Oxygen concentrators for mountaineering...

I work in a hospital where oxygen concentrators were bought for COVID patients ... and wondered if they have any relevance in high altitude mountaineering ... and.... if anyone has actually tried to use one in the mountains, I know they take a lot of power and I'm not even sure if they work up high. They look like they could be helpful in emergency situations, in in places like the Denali 14,200 ft medical station. 

There are Gamow bags: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portable_hyperbaric_bag

Are the oxygen concentrators in hospitals used because during covid the supply chain can't provide enough pressurized oxygen tanks?

In your Denali scenario, typically people don't get life-threatening altitude sickness until quite a bit above 14000', and that would be especially true for climbers on Denali, who have gone through a very long approach and are well acclimatized. So most likely if you can get them down to 14000', they're going to improve rapidly just from being back down at that elevation.

Ben Crowell wrote:

There are Gamow bags: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portable_hyperbaric_bag

Are the oxygen concentrators in hospitals used because during covid the supply chain can't provide enough pressurized oxygen tanks?

In your Denali scenario, typically people don't get life-threatening altitude sickness until quite a bit above 14000', and that would be especially true for climbers on Denali, who have gone through a very long approach and are well acclimatized. So most likely if you can get them down to 14000', they're going to improve rapidly just from being back down at that elevation.

Gamow bags only increase the internal air pressure compared to the surrounding outside air pressure .... they do not add any supplemental oxygen ..... concentrators can add 10 liters/min of 95% pure oxygen 

Concentrators are used in facilities that don't have oxygen delivered through pipe systems ... tanks are heavy, a fire hazard, and need to be changed.

At Denali the fixed medical hut is at 14,2000, the logical spot to bring needy climbers, if lungs are filled with fluids more oxygen can make a life saving difference at 14,000 ft ....especially since helicopter rescues can be delayed on Denali for days by weather  ... I suspect, a  concentrator on site would probably get used, regularly....

Ian Dibbs wrote:

Gamow bags only increase the internal air pressure compared to the surrounding outside air pressure .... they do not add any supplemental oxygen ..... concentrators can add 10 liters/min of 95% pure oxygen 

Sure, but a Gamov bag can add up to ~40% to the air pressure, which increases the partial pressure of oxygen by the same factor.

I just don't think it's realistic to imagine setting up a complicated, energy-hungry industrial device in a remote wilderness location, where it's not anybody's job to run and maintain it. Even if you could do it, I don't think it's necessarily OK to do that. There are lots of things we could do to alter the mountain landscape in order to make it easier and safer to climb mountains. The sport isn't about altering the landscape. The ideal ethic is to leave no trace.

So instead of stashing oxygen bottles high on Himalayan peaks they would stash, what, batteries?

They are designed for ordinary altitude usually below 10,000 feet. 

climber pat wrote:

They are designed for ordinary altitude usually below 10,000 feet. 

Part of this post was wondering if they would work up high .... I'm not surprised if they don't.

If they don't work above 10k... you could always put one in a Gamov bag lol... well, maybe.