"ERGOHI² AND RESPECT FOR ALTITUDE"
Michael Fichta keeps himself physically and mentally fit with mountain running. On New Year's Eve 2023, the 63-year-old from Salzburg climbed the 5,895-metre-high Kilimanjaro in Tanzania. Out of respect for the stresses and strains of high altitudes, Fichta prepared himself in an ergoHI² cabin from JFJ
Health & Sports. The simulation of the altitude showed him the physical limits to be expected with a reduced oxygen supply. His body adapted perfectly to the extreme conditions.
"In the ergoHI² cabin, you get to experience oxygen shortages under laboratory conditions - it's a completely identical feeling. Anyone could and should do it as preparation. You then know what to expect. That it's completely normal to struggle for breath and get a headache. It simply gives you a sense of security if you've already experienced it. It took away the uncertainty of how my body would react to the altitude," reports Michael Fichta.
"186,000 meters of altitude in one year"
Mountain running is the Salzburg native's great passion. "Speedy mountain running with running sections, where it makes sense, is good for me. If things are going well, I can do the 100 meters in six or seven minutes. Flat routes have become too boring, I don't like them any more and they don't help my coordination either. It's always a bit different on the mountain. The weather, different steepness, you can do different variations, the ground; it's generally more challenging." In 2022, Fichta completed around 186,000 meters of ascent - more than 200 times on his local mountain, the Gaisberg in Salzburg.
"Stay healthy with endurance sports"
Michael Fichta has long been closely associated with endurance sports. From 1993, he accompanied the Alpine World Cup team for ten years as a fitness coach for the Austrian Ski Association. In 2002, he moved to the Canadian Ski Association as head fitness coach. In 2009, he returned to Austria and the ÖSV, where he is now primarily responsible for operations and logistics. "Endurance sports help you to stay healthy not only cardiopulmonary but also mentally. I wrote my dissertation in 1986 on alternative medicine through endurance. I believe that I know quite well from theory, my professional experience as a sports scientist and from practical experience what happens in the body during endurance sport and what is important".
ergoHI² cabin in the apartment
In 2022, he made the decision to implement the Kilimanjaro project "lege artis", i.e. with proper, in-depth preparation. "So I planned this project with the aim of being perfectly prepared for the altitude stresses to be expected - everyone does climbs per se, Kilimanjaro is a business model and lives from people coming up - but how, that's the question! JFJ gave me the opportunity to put an ergoHI² cabin in my apartment. I then simulated sleeping at an adjustable, increasing height during the nights. With each night, you become more relaxed about the situation. You realize that your body is doing something to cope with the decreasing oxygen. The release of oxygen into the cells is facilitated, the blood volume appears to increase in the long term and, ideally, more red blood cells would be formed."