Originally Posted by
cyccommute
warning people from outside of the state about the altitude is common practice. I stand by my warning.
Yes, although several things also come from practical experience:
- Altitude definitely varies by person
- There seems to be a fairly sharp effect at what point it cuts in for individuals. For example, taking out of town guests to Frisco (elevation ~9000ft) rarely had much effect. There is a surprisingly large difference in effect between Frisco (9,000ft), Cameron Pass (10,300ft), Hoosier Pass (11,500ft) and Trail Ridge (12,200ft). The worst scenario seems to be flying into DIA and then immediately going to altitude - did that once with a friend flying from LAX and within 12 hours we went up Longs Peak. He was in good health and had hiked up Whitney but still needed time to adjust. Next trip after he visited we did Longs Peak but spent a few days around Frisco first.
- So assuming going up Cameron Pass all in a day from Fort Collins - particularly if you hadn't adjusted to Front Range altitude by cycling via Eastern Colorado would be a stupid assumption but I don't see you need to make that assumption - particularly given distances involved.