On Friday, January 25, 2019 at 5:12:03 PM UTC-8, jbeattie wrote:
On Friday, January 25, 2019 at 3:33:02 PM UTC-8, wrote:
On Friday, January 25, 2019 at 12:11:00 PM UTC-8, Mike A Schwab wrote:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Evans

Mt. Evans has a road to near the summit with a very short hike to the summit.

On Saturday, January 19, 2019 at 2:26:03 PM UTC-6, wrote:
On Saturday, January 19, 2019 at 8:43:46 AM UTC-8, Mark J. wrote:
On 1/18/2019 8:02 AM, wrote:
On Thursday, January 17, 2019 at 5:31:41 PM UTC-8, John B. Slocomb wrote:
For Heaven's sake! Tom is an old man, who is in ill health and suffers
from brain damage. The thought that he is going to beat anyone up is
just another one of his fantasies, like flying around in the bomb bay
of airplanes at 5,000 feet over Vietnam.

And yet that is what happened. But then since you've done so little you wouldn't understand that life is strange and wonderful. The tail gunner in a B52D is actually in the tail. The way to get from the back pressurized compartment to the front is via a very narrow 6" wide shelf. The only way to do this is to put one knee in front of the other and scoot along while holding yourself on the shelf by slipping two fingers per hand between the gap in the vertical and horizontal ribs of the aircraft. On the ground this is scary since you're at least 10' above the bottom of the bomb bays. Because of the curvature of the hull you have to lean your body out over the bays so not many people would do that.

The A/C asked me to go to the gunner's position to find out what the heck was wrong with him since he sounded like he was going nuts. It turned out to be nothing since he was just watching the SAMs bursting around us.

So I went back there before the bomb run and came back after the bomb run. You cannot breath the air above 10,000 feet and remain conscious.

Funny that I've done it at least six times on a bicycle. Is it when you
don't have a bicycle handy that you lose consciousness?

Mark J.

If you live at altitude you can adapt to as high as 20,000 feet. But aircraft are pressurized at altitudes above 10,000. So movements between the pressurized compartments had to occur below that altitude.

I would be interested in knowing where you found a mountain in the USA above 10,000 that had a road to the top. While there are a lot of 10,000 ft high mountains in the USA the only one I can think of with a road above 10,000 ft is Pike's Peak. That's a little over 14,000 and the annual bike ride normally has a lot of people dropping out on the verge of fainting for lack of O2. The timberline is at something like 12,000 feet and the base where you start is something like 7,000 ft. There used to be a "cog train" that went to the top and bicyclists would take the train to the top and ride down. I was a year in Denver with is down around 5,200 ft and they still had people growing faint there.

If a tree can't grow above 12,000 ft what would make you think that you could crawl through the bomb bays of a aircraft at 10,000 feet safely?

"Mountain medicine recognizes three altitude regions that reflect the lowered amount of oxygen in the atmosphe

High altitude = 1,500–3,500 metres (4,900–11,500 ft)
Very high altitude = 3,500–5,500 metres (11,500–18,000 ft)
Extreme altitude = above 5,500 metres (18,000 ft)

Travel to each of these altitude regions can lead to medical problems, from the mild symptoms of acute mountain sickness to the potentially fatal high-altitude pulmonary edema (HAPE) and high-altitude cerebral edema (HACE). The higher the altitude, the greater the risk. Research also indicates elevated risk of permanent brain damage in people climbing to extreme altitudes.[11] Expedition doctors commonly stock a supply of dexamethasone, or "dex," to treat these conditions on site.

Humans have survived for two years at 5,950 m (19,520 ft, 475 millibars of atmospheric pressure), which is the highest recorded permanently tolerable altitude; the highest permanent settlement known, La Rinconada, is at 5,100 m (16,700 ft).

At extreme altitudes, above 7,500 m (24,600 ft, 383 millibars of atmospheric pressure), sleeping becomes very difficult, digesting food is near-impossible, and the risk of HAPE or HACE increases greatly."

The FAA regulations that last time I heard limited cabin pressure to partial pressures in commercial aircraft to never be lower than that of 8,000 ft.

Since this is lower pressure that is recommended by many medical authorities since it can harm infants, pregnant women and anyone with cardio vascular problems commercial aircraft tend to keep the effective altitude in the cabin below 5,000 ft.

But everyone on you seems to think that you are supermen and haven't the least problem with riding a bike or even hiking above those altitudes.

Well, I did the Death Ride several times and the max altitude of that is almost 9,000 ft. There is a reason they call it the death ride and there is a reason that they have so many drop outs and it isn't because of the distance.

It's because of the distance, elevation and heat. BTW, I did a few Death Rides including "Death Ride the 13th" way back in '92 (?) (13th year it ran) and that was six passes -- or six and a half. You went down the back of Ebbetts, half way up Pacific Grade -- which is a ridiculous 20% climb. It's like the road is in your face. Then you turn around and go up the back of Ebbetts and down. Then you go do Hope Valley, Luther and Carson. Monitor/Monitor/Ebbets/Pacific Grade/Ebbets/Luther/Carson. That's a hell of a ride. The Sierra passes are awesome -- or they were when I was younger. Now I'd probably die on the Death Ride. Coming from sea level, the altitude was an issue, but the heat was what killed me. PDX generally isn't that hot. As an aside, its easy to underestimate the climb up to Hope Valley to get to Luther and Carson -- you really have to climb to climb.

To this day, my wife agonizes over riding four passes and not five. She was a racer and a great climber but opted out of one of the standard five passes. Ah, the good old days. I have this lovely picture from the Death Ride hanging in my office with my wife looking fearsome on a Cannondale 2.8 with DT shifters and wearing her Specialized/Bike Gallery/Power Bar (what a billboard) team jersey. Some guy is chasing her down Monitor Pass. Do they still make Power Bars? Those things were dreadful.

-- Jay Beattie.

Where was a 20% grade? I don't remember that on the Death Ride but I don't remember much about those rides anymore. I do remember a really steep section on the circuit around Lake Tahoe.