Wouldn’t it be cheaper to move closer to sea level?
intercst
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The point is to stay as far away from the hoi polloi as your money can get you. That would include vertically, too.
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Maybe it has something to do with skiing.
DB2
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XC Skiers ( really good ones, not recreational ) go up into the mountains to train in the thin air. They describe coming back down to lower elevations and feeling like they’re cheating, lol.
Those rich people should be embracing the thin air and let it toughen them up, lol.
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I hope they are filling up the tires on all of their vehicles with pure nitrogen too.
But piping in O2 would prevent that “toughening”. :^)
Steve
Embracing the thin air would mean not pumping oxygen in, lol.
I’ve been in the mountains out West, one gets acclimated to the thin air, but it’s a good idea to take at least a day before doing anything exerting, maybe 2.
Climbed ( just hiking, nothing technical ) Wheeler Peak in New Mexico which is at 13,000+ ft, and I didn’t have any trouble, although we had been in the SW for a couple of days already. 1 friend got bad headache, stopped halfway up. But I would not have just flown into Taos and gone straight to the trailhead, that would be dumb.
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When I worked in London for Exxon at about age 30, I took a beach vacation to the Canary Islands and did a trip to the top of a 10,000+ ft volcano. There was a road that got you within 500 ft of the summit, so I just drove my rental car up there from the beach in about 2-1/2 hours.
I had been training for the London Marathon, so was in pretty good shape. But I got mild altitude sickness (wicked headache) from the relatively rapid change in elevation, and the 500 steps to the summit was harder than the Marathon.
intercst
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When RS flew me out to Colorado for winning sales contests, I only had a problem at Tamarron, 7800 ft, when I ran up a flight of stairs, the first day.
Breckenridge is at 9600 ft. Had a screaming altitude headache for two days, and we were only there for three days.
Of course, I was a lot friskier a few decades ago.
One of the activities offered at Breckenridge was “shopping”, for which we were provided with something like $20 cash. This was only a few years after the original “Top Gun” came out, and popularized a particular phrase, describing failing in a particularly spectacular and lurid way, so this coffee cup followed me home.
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I xc ski’d ( skate technique ) 51k last year ( just under 32 miles), that’s the longest foot powered thing I’ve done in 1 shot. I don’t think my knees would handle doing a marathon on pavement, but that would be a really cool way to see a huge city like London !
like that coffee cup !
I took a ski trip to Jackson Hole last winter. I live at sea level. I took the tram to the top of Rendezvous Mountain (nearly 11,000 feet) when I started to ski down I got gassed nearly instantly and had to stop and put my hands on my knees. I remember thinking it is going to be a long way down to the bottom at this rate…
This fall I’ve been running stairs a few times a week to try to avoid a repeat of last year.
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I run hills ( pretty slow, lol ) to get ready for season.
Running stairs should definitely help you, as will a day to acclimate.
I’m a once a year or so alpine skier. Took a trip to snowmobile in Wyoming in 2000, and after that was done we went to Jackson Hole and ski’d. Don’t remember the name of the resort, but it was right in or near town, think it was considered the easiest 1 in the area. Remember getting up to the top and looking down, the buildings and cars looked like little toys,lol. As crazy as this sounds, I remembering being pleasantly surprised that the skiing was easier than back in the midwest, as far as snow goes. It was easier to turn, wasn’t icy. But the runs were 10 times longer than in Michigan. We got a 1/2 day pass, and probably only ski’d 2 hours. Luv’d Jackson Hole and Teton’s NP, but haven’t been back, I hear it’s overwhelmed with tourists, all seasons.
Remember hanging out 1 night in a dive bar in JH, had a great time.
WSJ article explained that Ashville, NC is in the Blueridge Mountains. People like the mountains for relief in the hot humid summers.
The damage was mostly from flooding near rivers. Mountain places were isolated by damaged roads and bridges. Loss of power.
Mountain homes will probably be ok once roads etc are repaired but economy and neighboring population took a hit and will take a while to recover.
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“The damage was mostly from flooding near rivers. Mountain places were isolated by damaged roads and bridges. Loss of power.”
I drove thru that area a couple of years ago. It is beautiful, and it is rugged terrain. If the rivers flood out even a couple of roads, they’ve got big problems. The road that I was on would turn into a water slide park,lol, if flood waters were on it. Not sure there are any measures that area can take to counteract that freakish of a storm.
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You might still have the same resonse to altitude…independent of fitness level.
I started visiting Colorado in 2014 when our daughter moved here. No more then a week at a time so always felt pretty poleaxed…huffing and puffing when I crossed the road sharpish or climbed stairs…and got progressively worse each day…hugely susceptible to the effects of altitude and alcohol, along with altitude induced sleep apnea (according to my husband) I actually posted on the Running Fools Board that I might be coming in last on the 5k Turkey Trot on our upcoming Thanksgiving visit. That prompted a whole slew of posts from folk who’d run distances at altitude to folk who only visited…and the take home message was that there’s a huge individual variation. Someone…and the screen name I’ve had in mind all these years was yours, @syke6 … posted a couple of links to research articles on altitude physiology/medicine and off down that rabbit hole I went.
Then we moved here and, in spite of being fit (on a training schedule of appreciably more than running stairs a few times a week) I discovered that I was like quite a few folk from the Running Fools board and a good many other seasoned athletes from folk in our local running club to Olympic level who take a long time to respond to altitude training…and possibly never do completely.
It’s even started a new line of research for my husband who noticed that he was seeing far more folk showing far more serious liver disease secondary to alcohol and fatty liver at a far younger age than before. “Now, that’s peculiar” he said…“Probably altitude” said I (I blame it for lots of things…including my baking disasters) Lo…a serious line of research opened up.
I’m sure in this instance lack of fitness was the primary bad actor, although Father Time may have played a role. I’ve been skiing at Jackson since I was a teen and done a bit of mountaineering over the years, including some tall peaks (19,000 ft) in South America. So I’m reasonably aware of how my body is affected by altitude.
Last year I was battling an Achilles injury (still am to a certain extent) and I straight up wasn’t able to do (or didn’t do) much cardio. I think that was the culprit.
I like running stairs as a training tool for skiing (I hate running stairs otherwise) because it is very efficient. You get cardio, plyo, some agility work, etc. Turns out I was doing HIIT before I knew what HIIT was!
As much as you like to x-country ski, you should check Yellowstone. A few years ago I stayed at the Snow Lodge right at Old Faithful. You can ski all around the geyser basin and they’ll take you in a snowcoach and drop you off at various locations in the park and you ski back to the lodge. Tons of wildlife and geyers going off in the snow. It was great!
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syke, oh my what winter gorgeousness!
As to altitude acclimation, I will throw my tale into the bin.
I grew up in a mountaineering family. E.g. Mom and Dad honeymooned by making the first known winter ascent of Mt Whitney, 14496 feet, in January of 1947, and I and my brother made the insane Trans-Sierra run over Donner Pass, 7000 feet; no oxygen problem, gorgeous, exhausting.
Now I live at 6,250’ in Mexico. I have found that when I go to sea level (and I am now enjoying holiday near the sea on Mallorca) my shingles attacks greatly lessen…. Yeap, even with lots of training and life experience oxygen abundance matters for me.
I have land on the Mexican sea coast where husband and I are building a “last home”, and oxygen played a role in choosing the location.
d fb
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man that looks good !