When the University of Nevada, Reno, hosts the 2004 National Collegiate Men's and Women's Skiing Championships March 10-13 at the Donner Summit in Truckee, California, it will mark the first time for the event to be in California since Squaw Valley was the venue in 1962.

And while it may be exciting for the skiers to return to the Golden State for the first time since John F. Kennedy was president, at least some of the field is bound to be concerned about the altitude, which is about 6,900 feet -- a height that could affect athletes accustomed to skiing nearer sea level.

"It's absolutely a concern among all coaches, especially the Nordic coaches," said Terry Aldrich, secretary-rules editor of the NCAA Men's and Women's Skiing Committee and Nordic coach at Middlebury College. "In any event, say longer than 200 meters, it's a real disadvantage for those students coming from sea level."

Skiers from Eastern schools, those in the Central region of the country and in Alaska are accustomed to skiing at venues thousands of feet lower than those being used for this season's championships, Aldrich said.

Sten Fjeldheim, women's head coach at Northern Michigan University and a member of the skiing committee, said that the problem with going from sea level to higher altitudes is the difference in pressure. A person used to competing at high altitudes has a higher number of red blood cells to carry more oxygen to the muscles, while a person coming from sea level has lesser oxygen-carrying capacity because he or she has fewer red blood cells, he said.

Most sea-level athletes not accustomed to the higher altitudes will feel a "severe discomfort," he said.

"Strategically, you have to attack the course in a different way," Fjeldheim said. "If you were to use the same sort of rhythm and timing and aggressiveness you do at sea level as you do at altitude, you don't last long."

Acclimatization challenge

Experts say it takes between two and three weeks for a sea-level skier to adjust to skiing at altitude, a luxury of time that most collegiate skiers don't have.

"Unfortunately, physiologically, there's nothing you can do. The only thing you can do is get out there and adjust to altitude and the only way you can do that is by being there a substantial amount of time," said Aldrich. "There's no way a student from Dartmouth or Williams or Middlebury or any of those schools back East can take that amount of time off."

Both Fjeldheim and Aldrich said the only methods of simulating altitude are expensive and not generally available in the United States. Some international teams, they noted, have altitude homes where athletes will sleep to adjust to higher altitudes before a competition.

Nevada head coach Tom Arnstein and Nordic coach Tav Streit said they understand the coaches' concerns and did take altitude into consideration for the championships. However, they chose the site because it has the best facilities and best race courses for the skiers. This is the first championship hosted by Nevada.

Alpine events will take place at the Sugar Bowl Ski Resort, while Nordic events will be at the Auburn Ski Club.

They also noted that few places in the West have lower altitudes than these venues. Western teams often compete at altitudes up to 9,000 feet -- about 2,100 feet higher than the altitude for the 2004 championships.

Kevin Sweeney, head coach at the University of Utah and a member of the skiing committee, said the problem works both ways. He said altitude skiers might face their share of difficulties when competing near sea level.

"When you're at higher altitude you typically cannot move as fast, your frequency, or your tempo, is not as fast, and so we tend to have a slower tempo and when we go to sea level, our frequency, or tempo, is much slower than the skiers who have been skiing at sea level," he said. "So we're a little bit off their pace, we're not able to turn it over quick enough, that kind of thing.

"So before I take a team East, we do a lot of extra speed preparation and then once I get the team at the Eastern site, we spend a couple of days doing some really hard, fast speed work," he said.

'Spread the event around'

Sweeney said Western coaches have sympathy for sea-level skiers coming West, but he also said it would be unfair to only host the championships in the East to accommodate those athletes. Also, he said, it would be unfair to only hold the event in Western venues that are at lower altitudes because that would not give many schools a chance to play host.

Aldrich said the championships have been conducted in Montana many times because it's a Western venue, but the altitude is lower (resorts don't have to be as high because of the northern latitude). Colorado venues, he noted, are generally between 7,000 and 9,000 feet. The average Eastern venue, he said, is about 1,500 feet.

Fjeldheim said that anything higher than 6,000 feet can have a significant effect on the athlete's body.

"It becomes a huge deal after 6,000 feet," he said. "Every 100 feet you go up you become that much worse."

Fjeldheim said international races are not held at anything over 1,800 meters, or about 6,000 feet, but the NCAA has no rules for altitude, only recommendations.

"This is something that really does affect college skiing," said Aldrich.

Aldrich said he remembers watching an NCAA basketball regional championship game in Albuquerque (5,000 feet) and the announcers talked about the effect the altitude was having on the players.

"We had to laugh," he said. "We're competing much higher than that."

Sweeney, whose team won the event last year when it was hosted by Dartmouth, said the bottom line is that skiing is a sport that can only take place in certain areas of the country.

"It's a tough issue and I think every Western coach at altitude does have some sympathy for those athletes who come to the championship, and for whatever reason, they can't quite ski to their potential because of altitude and not being able to adjust," he said.

"There's definitely some sympathy there, but then you've got to sit back and go, 'OK, this is the sport of skiing and we've got to go where there's snow and we've got to spread it around.' "