Climbing Mt Kilimanjaro and Sleep Apnea

One thing to consider as well - would be the cold. The added air being blown over the nose or face could bring out the likely hood of frost bite. The other issue "For me" would be cold and dry air and no humidity. When I went camping in 40 degree air I had to keep a bottle of water next to my sleeping bag and I was waking up at least every few hours to drink water. The inside of my mouth felt like mummified parchment paper and was sore. If I didn't drink water first before yawning or moving my mouth too much the skin would crack. soon as I swished with water I was fine though.

I'd love to go camping again and would really love to go winter camping but the added cold and CPAP just don't mix very well.

Remember---what dies on the mountain--lies on the mountain.
If you had other plans for your eternal rest--fugeddaboutit!

I hope it worked out for him. I'm going to Mt Everest base camp and a couple of minor peaks nearby up to about 18,000 ft. I've been on a CPAP for about 2 years. I can't find anything that is going to effectively power a machine and I will be at night at lows of 10 F or -12C so I don't know if it will work anyway. Any good ideas out there welcome.

Thanks for your point of view. I'm going anyway and if I survive I'll come back to this post and give a report. I'm only a guest here from Australia. I don't know why the moderator thinks I'm several other alias.

On December 6th, 2017, I successfully summitted Mt. Kilimanjaro in Tanzania, Africa. At 19,341 feet high, Kilimanjaro is the tallest mountain on the African continent, and is one of the worlds’ “7 Summits”, the highest peaks on each continent.
If spending 5 nights on the mountain in the rain, sub-freezing cold, and low atmospheric oxygen levels was not enough of a challenge, I also suffer from severe Obstructive Sleep Apnea (OSA). My OSA is treated through the use of a Respironics Dreamstation Auto BiPAP machine, which I have affectionately named ‘Ava’. Ava helps me breathe properly when I am asleep.

Through the use of my BiPAP machine and 5 high power lithium ion batteries to run it, I was able to sleep each night at elevations up to 15,300’, which in turned gave me the energy to accomplish my goal of climbing to the “Roof of Africa”. To satisfy my curiosity, I powered up my BiPAP on the summit to see if a machine designed to operate only up to 7,500’ would run at 19,341’. It worked flawlessly. I suspect it was the first time a PAP machine has ever operated on the summit of Kilimanjaro!

I would not have stood a chance of realizing my dream of standing on top of Kilimanjaro without Ava beside me each night in the tent.

Don’t let Sleep Apnea keep you from your dreams, whether you’re asleep or living them. Get tested. Get diagnosed. Get treated. Live your life to its fullest potential!

Peaktagger wrote:Peaktagger

Great story! Thanks for taking the time to post it.

Peaktagger, you're my hero. We're trying to plan our Kilimanjaro climb but my father in law and I both have sleep apnea. I'm trying to look into other options without having to bring our cpaps, but it's great to hear that you can brute force it with a bunch of batteries.

I did contact Respironics about going to an altitude higher than stated in the specs. They said that there might be a slight deviation from the delivered pressure, but it should not be problematic.

Of course, I was not speaking of anything as high as Kilimanjaro, and I was staying in standard accommodations with electricity.

Note that in Quito, Ecuador; Shangri-La, China (yes, that's a real place); and Putre, Chile the heated humidifier in my AEIO-Med Everest 3 CPAP did not work. The CPAP itself seemed to function correctly, and the humidifier also worked fine when I returned to lower elevations.

I live in Colorado and routinely sleep in my 4Runner and use my ResMed Airsense 10 with a Pilot-24 Lite battery between 9-11K feet. I turn off the tube heater, humidifier and put it on airplane mode. Works pretty good but not ideal for backpacking. I've used the same setup hammock camping, on planes, long road trips, and international hotels where I didn't trust the outlets.

I find that the number of events increases with altitude. Taking Diamox helps but you have to pee constantly when you take it so you lose sleep from that. I have a bunch on hand but rarely take it. It also dramatically increases the amount of water you drink and therefore have to haul around which is a big problem.

A buddy told me I had a problem when sleeping at 15,750 ft on Cotopaxi in Ecuador 15 months ago which is when I learned I had severe sleep apnea. The CPAP makes a huge difference but there is no way I am letting sleep apnea screw up what I like to do.

I was on this page looking for a travel unit to take on high altitude trips but it doesn't look like anyone has figured that out yet.

Leaning toward the ResMed AirMini travel unit but need to research how it performs below freezing. I like that it operates without using water and also that it can share the same battery pack that I already own. It's got a ton of capacity and should get me through almost anything I normally do.

Maybe this was already asked, but why not forgo the machine during your trip? Yes. You won't sleep as well, but . . .

And could just end up falling off the mt in a brain fog, never mind the fog he'd be climbing in.

taylorharris50 wrote: ↑

Sat May 02, 2020 11:45 am

I live in Colorado and routinely sleep in my 4Runner and use my ResMed Airsense 10 with a Pilot-24 Lite battery between 9-11K feet. I turn off the tube heater, humidifier and put it on airplane mode. Works pretty good but not ideal for backpacking. I've used the same setup hammock camping, on planes, long road trips, and international hotels where I didn't trust the outlets.

I find that the number of events increases with altitude. Taking Diamox helps but you have to pee constantly when you take it so you lose sleep from that. I have a bunch on hand but rarely take it. It also dramatically increases the amount of water you drink and therefore have to haul around which is a big problem.

A buddy told me I had a problem when sleeping at 15,750 ft on Cotopaxi in Ecuador 15 months ago which is when I learned I had severe sleep apnea. The CPAP makes a huge difference but there is no way I am letting sleep apnea screw up what I like to do.

I was on this page looking for a travel unit to take on high altitude trips but it doesn't look like anyone has figured that out yet.

Leaning toward the ResMed AirMini travel unit but need to research how it performs below freezing. I like that it operates without using water and also that it can share the same battery pack that I already own. It's got a ton of capacity and should get me through almost anything I normally do.

This is good information. I have mild sleep apnea and am planning to take my AirSense 10 with me on a 2 night trip to Mt. Langley this summer. We'll be sleeping at around 11K for probably 2 nights. Not wanting to make a 6-hour drive only to have our trip and ascent to the summit ruined by feeling like garbage due to untreated apnea, I'll deal with packing around the machine and a battery (Omni 25600). I used the battery once at home overnight and it appeared to only use 1/4 of the battery capacity with the hose and humidifier off. My pressure is generally quite low, ranging from 7 to a few highs through the night of 9-10.

I considered getting a travel machine but they all seem to garner complaints of being too noisy. So I'd save myself the trouble of packing an extra 2-3 pounds but wouldn't sleep well due to noise? Eh, no thanks.

As for Diamox, I have a prescription but I am not sure if I should take it prophylactically or wait and see if it's really needed. I do live at sea level so going from 100' ASL to 11,000 ASL will be a big jump. We might also leave a day early and stay at Whitney Portal which is only 8,500 ASL.

You know your own body, so you need to do what you think is right.

I've recently been diagnosed with sleep apnea too. If it were me, and it's not, I'd skip the CPAP machine for the climb. It's one more device that you may not need. I used to do a lot of alpine and high altitude climbing. I only took what was essential. You're not going to have great sleep anyway - apnea or no apnea.

Michael

For heaven's sake - the higher the altitude the more difficult it is for anyone not completely acclimated to it to be able to do any physical exercise, let alone not be short of breath... how is not using Cpap going to work with that?

wacomme wrote: ↑

Sat May 02, 2020 3:40 pm

You know your own body, so you need to do what you think is right.

I've recently been diagnosed with sleep apnea too. If it were me, and it's not, I'd skip the CPAP machine for the climb. It's one more device that you may not need. I used to do a lot of alpine and high altitude climbing. I only took what was essential. You're not going to have great sleep anyway - apnea or no apnea.

Michael

I appreciate the input but I think I'll feel much better going into it knowing I'm giving myself every advantage I can. Additionally, the CPAP and battery can stay at camp while we make a trek for the summit so it's not like I have to carry that extra 5-6 pounds to 14K feet.