12/10/23 10:11 AM

This may just be my winter fantasy, but I'm looking at the Copper Triangle ride in Colorado in August

https://www.theridecollective.com/coppertriangle

A fundraiser for the Davis Phinney Parkinson's Foundation, it starts at Copper Mountain ski area, loops through Leadville and Vail. 79 miles, 6500' elevation gain. The hard part is, between 8,000 - 11,000' altitude. I've had mixed results riding at altitude, the only time I got to 11,000' I got sick as a dog. That was without acclimation, I figure to try this I'd need to get out there at least a week ahead of time. Also further evaluation before signing up.

I know some of you guys ski out there, anyone ride any of those roads?

12/11/23 10:20 AM

Don't know the riding out there, but at least one piece of advice I have seen is to allow at least a week to acclimate, or do the ride right after getting off the plane. Other than the obvious shortness of breath, I am not really affected by altitude even though I live at essentially sea level and I often get off the plane and am skiing at over 10,000 feet within a couple of hours. It sounds like you tried the "right off the plane" approach and it didn't work for you. Too much individual variation, it seems for me to be offering advice but it sounds like a great ride.

12/11/23 1:30 PM

"or do the ride right after getting off the plane."

Not sure of this logic after being @ 33kASL with 8kASL pressurization.

But, you could book flight on newer carbon jets, they pressurize them more.

IIRC, normal flights are pressurized equiv to max 8k ASL, and the carbon body 12k or something. I guess no rivets to pop. ;)

Jet lag is made worse by low pressure and shit air on flights...

12/12/23 12:31 PM

I've been to Leadville (Linda's family owns part of a dormant silver mining claim there) and I could feel the altitude when driving ! We did some light hiking while searching for the mine and I really felt it then. This was the day after getting off the plane. Later in the trip, we did some mountain biking in Crested Butte, circa 9000', and anything resembling a hill was a case of pedal, pedal, pedal...stop and wheeze...repeat.
We also did a short hike off of Independence Pass at over 12,000', but I don't recall it being too bad, though we certainly took it slow.

My lung capacity has always been my weakness as a cyclist, so perhaps I'm more sensitive to altitude than others here, but I'd probably need months to acclimatize for that ride, if I could do it at all.

I wish you the best of luck if you decide to try it, Dan!

12/12/23 1:57 PM

Thanks all. My previous effort out there was an ill-considered attempt to ride up Mt. Evans with Don Ferris (Anvil), Bill Karow (Yammie) and some others in 2002, I think. I recall flying out to Denver Thursday and making the attempt Saturday, or something similar. Above 11,000' I had the dry heaves and was struggling to ride 3 mph on a 6% grade. Eventually I got in the following pickup, but unfortunately it had to follow the surviving riders to the top, where I puked out everything in my stomach. I was dehydrated and nothing moved through my gut.

I agree with Kerry that there's great individual variability, and you can't really make recommendations A to B. If I do try it, it will be with considerable preparation.

Brian, maybe some of my relatives knew some of Linda's. My mother was born in Leadville :) I went up there a couple days after getting off the bike, and at least i could walk around....

I've learned a bit about the Phinney Foundation and am very impressed.

12/12/23 4:30 PM

Amazon has a sale on portable oxygen generators. Back pack, pannier... ;O

12/13/23 6:21 AM

Dan, that's certainly possible, though I don't know whether Linda's family actually lived in Leadville, or if they just bought into the mining claim there. Her grandfather was in the mining business and was the mayor of Ouray for a while. There's a memorial to him in town. Her mother was born in Pandora, which is now a tiny ghost town up the valley from Telluride. She traced her father's side of her family back to Shetland, of all places. We visited all of these places as part of her informal "heritage tour" in the early 2000s.

12/13/23 10:23 AM

quote:

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up the valley from Telluride

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12/13/23 4:53 PM

Yeah, it's just a dirt road up to the remains of a few shacks and other buildings. At least it was when we were there. Looking at it on Google Maps, there may be more going on up there now.