Bob - I guess my post was a little flippant. Your comments are right on. And thanks for the Altitude Research Center link.
I was faced with something like this in July on a trip to Bolivia. We would be climbing to 20,800', and our gradual day-to-day acclimatization plan was solid. But I was concerned about the flight there. The airport in La Paz is at 13,300' and our hotel for the first few nights was at 12,000'. Coming from 760' where I live, that's a big jump! So to get ready, I went to Colorado for four nights at 9,600' and hiked up two fourteeners, Quandary Peak and Mount Democrat. Two days later I was on the plane to Bolivia. I took 125mg of Diamox when I first got there. Happily, I experienced no symptoms of AMS. It's hard to say for sure that I would have been sick had I done nothing beforehand, and what impact the Diamox vs the Colorado trip had, but I'm familiar with how I react to altitude and I believe I would have been hurting.
