Vitaliy M. wrote:ExcitableBoy wrote: ...That's about 4,100 feet elevation gain per hour, certainly doable by a very fit and acclimatized athlete under ideal conditions I would think.
Yea but you have to be VERY acclimated to that altitude and an AMAZING (like top of the line) athlete (or I am just a sack of crap compared to them)...
4100 fph is cruising speed for middle-of-the-pack mountain runners at lower altitudes, and you see it done over very large elevation gains on the uphill legs of things like the Matanuska Peak Challenge http://www.adn.com/2008/08/03/482611/matanuska-peak-challenge.html. So the Shasta record is impressive, but altitude at the upper end is the only thing that makes it impressive. You'd have to be an animal to do it, but it's definitely doable by the right kind of animal!