That nailed it. Hard to explain to those who don’t understand, but it pertains to marathoners, sky divers, BASE jumpers and all the other who like to test themselves. Some, of course, are nuts.
And, there is something very good for the soul to be up on a mountain.
I think “it depends” is about the most accurate thing you can say about quick altitude changes. We live at about 3500 ft. in Calgary, and a lot of people come here to visit the Rockies, which start about 5000+ ft. in Banff (and go up from there for your skiing hills). Some people will do fine, and others will be puking after some exertion. We didn’t notice anything different when we visited Denver, but we’re used to being 3/4’s of the way up there. The advice we give to people visiting the Rockies from close to sea level is take it easy. Also, don’t expect warm evenings. 
Been up Pikes Peak (14,000+ ft) on a motorcycle a couple of times. Atmospheric pressure at summit is about 60% of sea level, and engine performance suffers accordingly. Lack of air up there does a bunch of things:
-lower idle speed, engine barely stays running
-difficult to launch from a standing start without bogging the engine
-reduced engine braking
-RPM doesn’t drop as quickly during upshifts; have to clutch out slightly later to match RPM.
I was a healthy 37YO man the last time I went; nonetheless, being at the summit was physically difficult. I had to take regular deep breaths to stave off a full-body “tingly” sensation. Had a headache after about half an hour.
Heh - am I the only one who finds the air pressure in airline cabins uncomfortable? I’m a young guy in generally good health, but there are times on airliners when I really need to make a conscious effort to catch my breath. This is odd, since I’m certainly not exerting myself - I’m seated.
Again, we’re talking about two kinds of suffering. The “part of life” kind is when you get a really bad case of the flu, or food poisoning etc. That’s not the kind where you know you’re gonna get really sick, but keep on anyway. The other is willful, where you know you’re gonna get really sick and you don’t want to suffer, but you do that thing anyway. Many of you want to turn back once it really hurts but you’re afraid to. A lot of Everest climbers have even said so. They’re afraid to “give up” and be a “failure”.
All those extremers you mention do risk, and get hurt, and have cramps etc. But they don’t suffer in the same way as those Everest climbers. Those people aren’t hard to understand at all. The extreme climbers are easy to understand too. They’re helpless to do different.
Read the ** Beck Weathers** story I linked to above. He didn’t have what it takes to stop. He’s pretty typical. He is, indeed, nuts.
BASE jumpers and the rest are not the same as Everest summit climbers. They’re as grapes and plums. 
I think I may go to Tioga pass soon. Test myself. Yosemite is beautiful in the early spring.
I recently returned from a vacation in Arizona.
one day I visited Jerome:
And was winded just walking around the block.
For the record, I live and work at sea level…and RUN most of the day.
I know some of those Everest climbers. There’s no denying that there are hardships along the way, and it’s probably the hardest thing they will ever do, but they do so willingly, and they go back and do it again. You may not understand it, but they do. In most cases, it’s simply a matter of degree.
I’ve done 16 hour, 20+ mile hikes to enjoy it and prove to myself that I could do it. This summer I’ve got a 32 mile dayhike scheduled that is going to be really tough, and I don’t know if I’ll make it, but I’m going to try. I’ve seen my friends at the end of ultramarathons and they are often in debilitating pain, but they keep on. It’s something people do in all sorts of areas of life.
But we’re pretty far from the original subject.
Yes, and I keep repeating myself.
Don’t feel bad - you just don’t have a heterotropic allosteric effect on your side. (From this article.)
As it happens, David Breashears (the film maker and mountaineer who filmed all the Beck Weathers events) is hanging around my office these days. Just an interesting coincidence.
Haven’t read the whole thread, but I have another anecdote.
On submarines, the internal atmospheric pressure is maintained around one standard atmosphere. The composition of the atmosphere is monitored, of course. Occasionally, because of the numerous variables involved (including the rate of the oxygen bleed, number of people awake and active, etc.), the percentage of oxygen in the sub’s atmosphere can get rather low (as low as 17%, IIRC). Alternatively, the atmospheric pressure can drop below where it should be (which happens when internal air is used to top off the compressed air tanks). In both case, the partial pressure of oxygen drops.
At the low end of the specification, oxygen levels are low enough that some people got headaches, and it can be difficult or impossible to start a flame. This tended to really piss off the smokers.
The idea of smoking in a submarine seems, well, crazy. I smoked for over forty years before quitting a few years ago.
Anyway, I’d never thought about the atmospheric conditions in a sub. I’ve heard that crews lose some immunity to colds etc, but I’m skeptical about that claim.
An odd but related aside, every time I come back to this thread, I find myself yawning and/or taking deeper breaths.
There seems to be no real telling how altitude will effect a person. I’ve climbed for years and never had a hint of altitude sickness. For a few years I lived outside of Bishop CA at about 4900’. This is coming from RI which is basically sea level. My job out there was working as a porter for a local guide and I did Whitney 3-4 times a week with no issue and rock climbed the face of Whitney and Bear Creek Spire. Again, never an issue, and I’m a smoker. I’d smoke the whole time I was porting (60lbs plus your own gear) to the point where my boss told me and other porters we had to go off trail to smoke because it made struggling clients look stupid. He also made me start wearing at least sneakers because if we were just doing the main trail (not the mountaineers trail) I’d wear flip flops. More to the point, I’ve seen a lot of people have trouble at 8,000’ let alone 10 or 14K. The general rule was if a client starts getting a headache we turn back. My boss actually had a 15 year old kid die on him, in front of his father, in the 80’s at only 10,000’ or so in the back country. Apparently the kid didn’t tell anyone how bad he felt and though he was being quiet he would still answer questions. It was only when he started tripping and stumbling did they realize how severe his issue was and by then it was too late. After that my boss questioned his clients constantly. To the point of making them do math if he felt they were trying to hide it and turning them back if they struggled to do addition or simple division. I also had the experience of one of my climbing buddies and fellow porters who is in the back country constantly, and had done most every peak in the area, suddenly get severe altitude sickness on a job. Just out of blue. He got an extreme headache and started having narrowing vision. We divided up his pack and sent him back down. He never experienced it again. It’s strange. At the same time, the most fun trip I ever had was bringing a huge group (about twenty) from an elderly Japanese mountaineering club up Whitney. They were all over 60 and one guy actually used a cane. We had no problem with them at all. Of course we took four days to do what is a day hike ,so they’d acclimate, but not a single issue. My point is, you just can’t tell.
Yep. A headache and a bad nights rest is typical.
Or it can kill you.
I’m always ready to take someone back to 5280. Denver.
Take 4 aspirin, avoid alcohol and drink lots of water.