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Posts from 10/2012

Mountaineering Training | Core Strength Training

Posted by: | October 29, 2012
Categories: *Mountaineering Fitness & Training

The question of how to build strength for mountaineering can be answered in many ways. First, consider what kind of strength is needed when climbing. We need strength in our legs to carry ourselves up and down the mountain; we need strength in our back and shoulders to carry our backpack over uneven and variable surfaces; we need general body strength to tackle the everyday tasks such as setting up camp, digging tent platforms, or even to use an ice axe to arrest a fall. This strength can best be described as overall core strength.
 
One way to think of core strength is to consider our body’s ability to move functionally through a wide range of motion in a variety of directions with and without resistance. Many activities will develop this, ranging from certain gym classes and circuit training, to activities like dance, yoga, and weight training. These are all activities that can be done for a few minutes a day or for an hour or two several times a week. If you have an activity that meets all of these goals, I encourage you to continue to use it.  
 
If you are looking for an all-around core strength activity that you can do anywhere, then look no further than the Daily Dozen. This workout can be done anywhere and with no equipment; you can even do it in your pj’s in the kitchen while you’re waiting for the coffee to brew! The Daily Dozen is a key workout of my book Fit By Nature and I use it routinely in my training sessions around Seattle. As a special resource for the readers of RMI’s Weekly Mountaineering Training Series, you can download an excerpt from Fit By Nature that gives a detailed description of the Daily Dozen with accompanying photographs:  
 
Download the Daily Dozen Description here.
 
Often, the question comes up: “Is twelve minutes of training sufficient?”  In reality, if you do 12 minutes each day, it adds up to almost an hour and a half per week of core strength training. However, if you prefer to make it a longer workout, you can simply run through the Daily Dozen two or three times. You can even combine it with other exercises to make it an all-around workout. For instance, in between each exercise, you can walk a set of stairs or do a short run.  
 
What is important is to make your core strength training work for you. Remember the key concepts of moderation and consistency; this means that it’s better to train more often at a moderate intensity than it is to try and do all of your strength training in one big session once a week.
 
- John Colver
 
                      
John Colver is a longtime climber, former mountain guide, and certified personal trainer with the American Council of Exercise. Colver introduced outdoor fitness classes to athletic clubs throughout the greater Puget Sound region before creating his adventX brand. Currently, adventX leads training programs in Seattle and Colver presents clinics on outdoor fitness at companies such as Microsoft, Boeing, the American Lung Association, and REI. Colver lives in Seattle.

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Mexico Volcanoes: The Team’s Outcome on Orizaba

Posted by: J.J. Justman | October 27, 2012
Categories: *Expedition Dispatches *Mexico

Hey everyone, this is JJ Justman with the Mexico Adventure team. We are happy to report that we are back at basecamp here on Orizaba. The mountain today, Orizaba, said no. It’s always a little bit unfortunate. It’s always a bummer when you don’t summit. But we made it to within about 1,500 feet of the summit.  Actually made it a good way on the glacier but we had rock hard, bulletproof ice. It’s something I’ve never seen here before and pretty rare on all the mountains I’ve been on.  We could hardly even penetrate our crampons. It was that firm. So my gut was telling me the obvious. Orizaba said no to reaching the top.  It’s something I never really share with my team before a summit climb, but I did have to let them know that while we were on Ixta, here on Orizaba, that same day unfortunately, a climber who was non-guided, slipped and fell.  And she did not make it.  So when you hear things like that, and you have the conditions that we had, it’s a pretty easy decision to make.  Even though it’s disappointing not reaching the top, we are back down safe and sound and you know what, we can come back when Orizaba is in better shape, better conditions and give her another shot, but the team is real happy. We made the summit of Ixta, and that definitely still has us smiling and we’re definitely glad to be down here.  So we’re gonna pack up camp and head back down to Dr. Reyes’ and we’ll have a good meal down there and definitely have a celebration.  So thanks for tuning in.  Everyone here says hello and we will hopefully see you on the mountain.  Bye.

RMI Guide JJ Justman

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Mexico Volcanoes: Team Prepares for Summit Bid on Orizaba

Posted by: J.J. Justman | October 26, 2012
Categories: *Expedition Dispatches *Mexico
Elevation: 14,000'

Hello RMI Blog,

This is JJ Justman.  We are done resting and relaxing in the town of Puebla, and are now at our camp on Orizaba at 14,000’. A nice little spot everyone is guiding out our tents making sure they do not blow away in the wind.  We do have a little bit of a breeze, but the weather is beautiful. They are calling for a bit of a cold front tonight so it might be chilly, but we are planning on waking up early and going for the summit of Orizaba tomorrow morning, most likely at 2 o’clock in the morning we will be walking on out.

The team is doing great, we are well rested, well fed, and we are looking forward to see what Orizaba has to offer. Stay tuned we will give you a call tomorrow to let you know how everyone is doing.
Everyone on the team says, “Hello!”

RMI Guide JJ Justman & Team

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Mexico’s Volcanoes: Team Enjoys Rest in Puebla

Posted by: J.J. Justman | October 25, 2012
Categories: *Expedition Dispatches *Mexico

Its not just about climbing mountains. Mountain adventures, especially international adventures, provide an opportunity to experience the whole enchilada. Seeing that we are in Mexico...no pun intended. And speaking of enchiladas and Mexico…today the team spent the day enjoying the local culture of Puebla.

Everyone made the summit of Ixta yesterday. And everyone deserved a great day of rest, which mainly included enjoying the authentic cuisine of Puebla. I always said, “you’ve never eaten Mexican food, until you’ve eaten in Puebla”.

For breakfast we enjoyed scrambled eggs covered in mole sauce. For lunch we devoured tacos pastor. And now, we are preparing for dinner at one of Puebla’s famous restaurants, where we will sample all of the mole sauces that have made this region famous.

No, it’s not all about climbing. However, tomorrow the team is looking forward to our next mountaineering objective… Pico de Orizaba.

Stay tuned…
RMI Guide JJ Justman

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Mexico Volcanoes: JJ & Team Summit Ixtaccihuatl!

Posted by: J.J. Justman | October 24, 2012
Categories: *Expedition Dispatches *Mexico
Elevation: 17,340'

Hello RMI blog. This is JJ Justman.  I am extremely happy to report that the entire team, 100%, got up Ixta this morning!  We actually had an early day. We were on the summit early enough to watch the sunrise.  We had just a gorgeous day to climb.  Everyone’s doing very, very well.  Just was one heck of a team to climb. Lot of fun and I can’t say enough great things about this group. So we are back at camp, we’re going to get some hot drinks and then we’re going to pack up camp. And we’ll be heading to Puebla this evening. So we’re certainly tired, we need a little hydration, a little food, but everyone is doing great.  And I would like to pass the phone over to one of our team members they’d like to say something to those of you who are following our blog.  Hey guys.  This is TA Loeffler calling.  Had an amazing morning climbing Ixta this morning with JJ and company.  This climb, when you put together the two days of climbing with big loads to high camp and then getting up to the summit.  Boy did we see a gorgeous sunrise!  Popo in front, sending off a plume. And it’s pretty surreal to get to the top of the 7th highest peak in North America. And I’m just really proud of everyone on the team. Hello to everyone out there in RMI land and it’s great to share a summit with RMI once again.

RMI Guide JJ Justman

On The Map

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Mexico Volcanoes: JJ & Team Readying for Ixta Summit Day

Posted by: J.J. Justman | October 23, 2012
Categories: *Expedition Dispatches *Mexico
Elevation: 15,300'

Hello everyone this is JJ Justman with the RMI Mexican Volcanoes adventure team. We are very happy to report that the entire team is up at high camp on Ixta.  We are now at 15,300’.  It’s a long day carrying heavy packs to get up here, but it is definitely well worth it.  I’m looking towards the summit right now.  We just have a couple thousand feet to go. So we’re getting our tents secured down and guyed out. And we’re also working on a little bit of a hot drink as well as a dinner for this evening, which is gonna include some homemade sausage with a little bit of Ramen soup, and cheese quesadillas. Stay tuned tomorrow. I’ll definitely give a call in.  The weather right now is beautiful.  We’re keeping our fingers crossed that it’s going to remain the same and wish us luck and we’ll touch base hopefully with some great news tomorrow.  Everyone’s doing great and they all say hello.  Bye.

RMI Guide JJ Justman

On The Map

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Mexico Volcanoes: JJ & Team at Ixta’s Altzimoni Camp

Posted by: J.J. Justman | October 22, 2012
Categories: *Expedition Dispatches *Mexico
Elevation: 13,000'

Hello everyone following the RMI blog. This is the Mexican Volcanoes adventure checking in for the day. Our team made it up here. We are officially on Ixta. We’re at the lower hut, had a good day getting up. The weather is absolutely beautiful.  Good view of Popo, which is a little bit of a smoking volcano right now in the distance. And a great view of Ixta, which is our objective for the next couple of days. But in the mean time, our group is packing gear and getting everything set. We looked at the tents, everything’s in order.  So now my job is cut out for me. We’re going to do a little bit of cooking here and feed the team. For starters, we’re going to go with a tortilla soup, but before that we have a little bit of chips and homemade salsa. And then for our main course, we’re having a little carne asada. That was a special recipe given to me by RMI Guide, Dan Windham. Looking forward to making a good dinner tonight, getting our bellies full. We’re at 13,000’ right now so we are officially acclimatizing. So we’re going to have a good evening down here on the lower slopes of Ixta and then tomorrow we are going to move up to High Camp on Ixta. We’ll check back in and let you know how everything’s going, but all is well. Thanks for following along and we will touch back with all of you tomorrow. Take care. Bye.

RMI Guide JJ Justman

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Mountaineering Training | Will I Be Ready? Setting Benchmarks In Your Training

Posted by: | October 22, 2012
Categories: *Mountaineering Fitness & Training

On a personal fitness level, time sometimes seems elastic to me: if I have plenty of time to train, I’ll sit around and lolly-gag; tell me I only have a couple of months to get prepared and I’ll be up at 5 a.m. training like a prizefighter. 
 
The question of, “Will I be ready?” will ultimately be answered only on the climb. However, we can stack the odds in our favor by creating a tracking system that gives us a snapshot of where we are in the preparation process.
 
A simple method is to make a graph depicting where we are today and where we need to be for the climb (see the accompanying photo). For this example I used a January Expedition to 22,841’ Aconcagua in Argentina.
 
This allows me to see:
1. What I’m capable of today (see my post “Setting A Baseline” if you need help with this).
2. What I need to accomplish on my target date. 
3. Where I should be during the process. 
My experience is that progress is rarely a straight line on a graph and you may be ahead or behind at any given point; but you can see generally what you’ve achieved and identify what work remains to be done throughout the training period. 
 
So, what if you’re running short on time to prepare? This happens often. If the goal is ambitious, we may need to intensify our focus and really adopt the mindset of an athlete. 
 
Some training recommendations if you are short on time to prepare:
• Try to establish a sensible progression and use the entire time you have rather than “front load” your training (which could create setbacks or injury), . 
• If you do have an aggressive training plan, be sure to focus on rest and recovery as well as quality nutrition. 
• Make your training as specific as possible: Mountain climbing and hiking are perfect. Cross country skiing, running, Stairmaster, and cycling are all also good. Focus in on these activities to benefit the most from your training. 
• Embrace the adventure and focus on the process more than just the result; it’s easy to expend a lot of energy thinking only of the summit. By focusing on enjoying my training and doing the best I can each day, I find I enhance my training experience and my overall experience on the climb.
Take some time this week to sit down, pull out a pencil and paper, and graph out the training progression you need for your climb. It will give you a clear picture of not only where you need to be for your climb, but also where you need to be in three months, in one month, and even next week. Keep this graph in a convenient place and pull it out every once in a while to check in on yourself. 
 
Next week we’ll discuss some specific training exercises you can begin building into your routine. 
 
- John Colver
 
                      
John Colver is a longtime climber, former mountain guide, and certified personal trainer with the American Council of Exercise. Colver introduced outdoor fitness classes to athletic clubs throughout the greater Puget Sound region before creating his adventX  brand. Currently, adventX leads training programs in Seattle and Colver presents clinics on outdoor fitness at companies such as Microsoft, Boeing, the American Lung Association, and REI. Colver lives in Seattle.

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Mexico Volcanoes: JJ & Team Enjoyed Great Views on La Malinche Hike

Posted by: J.J. Justman | October 21, 2012
Categories: *Expedition Dispatches *Mexico
Elevation: 10,000'

Hello everyone at RMI. This is JJ Justman calling in with the Mexico Volcanoes adventure team. We had a great day today getting out of Mexico City and arriving in La Malinche where we had our first acclimatization day. For those you don’t know a little bit about La Malinche, it’s an old volcano, it’s non-glaciated. It’s actually known as the Weeping Woman.  La Malinche is one of Cortez’s mistresses. It’s a beautiful peak here, standing at 14,640’. Today, our team made it up to 14,000’; had a great trail side lunch. And we returned back down to our cabanas, where we are showering up and getting ready for a great dinner down here in camp. Tomorrow the plan is waking up a little bit early and heading out the door and getting to Ixta. But before we do that, we’ll have a little bit of shopping to do, some last minute items for our dinners and breakfasts, but everyone is doing really well. The weather here is absolutely beautiful. We had great views of Ixta, Popo, Orizaba, and of course La Malinche. Knock on wood we’re hoping the weather stays, because it was nice to get a little bit of a suntan today and hopefully tomorrow we’ll get even a little more sun. We’ll touch base and let you know how everything is going. Thanks for following along.

RMI Guide JJ Justman

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Mountaineering Training | Planning Your Training: F.I.T.T.

Posted by: | October 15, 2012
Categories: *Mountaineering Fitness & Training

As we start the training process we want to decide how often to train, how hard to work, what type of activity to do, and for how long.  A useful acronym is F.I.T.T. and it stands for Frequency, Intensity, Type and Time. We can use the F.I.T.T. principles to ensure our training provides the results we expect. 
 
Frequency.  The frequency of training is simply how often you train.  For example, how often you complete your long hike or your strength training.   My experience working with climbers and athletes is that in order to decide how often to train, it is best to look practically at our lifestyle and build the training in around work, family, and other important commitments.  Most people can spend an hour or so on exercise most days of the week, with a larger amount of time on the weekends.  The good news is that for most people this is enough.  Training five days a week provides plenty of opportunity to build the fitness required for mountain climbing.
 
Intensity.  Intensity can range from very easy to extremely hard.  This can also be expressed as aerobic intensity and anaerobic intensity.  In mountain climbing, the vast amount of activity is aerobic punctuated with shorter bursts of anaerobic activity.  This can be reflected in the training plan.  For example, longer hiking sessions will be performed at a lower intensity whereas shorter weekday sessions will be a chance to push hard and get the heart rate into the anaerobic range.
 
Type.  A general theory of training is one of specificity.  This means that the more closely aligned the type of training is to the actual activity, the more you will benefit. This is important for many climbers, especially if you live in areas with few hills to climb. Most of us will use alternate methods of training and we should make sure that we consider how closely the type of training mimics the actual climb. Hiking, of course, is perfect.  A stairmaster or elliptical machines is good.  Cycling uses similar muscles and energy systems.  Although swimming, yoga, and basketball yield great conditioning benefits, these sports do not translate to climbing in the way that more similar activities do.  
 
Time.  Mountain climbing involves long days.  It is common to climb for five to eight hours; summit days, such as on Mt. Rainier, often involve 14 to 18 hours of climbing.  On these long climbs we generally break the day into segments of about an hour of climbing at a time.  During your training a long day of hiking will progressively mimic a day on the mountain.  Shorter mid-week training sessions of about an hour develop the habit of putting on a pack and being ready for any rigors the next hour of climbing presents.
 
Applying the F.I.T.T. principles is a good way of building out a training plan that covers all of our bases.  A rough example of a well-balanced training week (in the building phase) could therefore look like this:
 
• Monday:  Rest and Recovery
• Tuesday:  Stairs
• Wednesday:  Strength training
• Thursday:  Short hike
• Friday:  Rest and Recovery
• Saturday:  2 hour aerobic activity ie. cycling, hiking, or running
• Sunday: Half-day hike
 
This example is simply a guideline; everyone will have a slightly different approach to how they map out their training plan.  Just as there are many routes to the summit of the mountain, there are many ways to develop a training plan.  The important things are that your training plan contains the right balance of activities that develop the fitness and strength to be successful on the mountain.  At the same time, the best training plans are ones that fit our lifestyle, are enjoyable, and therefore sustainable.
 
- John Colver
 
                      
John Colver is a longtime climber, former mountain guide, and certified personal trainer with the American Council of Exercise. Colver introduced outdoor fitness classes to athletic clubs throughout the greater Puget Sound region before creating his adventX  brand. Currently, adventX leads training programs in Seattle and Colver presents clinics on outdoor fitness at companies such as Microsoft, Boeing, the American Lung Association, and REI. Colver lives in Seattle.

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