When I just arrived in Switzerland I did a very long ski ascent in a really high pace. The summit had a cable car and for some reason someone was there really late. I was offered to take it down for free - which I did. On the lift down I got talking to this SAC guy who was manning the station. He told me that often people would race up and then be too tired to ski down. In the following weeks I often thought about this after pitching my tent: "would I still have been able to descend after this".
I'm curious what everyone else experiences as his/her limit for altitude gain in one day. Last couple of weeks I found out that with full gear (tent, sleeping bag, cooking gear, food for multiple days,...) and skis I seem to be limited to about 1500m's a day*. In a bad situation I'll still be able to descend 1500m's again, but it will be hard on my legs. I also noticed that the difference without, or with little gear isn't that big.
* I'm calculating my altitude gain by subtracting my starting altitude from my ending altitude, not the actual gains by going up and down until you reach your destination. I know this is far from scientific, but I have no better ways to measure what I'm doing at this point.
Additionally, since at the moment I'm constantly climbing solo, I don't pace myself at all and often don't take any rests during the climb. I might occasionally have a drink or an energy bar, but usually I don't stop for this. I'm guessing this is also affecting what I'm able to do.
I'm curious to know whether you always pace yourself, even when (or especially when) climbing solo. Also, if some people are doing much larger altitude gains, I'm curious to know what kind of training they do to achieve this.