I'm reading a book called, *going higher*, its about oxegen, man and mountains, and I came to a paragraph which reads as follows:
'Does the fit and trim athlete tolerate high altitude better than the couch potatoe? the short answer is not exactly, the cheering fact is that the trained athlete and the experienced mountaineer climb more efficiently, with less exertion, and therefore use and need less oxegen than the neophyte to do the same climb, this suggests that its not a waste of time to train before any climb wherein you'll welcome every oxegen advantage, how rigorously isn't easy to answer, are ther specifc training exercises? logically one would expect that increasing muscle fitness of arms and legs would be most helpful, if you're a bit over-weight, should you trim down? eat less? toughen up? run more? thats a good idea, but in the olden days one great climber deliberately gained a dozen pounds before going to a major peak so he would have some fat to lose; I have friends who do the same today...with beer'
next time anyone is tackling K2, or Kilimanjaro, or even Everest, make sure you have your fill of beer first, this is the best reason I have heard yet !
