? Walking up the stairs in a 1,000 ft tall skyscraper is 1,000 ft of elevation gain. Doing it twice is 2,000 ft gain. Certainly it is useful to know whether the

? Walking up the stairs in a 1,000 ft tall skyscraper is 1,000 ft of elevation gain. Doing it twice is 2,000 ft gain. Certainly it is useful to know whether the gain is 0, 1,000, or 2,000 because those will call for different amounts of effort and physical fitness. This is the same type of gain expressed in these figures.