Location may make a big impact on how a stove functions. Other conditions may, as well. Alcohol stoves typically have a lot of surface area to dissipate heat with a relatively small amount of alcohol inside to heat, vaporize, and burn. I live on a coastal plain, so I am at a really low altitude. Just to see what would happen, I left my fuel bottle in a snow bank overnight. At 17 F, I had no trouble with my alcohol stove. What I have found to make a huge difference in performance is what surface the stove sits on in use. I have made it a practice to put a small pad made from corrugated cardboard wrapped in aluminum foil under my stoves. It keeps the stove from burning a wood table top and rocks or cold ground from functioning as a huge heat sink, sucking energy from the stove. A priming pan and an insulator under the stove may help it work at a higher altitude, as may using one of the pressurized stoves. We don't have the altitude in our east coast mountains compared to yours on the west coast. YMMV, of course.

CamperMom