Gorge,

As a ski patroller at Las Vegas Ski and Snowboard Resort, whose base is at 8,500 ft. we see even non-skiing guests who have to leave and go back to the 'Vegas valley due to hypoxia.

Your explaination is good info for non medical backpackers to absorb. Oxygen uptake is the name of the game at higher altitudes. That's why, besides training 6 to 7 days a week I also take GNC's NO2 tablets (time-release L-Arginine). They create nitric oxide in the blood and this dissolved gas dialates blood vessles including the capillaries of the lung's alveoli (tiny air sacs).

NO2 has the same effect, but milder, as Viagara, which is taken by Everest climbers to increase oxygen uptake and CO2 output.

It may be "cheating" and hey, I may not look it but I'm 66 and no longer young and honest but old and tricky. That's why my ski poles are hydrogen filled.

Eric