Thanks for asking about this Pie. I’d quite like to go down the rabbit hole about this too Chantelle. Maybe it could be a good webinar topic one day.
I’m now in the French Alps and in spite of a lean snow season I’m getting in some surprisingly fun alpine and skate skiing as well as runs. This time time I’ve gone from sea level to only 1500m. This doesn’t seem to be an extreme change for me and I’m feeling like my zone training hasn’t been challenged. But I’ve only been away 3 months and this is a home for me so my body knows it well.
In contrast, a few years ago when my son was on the WC freeski circuit, I based myself in Breckenridge, Colorado for about 5 weeks each winter. The first year I was there I really noticed the extreme change in altitude, but each year it got easier. To the point where the day after arrival I could easily boot-pack a reasonable distance with my skis from the top lift to the ridgeline at about 13000 feet. I used to say that my body said, “oh ok, so we’re back here again”. However there was a threshold that I reached with my energy levels there i.e they kinda plateaued. I also noticed I had to eat waayyyy more fat there in order to maintain my weight, so am aware there was a metabolic factor involved for me. So my question is, does the acclimatization phase/length vary quite a lot from one person to another based on previous exposure to altitude change or are there metabolic considerations as well for altitude adaptation?