Above 5,000 m: how to prepare

The beginner's main mistake is training their legs instead of acclimatising. Above five thousand metres what decides the outcome is not fitness but whether your body has had time to adapt. People with no sporting background complete the kora; the ones who break down are usually the fit, because they walk faster than the air allows.

How the altitude is gained

The itinerary is built so that by the start of the kora your body has already lived a week at altitude. Lhasa at 3,650 m — two or three days with almost no load. Then Shigatse, the passes on the road west, and overnight stops each a little higher than the last. You arrive in Darchen not as a fresh tourist but as someone whose blood has already changed.

The rule is simple: you may gain altitude quickly during the day, but you must gain it slowly while sleeping. The gap between the height of the pass and the height of the overnight stop matters more than the kilometres walked.

What works

• Time. Nothing replaces days spent at altitude.
• Water. Three to four litres a day: the dry air of the plateau dehydrates you without warning.
• A slow pace. Walk at a speed at which you can still talk.
• Sleep and food. A dinner skipped at altitude is strength lost tomorrow.

What does not work

Running volume in the month before departure, gym work on endurance, alcohol "for the blood vessels", and trying to tough out the first sleepless night in Lhasa. None of these speeds up acclimatisation, and some of them slow it down.

What goes on the route

Oxygen, pulse oximeters and an altitude-grade medical kit are carried by the group, not by the individual. The medical questionnaire before the trip is not a formality: it shows who needs a separate conversation with a doctor before the route rather than during it.

The guide's authority

A guide may stop a participant and take them down. On the route that is neither discussed nor put to a vote. Descent is the only remedy for altitude sickness that always works; everything else merely buys time.

Signs that mean an immediate descent: a headache no tablet will touch, vomiting, an unsteady gait, confused speech.

There is nothing heroic about reaching the pass at your absolute limit. The kora is not a competition, and the only result that counts is walking back into Darchen on your own two feet.