So, Chris Bonnington is a well known climber who has gone
up Everest a couple times and, well, he was on this expidition
to climb an unclimbed mountain in China... and the expedition
was also put together by some medical doctors who were
interested in studing climbers who routinely climb to great
heights and track their bodies reactions to the changes from
sea level to 17,000 ft. (not very high... Everest is over 29K)
This is what they found: At sea level, they worked these
climbers with their heart rates over 200 bpm. And in Tibet,
where people routinely live at 17,000 ft, they tracked the
Tibetans to heart rates over 200 bpm... BUT: [ and here is
of course the punchline!]
when they took the Brits up from sea level to 17,000 ft,
... no matter how hard they tried.... they could not get the
Brits heart rates over 150!
Weird, eh? I think these numbers changed as they aclimated
to the altitude change, but I can't recall for sure. Also, this
initial study was done in the late '70's, so I'm sure a lot more
research has been done since then.
Now... I don't know about the reverse... if they took a Tibetan
or two to Brittan and put them on a tread mill, but I'd imagine
just the sight of London would send some heart rates off the
charts. ;-)
What this has to do with us? Well... if you are planning on
taking your sea level trained horse to a "high altitude" ride
plan on spending some weeks aclimating or figure you've
lost 25% of your condition to be on the safe side.
:) - kat
in No. Cal...
and Magnum the TB "Why do you want to take me up there?"