Friday, 23 October 2026
International edition · English
Mountains
What happens to the human body at altitude and how to acclimatize. Articles, guides and news about altitude in mountains.
5 articles
At sea level water boils at 100 °C, but not in the mountains. With less pressure, molecules escape sooner and water boils at a lower temperature. That is why pasta takes longer in a mountain hut.
Today is International Snow Leopard Day, created to protect the great cat of Asia's mountains. We look at how many are left, what threatens them and what works to protect them.
Where a human struggles to breathe, some animals live, hunt and breed. A mouse on the summit of an Andean volcano, a spider above 6,000 metres and a goose that can fly over the Himalaya.
At 3,000 metres every breath carries around 30% less oxygen than at sea level. Your body reacts within minutes, adapts within days… and sometimes fails. This is what happens and what to do.
It lives in twelve countries, roams huge territories above 3,000 metres and is so elusive that many researchers study it for years without seeing it. This is how the snow leopard survives.
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