breathing problems, I think we'll be fine. The trail is well traveled with aid stations and if anyone is in trouble we'll head right back down.
If I recall, you lived in Japan, so perhaps you've already climbed from one of the 5th stations upward. If so, maybe it will be more strenuous below.
I did an overnight hike from one of the fifth stations, and I thought it was pretty easy (I don't even recall any scrambling), and that the only difficult part was the annoyance of waiting on groups of older Japanese (mostly women) in a couple very narrow spots. In fact it was so crowded that I probably could have done it without a headlamp and relied solely on light from others. I would advise hiking sticks for the descent. I sank and slide quit a bit on each step down for the first couple hundred yards.