Every year, hundreds of people climb the highest peaks in the world. Some never make it back down, and those who do, find themselves changed by the experience. What most people don’t realize is how much time, dedication, and acclimation is required to achieve such a monumental task. 

If you wanted to climb Mount Everest, for example, your training starts months before you ever set foot onto the Himalayan mountain range. During those arduous months before the climb, you’ll need to get in shape, build up endurance, acquire the right shoes, clothes, and gear, learn how to use all this new stuff, become comfortable hiking long distances, become familiar with the dangers you might encounter, find the right group to hike with, learn about common medical conditions, and the list goes on.

Then, after months of preparation, you’ll arrive at the base of Mount Everest, ready to climb. Yet, it’ll be another month and a half before you might summit. First you’ll have to acclimatize to the altitude and the harsh conditions of this massive mountain.

The acclimatization process is long and grueling. After you climb up to Base Camp, which is at 17,000 ft. elevation, you’ll stay there for one week before climbing to Camp 1 (20,000 ft.) where you’ll spend one night before climbing back down to Base Camp. Three days later, you’ll hike up to Camp 2 (21,000 ft.) where you’ll spend two nights before hiking back down to Base Camp. Five days later, you’ll climb up to Camp 2, spend the night, then climb to Base 3 (22,3000 ft.) the next day.

Depending on the expedition that you are with, you might spend up to a week at Camp 2 and climb several times back and forth to Camp 3 before climbing back down. Several days later, you’ll hike all the way down to around 12,500 ft. to take advantage of fresh oxygen and to strengthen your body. After recovering a few days at this lower altitude, you’ll hike back up to Base Camp where you’ll spend a few days.

Then, finally, after this month-long ordeal, you’re ready for your first attempt at the summit. This attempt will take one week, as you climb up the mountain steadily. During the final stretch, there is so little oxygen in the air that you’ll take three breaths for every step that you take. Every step brings you a bit closer to the top of the mountain or to the end of your ability to keep moving. This is where many people stop and freeze to death.

Even in the face of imminent danger and your body’s limitations, you keep moving with slow, steady steps. Weather and physical conditions permitting, months (if not years) after first deciding to climb this massive mountain, you finally make it to the summit. You spend a few minutes staring into the vastness in front of you before turning around and starting the short descent back to the safety of the lower bases.

If you’re not a mountain climber, voluntarily choosing to put yourself through so much in order to summit a mountain might seem extreme and almost unfathomable. Why would anyone do this?

I think the more interesting question is this: Isn’t it marvelous that through acclimation human beings are able to climb a mountain that stands 29,000 feet tall? There is truly no goal or desire that we cannot acclimate to.

Consequences of NOT acclimating when climbing the highest peaks of the world are dire. Many climbers die on these mountains every year, due to simple mistakes that turn fatal, events they did not anticipate, and also from not properly acclimating to the extreme circumstances they must face.

Those who want to summit Mount Everest are given very strict guidelines on how to acclimate to the thin air, low oxygen levels, the extreme cold, and harsh conditions of this deadly mountain. Still, every year, the mountain claims the lives of those who either didn’t acclimate properly to the conditions, make some fatal mistake, or find themselves in a condition or accident that they didn’t anticipate.