This High-Altitude Breathwork could Save Your Life

Back in 2016 I did something that was either really really stupid, incredibly brave...or both. I joined an expedition to climb up to the top of Mt. Kilimanjaro with the express intention of ignoring mandatory safety stops in order to make the summit in just 30 hours. The army predicted that the majority of our group would come down with acute mountain sickness. The Dutch Mountaineering association said we were all going to die. Well, we didn't. Instead we made it to Gilman's Point (just below the summit) in just 28 hours. I get a lot of emails from mountaineers asking exactly what breathwork we did as we climbed ever upwards, so I figured I would put together a video that highlights two of the techniques that got us through safely. This first was the breathing protocols we kept up during the entire ascent. The second is a trick for fixing headaches that inevitably spring up as the air gets ever thinner. I hope this is useful for all of you mountaineers out there.

Subscribe to my newsletter

Want to learn more about what really happened on this trip to the top of Africa? Check out my book What Doesn't Kill Us