Out of breath when hiking at elevation - what to do in off season

[Lvovsky /Pasha/Pavel]

So I hiked my first ridge at Taos on the last day of the 19/20 season. It was at most 200ft, should have been a 15 minute hike but I had to stop like five times to rest and catch my breath. Elevation was 11,900ft. I noticed getting quickly out of breath at 9-10 kft too (walking from parking to the lodge at Santa Fe up some steps). I live at 5,000 feet. Reasonably fit but not doing cardio regularly.

Any specific advice on how to improve the situation besides the obvious like more hiking, running, biking?

 

[raytseng]

Besides the physical training, there are a few technique things you may not be aware of and can practice

I'm uncertain of your skill level in hiking.
If you're not properly using your poles and polestraps like trekking poles, that is also something to practice. Even if you are bootpacking skis on your shoulder, you can at least use 1 pole at a time properly to spread the load. If you don't have regular trekking poles get some and over the summer you get really comfortable with the proper use of straps and they will feel second nature.
There are also some minor mountaineering/"advanced hiking" tips to be better at elevation to conserve/balance your oxygen, take a look into those tips and see if you are doing them, mainly about pacing and breathing. Things like the "rest step". Google that as a start and it'll lead you to a bunch of backpacking/hiking sites with other training tips, follow that where it goes.

 

[SSSdave]

I've extensively backpacked and hiked in the High Sierra each summer for decades. Even if one is in top physical shape and backpacked several days at 12000 feet three weeks before returning to sea level, when one goes back to high elevations it will take a day or two to re-acclimate as the human body rapidly daily adjusts the oxygen content that aveoli in lungs use hemoglobin for to attach to breathed in oxygen molecules. Thus if you skied a few days through a Sunday at 10000 feet and then went back home to sea level, when you return to ski the following Saturday, your body will have already adjusted back to sea level. That noted if a person regularly moves between such extreme elevations as in my case, the body tends to adjust more readily less extremely.

 

[cantunamunch]

So I hiked my first ridge at Taos on the last day of the 19/20 season. It was at most 200ft, should have been a 15 minute hike but I had to stop like five times to rest and catch my breath. Elevation was 11,900ft. I noticed getting quickly out of breath at 9-10 kft too (walking from parking to the lodge at Santa Fe up some steps). I live at 5,000 feet. Reasonably fit but not doing cardio regularly.

5K to 12K is a bigger change than MSL to 5K; don't assume that living at 5K pre-adapts you in any way to 10K+

Any specific advice on how to improve the situation besides the obvious like more hiking, running, biking?

Eat light and go easy on the coffee.

 

[mdf]

Ski with friends who are gracious about waiting at the top until you finally arrive. That's what I do.

 

[Jim Kenney]

So I hiked my first ridge at Taos on the last day of the 19/20 season. It was at most 200ft, should have been a 15 minute hike but I had to stop like five times to rest and catch my breath. Elevation was 11,900ft. I noticed getting quickly out of breath at 9-10 kft too (walking from parking to the lodge at Santa Fe up some steps). I live at 5,000 feet. Reasonably fit but not doing cardio regularly.

Any specific advice on how to improve the situation besides the obvious like more hiking, running, biking?

I hiked that ridge in Jan 2012 and had about the same experience as you

I was coming from sea level and almost age 60 at the time. When I first arrive at a western ski area from sea level I often joke that the hardest part of it for me is bending over to buckle my ski boots. Once I start skiing groomers it's not too bad. Skiing bumps, steeps, powder or doing hikes while you're still adjusting to altitude is another story.

Besides the obvious of getting in better shape, some of us adapt to altitude a little more slowly than others. I appear to be one of those and have noticed so on western ski trips since I was in my 30s even though I was quite fit then. Sometimes you just need patience. Now that I'm retired and get to spend extensive periods "at elevation" it has gotten a little easier to do hike-to skiing, but I'm older and still not very capable at it. It can be particularly frustrating on a powder day when you're plugging away on a boot pack and all the younger/fitter folks are breathing down your neck to get to the goods. I try to be courteous and step aside from time to time, letting them go by and also giving myself a breather.

I would also say that practice helps, so maybe continue to try various ski-hikes when you get the chance, maybe one's that are a little lower then 11,900'. Finally, there is a decent bet that a number of the skiers/boarders that are passing you by when you're doing hike-to skiing on in-bounds black diamond terrain are quite experienced and possibly frequently do backcountry ski hikes involving much greater elevation climbs.

 

[Primoz]

So I hiked my first ridge at Taos on the last day of the 19/20 season. It was at most 200ft, should have been a 15 minute hike but I had to stop like five times to rest and catch my breath. Elevation was 11,900ft. I noticed getting quickly out of breath at 9-10 kft too (walking from parking to the lodge at Santa Fe up some steps). I live at 5,000 feet. Reasonably fit but not doing cardio regularly.
Any specific advice on how to improve the situation besides the obvious like more hiking, running, biking?

Sure some (lot) of endurance training could certainly help, but thing is, you either have it or you don't. Some people handle high elevations good, others don't. I remember back in my racing days, I was one of very few that could easily do interval training up on glaciers (3000+m above sea level), but that didn't mean anything. Most of guys who were hardly crawling around glaciers tracks, were way faster down below later in winter... to bad world championships didn't take place on glaciers in summer

 

[Rod9301]

Also losing weight will help a great deal.

 

[pais alto]

One other thing to keep in mind is kind of mental. Start breathing deeply and hard early, right as you start hiking rather than waiting until you feel you need to. I live in Santa Fe and work and recreate regularly at 10k’ to 13k’ and I have to breathe hard when going up hill (backcountry skiing, climbing, hiking, biking, etc. My avatar pic was taken over 12k’ and I’m smiling) and I believe it’s very advantageous to anticipate heavy breathing and start deep breathing just as soon as I start up. Since I’m expecting it and I start deep breathing immediately it doesn’t freak me out. Hell, I even breathe deep just going up stairways at the ski areas, it’s automatic for me. But I see people all the time that don’t expect it and they get freaked out by it, even trying not to breathe hard, because, hey, they’re just walking up from the parking lot.

Also, pace yourself - time your breathing to your steps. Going up I start out taking a breath in every time my right foot goes down, then breathing out the next time I put my right foot down. When I start exerting pretty hard I’ll change that to breathe in when my right foot goes down, then out for my left foot. And - this is key - I control my speed so that is adequate. IOW, I slow my pace down to keep the breathing aligned with my pace, that way I don’t have to stop.

Also, diaphragm strength is, IMO/IME, something you build up like any other muscle, so that’s a real advantage to aerobic training - your diaphragm is used to deep breathing.

 

[CalG]

small steps work the lungs
large steps work the legs

or is it the other way around ;-)

when one gets tired, give it a rest and switch to the other

 

[Erik Timmerman]

Bring a “human shield”, someone that hikes slower than you.

 

[mdf]

Bring a “human shield”, someone that hikes slower than you.

What do you do when you are the shield?

 

[Erik Timmerman]

What do you do when you are the shield?

Recruit!

 

[Snowfan]

In the boot trail at Taos ridge take the small packed steps. They stride smaller than normal but put the work in the legs instead of the lungs. Curiously, this means not overusing the thighs. Overuse the thighs and the lungs stop you. Have hiked it a gillion times. My home elevation is 3000' and fitness level is, I would guess, fair not great, and I do it non-stop.

As Pais mentioned, start deep and slow breathing before and during the start and pace yourself with the goal being no stops. Do it again an hour or two later and slow or increase the pace. You will be encouraged when you hit your no stop pace.

 

[Kneale Brownson]

If you create some resistance as you exhale by tightening your lips and blowing out through them, you tighten the diaphragm and push out more of the used up air from your lungs so that when you inhale, there's more room for whatever oxygen is in the air.

 

[Jerez]

What @pais alto said. A lot of it is not thinking you should be breathing hard. You should be breathing hard!

I am slow on the ridge hike too. (I am a lot older than you but live a little higher). For me the foot steps are too far apart (short legs). Slow it down and don't expect to go so fast.

If you really want to train your breath, try Wim Hof. Really wakes you up for the day. Not sure about all the woo-woo around it, but definitely good for getting used to deep breaths.

 

[cantunamunch]

Deep and controlled breathing is the best and easiest way to control heart rate in steady aerobic exercise BUT it takes practice and you don't want to start panting or wheezing - that is exactly what it is not about.

Oh, and yes, you can teach yourself to do it using just a heart rate monitor and a trainer or spin bike.

Deep and controlled breathing will do nothing for oxygen transport at cellular level. For that you need adaptation and exercise both.

 

[CalG]

Interval training helps me alot!

We live in a cul-du-sac served by a steep hill drive.

100 meters. just a bit too steep to ride up on a bicycle. (steep enough to send cars sliding off in winter)

I walk to the bottom, turn and walk up at a pace where my breathing precludes speech.
Get to the top, turn and walk down again.

Lather, rinse, repeat. X4 and I'm all in.

Great for just about all physical conditioning.

 

[scott43]

Hit the sauna..

Sauna benefits the performance of athletes by increasing the amount of red blood cells.

Sauna visits are positive for the performance of athletes by increasing the levels of growth hormones, heat shock proteins and red blood cells.

www.recoveryaftertraining.net

 

[martyg]

Oh. Shortness of breath. Clearly COVID-1. This post needs to be moved.

Seriously... 5k is not that high. When we moved to 7,500' it took me 180 days until my test pieces on the bike leveled out as far as time over a given course. You might feel better a few days in, but actual performance will take as long as it takes your body to churn out RBCs.

I can push out consistent wattage until about 11,700'. Then I hit a wall and have to throttle back. I'm typically at 10,000+ 2 - 4 X per week.

Maybe walk up La Luz Trail several times per week, if you are in ALB.