9 May SummitClimb Dispatch: Oxygen

Oxygen Story. Today our Sherpa team carried 50 bottles (tanks) of O2 up to C3. Why so much? 1 bottle lasts about 8 hours of walking, or appx 12 hours of "sleep". How does O2 feel? Not like superman, but a little more like a normal person. Walking uphill at high altitude with oxygen you might breathe 2 times per step, without you might need 8! Slow going indeed. At night in the tent without O2 you will gasp for air, with O2 you can snooze a bit. What about the mask? It's attached to the bottle by a hose connected to a regulator, which is like the tap on your sink. You can turn it on or off, make it go slow or fast. When your reg is on, the O2 pours into your mask. If you breathe in, the O2 goes in your lungs, when you exhale the O2 goes out the mask's exit port. Its a constant flow from the reg, and thats why we need so many bottles, because so much O2 is wasted each time you breathe out!

Source: SummitClimb

(Note from Amy: I think these photos are from previous SummitClimb expeditions. So far this year, the team has not used oxygen on the climb. On their summit attempt, they'll start using it at Camp 3.)