Quote:
Originally Posted by RedinTexas
If you're on foot above 12-13,000 feet you'll tire quickly. If you're climbing, it will be very hard work. If you're climbing at higher altitudes than that, you better be in very good condition.
|
I've done some high altitude races that have gone as high as 14,000 (Pikes Peak), and 12,000 is where things suddenly start to get hard for me. Under that level I'm just slow but I'm fine, but above that it's just hard to breathe if you're exerting yourself at all.
It makes me wonder what 19,000 feels like. I'm curious. I've seen a few of those high mountain climbing documentaries, and I think the altitude is massively underappreciated by the casual observer. Those guys are doing hard stuff and they're doing it in a very oxygen-starved state. In my very mild experience, that's the big difference maker.
I've never tried the canned oxygen, but I'd definitely bring something if you've got breathing troubles. I'm fine at 14,000 if I'm doing nothing strenuous (e.g., just walking on a flat surface), but anything beyond that gets hard and I'm in pretty good shape.