I'm a bit surprised that Harvey didn't say anything about this, but canned oxygen for the general public is one of the biggest scams going. A "large" canister of Boost oxygen contains 10 liters. For anyone who's ever had oxygen administered to them in a healthcare setting, there's a good chance it was via nasal cannula (or prongs) at a rate of 2 liters/minute. Doing the math, that "large" canister would be empty in 5 minutes. Oxygen flow rates in medical resuscitation situations are 10-15 liters/minute by mask or bag. Again, doing the math, that "large" oxygen canister would be empty in a minute. And the benefits of supplemental oxygen in a non-medical setting for any purpose are highly questionable, at best. That includes athletes huffing on an oxygen mask on the sidelines to hasten recovery from exertion.
I'm no expert high altitude mountaineer, but elite climbers tend to feel that climbing the mountain "by fair means" excludes the use of supplemental oxygen even above 8,000 meters. If you're doing Whitney or another 14er and think you need supplemental oxygen, you need to seriously reconsider your fitness and conditioning. (And BTW, 395North, you "had Diamox in (y)our possession" but didn't use it? What good was the Diamox doing in your pack?
