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Guy wrote in (small) part:
The highest paved road in California goes over Tioga Pass (9,941 ft.) in Yosemite... The lower parking lot in Bristlecone Forest is over 10 grand. I think there is an upper lot at about 12 -- which had my old Porsche 912 gasping. One of the treees there is arguably the oldest living thing on our planet. Stunningly gorgeous drive. Do it! The UC Berkeley research station on the top of White Mountain is about 14,250 feet up. Pretty sure road is paved, although not available to the public. Bring your snow tractor in winter. If you are unaccustomed to altitude and plan on such a trip, get a small squirt bottle of "4-Way Nasal Spray." When you wake up in the middle of the night at 8K, gasping for air, stick in nose, squirt-squirt, and go back to sleep breathing easily. Amazing. Quent |
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"Guy Alcala" wrote in message . .. WaltBJ wrote: More trivia on flight and oxygen: snip As for the Rocky Mountains, when we get flatlanders up here for a visit and take them for a drive up over Trail Ridge road - peak altitude about 12,200, they usually doze off because they won't breathe (pant) enough. (Almost totally OT) Ah, Trail Ridge road. When my '88 Subaru GL Turbo 4WD Wagon was almost brand new, I took four people and all our gear for a week over Trail Ridge (we'd driven from California, but spent a night and half day in Great Basin Nat. Park, including sleeping at 10,000 feet). The Subaru only had 115 hp and had a curb weight of about 3,000 lb., and virtually everyone had a better power/weight ratio and was faster than I was -- at sea level. So there we were, climbing up the west side on a hot, muggy summer day (it was in the high '80s or low '90s, I forget which, when we passed through Granby @ 8,500 feet), and all of a sudden I found I was just about the most powerful car on the road, as I passed what were far more powerful cars (at sea level) while driving uphill at ca. 10,000 ft. I could drive as fast as I wanted to (max. 40-50 or so) uphill on the fairly open two-lane road, with 1-2,000 foot dropoffs on the side and usually no guardrails on the turns. Coming back over from east to west was the same. Hmm, I was across Trail Ridge Road a couple of times last summer (same trip) but never really noticed a loss of power there or down at Pike's Peak. Just must not have been putting my foot in it hard enough to notice. That and mass-air-flow sensors driving the fuel injection helps. of a load that high, that hot. The highest paved road in California goes over Tioga Pass (9,941 ft.) in Yosemite, and it handled that fine with two Nice developed campground up there, Tuolumne Meadows, only 8600' but sub freezing temperatures of a night about anytime of the year. Good tent sleeping. Seems like the airliners come through that gap pretty low of a night. Oh, watch the speed up there, the only place I've ever seen a National Park Service radar speed trap, at 0-dark:30 no less. Just to make some attempt to getting this on topic I'll mention that the Navy has a mobile home or two parked at the top of Pike's Peak doing some kind of aeronautical research. |
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On Sat, 13 Mar 2004 07:57:39 GMT, Guy Alcala
wrote: WaltBJ wrote: More trivia on flight and oxygen: snip As for the Rocky Mountains, when we get flatlanders up here for a visit and take them for a drive up over Trail Ridge road - peak altitude about 12,200, they usually doze off because they won't breathe (pant) enough. (Almost totally OT) Ah, Trail Ridge road. When my '88 Subaru GL Turbo 4WD Wagon was almost brand new, I took four people and all our gear for a week over Trail Ridge (we'd driven from California, but spent a night and half day in Great Basin Nat. Park, including sleeping at 10,000 feet). The Subaru only had 115 hp and had a curb weight of about 3,000 lb., and virtually everyone had a better power/weight ratio and was faster than I was -- at sea level. So there we were, climbing up the west side on a hot, muggy summer day (it was in the high '80s or low '90s, I forget which, when we passed through Granby @ 8,500 feet), and all of a sudden I found I was just about the most powerful car on the road, as I passed what were far more powerful cars (at sea level) while driving uphill at ca. 10,000 ft. I could drive as fast as I wanted to (max. 40-50 or so) uphill on the fairly open two-lane road, with 1-2,000 foot dropoffs on the side and usually no guardrails on the turns. Coming back over from east to west was the same. I never did find out what the critical altitude on the turbo was, but judging by its performance on Trail Ridge that day it must have been well over 14,000 feet (allowing for density altitude). Couldn't have a more clear illustration of a turbo's thin air performance advantage than that. I later took the car up to 13,200 feet in the White Mountains one September with two people and gear, and I don't remember any altitude problems there either, at least for the car (it was graded gravel and dirt, so I wasn't driving very fast in any case). Both of _us_ had AMS from ascending too fast from sea level, even though we'd slept at 9,000 feet the night before. My Subaru Forester (some SOB stole my old Subie in its fifteenth year, or I'd still be happily driving it) doesn't have a turbo (they only came out with the XT turbo model in June or so of last year, and I had to buy a car that January). It's got about 165 hp and more torque, so my old turbo would come up short up to about 8,000 feet or so, but have more power above that. Living in the SF Bay Area at sea level and driving up to the Sierra it hasn't been a problem so far, but I have yet to carry that much of a load that high, that hot. The highest paved road in California goes over Tioga Pass (9,941 ft.) in Yosemite, and it handled that fine with two people and backpacking gear last August, so I probably don't need a turbo here, and I'm happy not to have to worry about the turbo blowing up or suffering other expensive problems (not that I had any, but I changed my oil every 3,000 miles and let it idle down properly after hard driving). But if I was living in Colorado up against the Front Range and/or commuting across it, I'd sure want one. I've read that Subaru developed the Turbo Forester XT precisely because the normally-aspirated model was left gasping for breath commuting through the Eisenhower tunnel (@11,000 feet). As Homer Simpson might say, "210 hp all the way up, M'mm." Guy I wonder what my Isuzu Bighorn (Trooper to you 'Mericans) 2.8 diesel turbo would be like there But for those that live high... aren't there any factory supercharged cars to use? Like the Australian 3.8l V6 SS Commodore? The Merlin and Griffin engines on the Spitfires were supercharged, and they certainly went high enough |
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