10,500 Feet
The highest elevation that makes tactical sense with black powder and muscle-powered weapons is the tree line, where spread the passes that will accommodate mounts and pack animals and provide cover for the hunter as he travels and camps. Close range ambushes further up are not practical or likely, unless at night and the idea of someone climbing this eminence by night is close to zero
11,000
The rock trail on the face of the mountain did not tax my lungs or legs. However, my vertigo began to get the best of me as we took in a perfect vantage for scouting the pass below. Any higher up the mountain, so Ishmael told me, would be primarily used for hunting specialized animals—like the two mountain goats we saw—vision quests and gathering a strategic picture of the range for navigational reference.
The rocky nature of this tumble of boulder and splintered stone would preclude running and hand-to-hand rush ambushing and would demand contact at pistol and arrow range, at which long gun shots would rarely miss.
Sitting back against the rocks, comfortably out of danger of falling, I was overcome with a frantic desire to run and dive off of the rocky trail, an irrational suicide impulse, which I have experienced often when trying to do roofing work and standing above railings in malls or at windows in office buildings. I had not thought it would affect me in such open space and was surprised and disappointed, but did help me understand it as a visually cued fear, seemingly unrelated to my sense of balance, as I had previously thought. So I climbed back down the dirt and stone, switch back stair.
10,800
With the heights above providing a vantage to spy travelers through the pass and a base from which to descend upon them, the 30 yard ledge, crowned with stunted pine could easily conceal a 2-6 man teams from below. Horses would have to be kept elsewhere, so more than three men on the ledge would be unreasonable. I prefer it as a vantage for a lone ambusher, descending stealthily upon his enemy from above.
10,500
Back down under the large pines, I did a 30-yard sprint with a 30 pound pack to pre-fatigue myself for the combined uphill sprints and combat footwork drills intended to rate how my performance at tis attitude matched my abilities at sea level, where I am typically good for 10 2-minute rounds of stick and only a round and a half of full contact boxing—respectively 20 minutes of stick with brief breaks or 3 minutes of boxing.
I did three hard uphill sprints of 50 yards—thirty as the crow flies—and four rounds of shadow fighting. My opinion as to the altitude affect is as follows:
1. No affect on low intensity activity [non-contact combat mobility, hiking]
2. My explosive strength, including grappling, charging and contact striking was severely hampered, not in effectiveness but in duration.
3. My effective combat endurance was cut in half.
4. Recovery times for explosive effort were 120% of normal, but recovered potential declined steeply. I could get my wind back almost as soon as at sea level, but my exertion window was reduced each time.
5. Recovery times for low intensity exertion were the same as at sea level
Overall, engaging multiple opponents in detail would be extremely taxing, with the advantage of numbers [in hand-to-hand combat] at alpine altitude being significantly greater than at sea level.
Twerps, Goons and Meatshields: The Basics of Full Contact Stick-Fighting
"...Sitting back against the rocks, comfortably out of danger of falling, I was overcome with a frantic desire to run and dive off of the rocky trail, an irrational suicide impulse,..."
Holy shit. I've had that. Way up in the mountains in Zion National park. It scared the shit out of me. I'm not in any way suicidal and this thought came very strongly into my mind as if it was forced in. I went back down the mountain immediately as if cursed and heights have bothered me every since. I used to have almost no fear of heights at all. Now if I'm in some kind of crane or some lifting device heights don't bother me but if I'm on a high roof or cliff side I'm deathly afraid that that intense urge will come back and instead of ignoring it I'll jump for some some reason that I have no explanation for at all. You have no idea how you freaked me out by saying you had this too. I thought that I was the only one. I've never told anyone it's so crazy. I need to add I have no suicidal urges at all and the thought scared me very bad because it was the first time in my life that a thought seemed to just intrude into my head as if it were placed there by someone else. If I remember correctly I think it was the only time. COULD THE MOUNTAINS BE CURSED!!!!!!