ExcitableBoy wrote: Can one effectively acclimate enough so that one can move as fast at 14k as 1k?
In theory, yes. In practice? Not sure it's been done. It takes months of living continuously at altitude (simulated) to
fully acclimatise. ie. get to how you would be at sea-level. You could get somewhat acclimatised in a couple of weeks and feel OK, but in terms of full athletic performance you would still be quite a way off.
People's experiences on mountaineering expeditions really have nothing to do with this - they're too short duration, the dietary and hygiene conditions are abnormal, compared to normal life, and they're probably going and messing themselves up by physically pushing hard to 7000m or 8000m or whatever. It's a very uncontrolled environment, which is partly why we understand so little about altitude issues, compared to other medical issues.
I remember the Bolivia climbing guidbook author Yossi Brain telling me that he only felt fully normal and acclimatised after three continuous months in La Paz, at or around 3600m / 11,800ft. In 1979 the famous French alpinist Dr. Nicholas Jaeger spent 70 days high up on Huascaran (6768m) to study the medical effects. Not sure what he learned, but again, that is a very un-clinical environment, no doubt affected by diet and other factors. There are not many places where you could conduct suitable clinical trials (removing the dietary, hygiene and other issues) without simulation. Very few people live permanently above 4000m, and those that do are in relatively 'basic' living conditions.
I guess you would have to take a group of people, test them over a variety of exercises at sea-level, after weeks of similar diet etc, then take them to the facility you have set up in LaPaz or Lhasa and test them regularly on the exercises, on the same diet, and see how they progressed, or not, over several months. I'm not sure anyone has done that.
Posted: Wed Nov 23, 2011 12:02 am
