Scott called to tell me that they arrived safely at Vinson Base Camp as planned on Saturday (12/29) and that they're planning an acclimation climb up to Low Camp on Sunday (12/30).
It's important to allow your body time to adjust to altitude slowly, which is what acclimation is all about. Proceeding too quickly without allowing your body to adapt to higher elevations can result in altitude sickness and even life-threatening illness such as high altitude pulmonary edema (HAPE) or high altitude cerebral edema (HACE). Unrelated to physical fitness or demographics (like age or gender), some people are simply more susceptible to altitude sickness than others, but at extreme altitudes, the risk is higher.
One important way that mountain climbers help their bodies adjust to the elevation is to "climb high and sleep low." That means that they climb up to a higher elevation during the day and then descend to a lower elevation to sleep. This is why Scott and his fellow climbers will climb up to (or near) Low Camp and then climb back down to Vinson Base Camp to sleep on Sunday.
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