Hi Guys,
it is certainly possible to acclimatise beforehand and use less days on Kili. As Roger pointed out, climbing Mt Meru is very effective (if you do the 4 days trip), you will normally be able to do Kili in 6 days then, instead of 7.
Also a week climbing 4000-ers in the Alps will help a lot.
In both cases going down or travelling for few days does not matter.
But it is very hard to predict how long the acclimatisation will last.
There is a lot of research still going on about altitude disease (AMS) and acclimatisation, so of course there are different opinions, but here are some basics:
- There is no quick effect below 2500m. As a result very few people ever get AMS at that altitude.
- a few hours after getting above 2500m will already make your system work: more red blood cells are being made
- The longer you stay, the more cells you make, so the better you acclimatise
- if you train at altitude the positive effect of the altitude can be less. Most accepted is sleep high, train low, if you want to do altitude training (for athletes, cyclists etc).
- Red bloodcells live for 2-4 months (shorter in fit people), so theoretically the effect of being acclimatised should last that long, meaning, you should be able to get back to your last acclimatised altitude reasonably easy.
Of course this means if you go to 4000m in a day, feel terribly, then you will feel terribly the next time as well

So if you feel ok at a certain altitude above 2500m, then you should be able to get back to that altitude without much problems. If you are acclimatised to almost 4000m, then you should be able to do Kili in 5 days
Some personal experience after being acclimatised for a longer period:
- Last year I climbed Aconcagua, went down to sealevel, spent about a week down in Mendoza and Santiago, then drove up to Ojos de Salados and summited in 2-3 days. (Ojos is only about 300ft lower than Aconcagua). No problems there.
- Also last year I spent about 5 weeks above 5000m in Pakistan, before going to Everest in the fall. Between the moment of going below 4000m, sleeping below sealevel in Amsterdam until getting back above it was 2 weeks. Still no problem in getting from Nepal (1200m) to catch up with the team at BC (5200m) in 1.5 day. Actually I hiked with the team to 5600m that same day and felt fine.
Maubrey, to asnwer your question: if you feel perfectly fine at 10,000ft, then you should feel fine the first days and night on Kili as well, where your teammates might feel worse. So it does help a bit, though do not shorten your Kili trip because of it.
In the end, don't rush anything on a mountain if not needed. All people are different, so check yourself always.
