At first I had to get used to the noises, but with Oropax it went quite well. During the first week I was looking for the right height setting; at first I slept too high. This manifested itself by feeling like I had sore muscles and a burning sensation in my lungs. I was always in good contact with Roy, so he said I should lower the altitude again. I settled at around 2200 to 2400 m above sea level, which seemed to be very effective for me. After about 2 weeks, my training times improved and I felt really fit. In total I slept in the tent for 26 days. Shortly before the end I had another burning sensation in my lungs because I wanted to sleep higher again (3000 m above sea level) last week. That was temporarily a wrong decision! I took a day off and went back to the tent at a lower altitude. Everything was fine again. I accepted the whole thing so that I could fulfill my wish of climbing Kilimanjaro. In my last two attempts I always developed pulmonary edema around day 5 and had to get off as quickly as possible. Now I was super prepared, I felt fit, had eaten well, drank a lot of water and, as I said, slept in the tent. Unfortunately, that didn’t really do much for me. For the first 4 days I had no problems with the altitude, which was different than the last few times, but like before I developed pulmonary edema again and had to descend. Apparently my body cannot tolerate a longer altitude at 4000 m above sea level. That’s OK for me now!
I would like to thank Roy for his uncomplicated and competent advice and support.
Thomas Hegner
