To give you perspective, Portland's elevation is about 50 ft. Today, my lungs were exposed to 7,040 ft elevation, and they were not happy.
Today we hiked to Hanging Lake, about 2 hours West of Breckenridge. The hike is only about 1.2 miles, but it's extremely vertical, and it's like you're climbing stairs for 2 hours straight. Stair-master x100!!! The hike was so worth the view, once at the top the lake was aqua blue with a showering waterfall filling it with icy water. The way down was so much easier (it always is though). Although, I will be hiking Torres del Pines (Patagonia) in February, the altitude there is actually closer to sea level, then this hike.
