Bulldog34, it sounds like you and your wife's experience both suggest that being at altitude isn't nearly as important as sleeping at altitude and staying there a while--for me, maybe multiple days. I seem to do ok at 10K. I think I'll try staying at 10K+ I really like the idea of sleeping a couple nights on a couple of weekends on Baldy in the few weeks before the summit.
If this study is true, sleeping at altitude adds several thousands feet versus being in the vertical position.
http://timberlinetrails.net/ClimbingAltitudeSickness.html"Scientists at the Barcroft Research Station on White Mountain, discovered that when someone was asleep on the summit at 14,246 feet, they reacted physiologically the same as someone who was awake at 16,000 feet. This fact verifies why people feel better at higher altitudes when awake and walking around, then when lying down.
Adhere to the old adage of "climb high and sleep low." Remember when a climber is sleeping or lying down, he or she
reacts physiologically in the same way as someone who is active at one or two thousand feet higher. So sleeping at lower elevations really does help when it comes to feeling better, and acclimating faster."
