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Fly hi - normally aspirated
I fly from MEM to EGE (Eagle, CO) on a fairly regular basis in a 1976 337G. First of all, you didn't mention oxygen. For absolutely sure buy a good portable kit. I have a precise flight bottle with four outlets and four canulas. I put O2 on at 10k going up and keep it on until I land at EGE (elevation 6500.) I travel about 10% under gross max. This is reccomended by mountain flying schools for all mountain flight - so should work as well in flatlands. True AS is still 150K+ but fuel burn is in the 16 gph range. I've been tp 15.5K several times and it's been no problem even in July. Climb rate is slow above 11K but you will get there. Plan descent early so as not to supercool the engines.
Climbing to 15K on a regular basis especially at gross (my plane carries 148 gallons so I have a lot of leeway in fuel load.) is probably not practical, however, I have friends who do it on a regular basis to save fuel and get speed eastbound.
Incidentally, I depart EGE with full fuel (only one on board) and climb to 14.5K to cross the passes and fly non-stop to MEM in about 6 hours at 11K buring under 17gph for the trip.
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