Eric, I remember that thing. I used to see it advertised in bike magazines, if I remember right-back in the 80's. I checked into getting one, but never did.

The only way I know to acclimatize is to gradually work your way up higher. I used to live at 11.5K and was as high as 16K. That jump wasn't too bad, but I'd been there quite some time. 13-15K wasn't that big a deal for us.

But, not properly aclimatizing can lead to all kinds of problems. As I have mentioned here before, I had pulmonary edema after returning to altitude after being at close to sea level for a while. My acclimatization was totally gone and it almost killed me. I was in college then, but probably not all that fit at the time.