February 11, 2010 E-MAIL PRINT

Plan properly for high altitude skiing

by Tony Chamberlain/

Skiing at high altitude requires proper planning to get you acclimated to the change.

Skiing at high altitude requires proper planning to get you acclimated to the change.

This is the time I start getting serious about my annual trips west, almost always in early March. The timing for me has to do with dwindling crowds – after school vacation period – superior snow and, usually, weather conditions.

Though it’s not spring yet, the sunlight is become pretty ferocious at 10,000 feet, and – if you’re blocked up and wearing a hat and UV filtering glasses – that’s a good thing.

Obviously, parents of school kids have a hard time with these dates, but if you’re unencumbered in this way, you’ll find, curiously, that the price of air travel, lodging and lift packages makes a line that echoes when the kids are on school vacations.

Christmas and February are generally the most expensive months for a destination ski trip. But the first prices for a round trip flight to Denver ranged from $178 to $248 – depending on particulars, and room rates in the entire I-70 chain of ski areas is about 40 percent off as we head into March.

Do be careful about airline charges, because on many of them the ticket price is just the start. On some airlines – Delta, Continental, and American to name three – there is now a $25 charge for the first bag checked and $35 for the second.

So that argues for a whole new approach to packing light, using a boot or ski bag to pack clothes in, wearing ski outfits on the plane. There are many ingenious strategies, but the old familiar stack of bags at the checkout is a luxury few can afford anymore.

Trip insurance? Like any insurance, if your bags end up in Acapulco while you waste a day in Vail, and considering the current vicissitudes of airline travel generally, it might be a good idea. But like all product liability-type insurance, if you never need it you might kick yourself for spending the money.

If you’re traveling west from New England to ski or ride, you’re probably going to end up at altitudes between a mile and two miles above sea level – where we live.

As bushed as you may feel after that early airport rush and unpacking on the other end – you just want a shower and a nap, right? – it really is a good idea to go walking for a while. This helps acclimatize you to the thinner atmosphere you’ll encounter on the slopes the next day.

So here are some more dos and don’ts of a high altitude ski trip:

– Do as much stair climbing, walking, and physical activity possible before you start skiing.

– Do rent a small humidifier unit for your room. It makes a huge difference to the kind of sleep you’ll get and how your sinuses and throat feel in the morning.

– Do get rented up in the off hours – best the night before you go to the slopes the first morning.

– Do eat fairly lightly at breakfast. Food somehow sits heavier in that altitude when you’re active.

– Do drink tons of water, at night and all through the day.

 – Don’t drink too much alcohol at night or, worse, at lunch. Altitude again. Booze hits harder.

– Don’t overeat at lunch. You’ll feel too logy to go back out.

– Don’t be brave if you feel a major headache coming on. That’s altitude sickness, and it succumbs only to sleep and painkillers taken with more water than you think you need.

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