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Posts from 02/2013

Mountaineering Training | Answers to Common Questions from Fit To Climb

Posted by: | February 28, 2013
Categories: *Mountaineering Fitness & Training

We received a few questions recently about the Fit To Climb Program. Below are some answers to help keep you pointed in the right direction. Thanks for all of the good feedback, it’s great to hear from you!

Stair Intervals
First, find a set of stairs. They can be outdoors, indoors, at a stadium or even a stairmaster or eliptical trainer at the gym. Warm up with steady walking for 10 - 15 minutes. Then make repeated high intensity efforts - about 2 minutes is a good length of time (this may mean two or more flights/sets if your stairs are short). In between efforts, rest for 2 - 3 minutes until you can breathe comfortably before starting again. If you are new to interval training, start with 3 or 4 efforts. Don’t worry about your performance level today as you’ll see gains as the weeks progress. The 40 minutes is an average time frame, the amount of time it will actually take you depends on the number of efforts you put in. Be sure to allow 10 minutes to cool down at an easy pace.

Turkish Get Up (from the Rainier Dozen)
Steve Cotter offers a great instructional video on the Turkish Get Up using a variation I find very helpful for climbers in building strength for the big steps often found on climbs. Using a kettle ball or additional weight, as demonstrated in the video, is optional depending on how challenging this exercise is for you. See the video below.

Timed Run
The Timed Run (or walk) is a benchmark that allow you to see progress over the sixteen weeks. When not setting benchmarks, it’s easy to ‘feel’ fitter, or even less fit, at times. The Timed Run is a timed effort over a short distance that allows you to see tangible gains. You can choose your actual distance, I suggest about 1 mile, four circuits of an athletic field or the perimeter of a city park - but it can be any moderate distance that you choose and can follow again over the coming weeks. The Timed Run also acts as an improvement target, providing focus for this workout.

Fitness Test
In Fit To Climb we’ll do the test every four weeks to act as a measurement of overall fitness as well as specific core muscle endurance and agility. The repeated test is designed to show progress and these sessions should also be fun. Be sure to record your results from this week’s test and we can compare them to the results of the next test. As with all training, there should be an emphasis on safety and self care. Push your limits but don’t place undue stress or strain on your body. Rather than go all out, try to nudge your results forward in a controlled and sensible way, much like a successful mountain climb. 

-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, and is working on his second book, Fit to Climb - a 16 week Mount Rainier Fitness Program.

Questions? Comments? Share your thoughts with John and other readers on the RMI Blog!

You can read the past Weekly Mountaineering Training Series on the RMI Blog.

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Mountaineering Training | Fit To Climb: Week 4

Posted by: | February 25, 2013
Categories: *Mountaineering Fitness & Training

By the end of this week you’ll be a quarter of the way through Fit To Climb! This week’s should be familiar, except we will add a Fitness Test on Day 6.

Fit to Climb: Week 4 Schedule

DAY	WORKOUT	TOTAL TIME	DIFFICULTY
1	Rainier Dozen / Easy Hiking ( 30 min)	42 min.	Medium
2	Rainier Dozen / Stair Interval Training (40 min)	52 min.	Hard
3	Rainier Dozen / Rest	12 min.	Recovery
4	Strength Circuit Training x 2	38 min.	Hard
5	Rainier Dozen / Rest	12 min.	Recovery
6	Rainier Dozen / Cross Training (1 hr)	72 min.	Hard
7	Hike (3 hrs)	182 min.	Medium
	Total	6 hrs 46 mins

FITNESS TEST

After a good ten-minute warm-up followed by the Rainier Dozen, first do the timed run. Go at a speed that feels like an intense effort. Record your time. Then, rest for 5 minutes by gently walking or just pacing slowly back and forth.

For the strength test portion, find an area that has a solid, level, and soft surface. Grass is perfect but you can also do this indoors if you prefer. During this test, you will perform four exercises for 2 minutes each, with 3 minutes of rest between each exercise.

For the first three exercises, the goal is to count the number of perfect repetitions you can complete in 2 minutes. For a reminder on good form for these exercises, refer to the Rainier Dozen post (Week 3). If you do this with a partner, you can rest while counting their repetitions—along with providing encouragement! For the fourth exercise, the Shuttle Run, simply time yourself. Write down your scores for each test.

Perform the strength test as follows:

1. Push-ups—2 minutes, followed by 3 minutes of rest
2. Steam Engines on Back—2 minutes, followed by 3 minutes of rest
3. 3/4 Squats—2 minutes, followed by 3 minutes of rest
4. 20-yard Shuttle Run—Set up your shuttle run course with some cones or water bottles. If you aren’t sure of measurement use 25 normal paces as a guide. Run back and forth between your markers for 2 minutes, counting each loop as one.

- 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, and is working on his second book, Fit to Climb - a 16 week Mount Rainier Fitness Program.

Questions? Comments? Share your thoughts with John and other readers on the RMI Blog!

You can read the past Weekly Mountaineering Training Series on the RMI Blog.

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Kilimanjaro: Grom & Team Wrap Up Their Safari at Tarangire National Park

Posted by: Casey Grom | February 21, 2013
Categories: *Expedition Dispatches *Kilimanjaro

Today we visited Tarangire National Park, home to more elephants per square mile than any place on earth. No luck with the leopard or cheetah today, but we did see plenty of lions and elephants. We even managed to rescue another party who got their 4x4 stuck in the river. We’ll finish the trip off with one last night here in Africa listening to the sounds of nature in a tented camp that sits along the Tarangire River. The last three days have been a great way to relax after all the effort to climb Kili and everyone has had a great time. Tomorrow we’ll head back to Arusha and catch our long flights home.

Thanks for following!

RMI Guide Casey Grom and crew

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Kilimanjaro: Game viewing at the Ngorongoro Crater

Posted by: Casey Grom | February 20, 2013
Categories: *Expedition Dispatches *Kilimanjaro

Today the team visited the famous 2 million year old Ngorongoro Crater. A steep walled caldera that is home to The Big 5. We only saw 4 today and are hoping to see the last (leopard) tomorrow. It’s quite surreal riding around in our Toyota Land Cruisers looking at all these beautiful animals in their natural habitat.

On the way back to our lodge we stopped off at a working Maasai village to take a look at their semi-nomadic lifestyle. 
Everyone is having a great time!

RMI Guide Casey Grom

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Mt. Rainier: Ski Mountaineering Seminar a Success!

Posted by: Tyler Reid, Sean Collon | February 20, 2013
Categories: *Expedition Dispatches *Mount Rainier
Elevation: 10,800

RMI Guides Tyler Reid, Sean Collon and a team of clients spent the last five days learning the art of Ski Mountaineering.  The team explored Mount Rainier’s incredible winter snowpack and accessible but challenging technical terrain. The team spent the days on the mountain learning and practicing a variety of ski specific technical skills. The trip culminated with an ascent to Camp Muir (10,060’) and the team will enjoy an exciting 5,000’ ski descent today.

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Kilimanjaro: Safari to Lake Manyara

Posted by: Casey Grom | February 19, 2013
Categories: *Expedition Dispatches *Kilimanjaro

Our first day on safari brought us to Lake Manyara. A small national park that borders Lake Manyara known for its tree climbing lions. The team spent about four hours driving around the park and saw an abundant amount of wildlife. Elephants (so close at time we could almost touch them), giraffe, zebra, hippos, wildebeest, Cape buffalo, hundreds of baboons and lots of other monkeys. Everyone had a great day and enjoyed just relaxing while taking in the views.

To top the day off we arrived at our home for the next two days at an amazing lodge called Ngorogoro Lodge.
The team just finished a wonderful meal and are off to bed.

Enjoying the icing on the cake, so to speak!

RMI Guide Casey Grom and Crew

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Kilimanjaro: Grom & Team Relaxing Back at the Dik Dik Hotel

Posted by: Casey Grom | February 18, 2013
Categories: *Expedition Dispatches *Kilimanjaro

Freshly showered and doing well!  Our team is safely off the mountain and enjoying a celebration dinner back at the Dik Dik Hotel.

Safari starts tomorrow.

RMI Guide Casey Grom

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Aconcagua: Nugent & Team Celebrating Back in Mendoza

Posted by: Billy Nugent, Garrett Stevens, Mike King | February 18, 2013
Categories: *Expedition Dispatches *Aconcagua

Hey All!

Checking in one last time here from Mendoza where our intrepid crew has just checked in at our hotel, dusty and stinking from 15 days on the trail. After our rough awakening at Camp Cólera and rallying “lights and sirens” style to save our camp we had a relatively uneventful walk down to Basecamp where we were greeted by the great staff at Grajales. Then there was yesterday’s walk from Basecamp to Pampa de Leñas which is normally a bone-crusher, this time it was all gravy after our battle up at Cólera. The herrieros (mule drivers) at Pampa de Leñas treated us to a delicious asado that was mostly beef tenderloin, salted and grilled over wood coals! The crew was very appreciative after so many days of hard work. After sleeping out under the stars last night, today saw another seven miles of easy walking til we hit the road and loaded up for our shuttle to Mendoza. We are certainly tired but, again, very psyched on our accomplishment and intend to spend the next several days enjoying Argentine cuisine and wine. The gang is even going to head out on a group winery tour in a couple days since we’re kinda stuck here with our early arrival from the mountain. Lotsa love from way down south, signing off…

RMI Guide Billy Nugent

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Ecuador Volcanoes: Beren & Team’s Decision on Cotopaxi

Posted by: Jake Beren, Ben Liken | February 18, 2013
Categories: *Expedition Dispatches *Ecuador
Elevation: 18,400'

Greetings from Quito! 

Early this morning (or rather late last night), our team set off to try to climb Cotopaxi. When we woke there was a little precip, but we knew we could handle it and continued with our preparations to go see what we could do. Breaking trail through the new snow for hours this morning did little to slow down this team and we found ourselves high on the mountain before the sun had risen. At around 18,400 feet above the sea, crossing a reactive windslab above a gaping crevasse stopped us in our tracks, too risky to chance a crossing and our high point today. The team impressed me with their dedication to safety and a good time in the mountains over standing on a summit and Cotopaxi rewarded our judgment with a break in the storm to take in the sights of this beautiful mountain.  Crossing crevasses, down climbing ice steps and navigating seracs in the early morning light was a real treat and we appreciated these features of the route even more as the weather rolled in for our last few moments before returning to the hut. A short nap and then down to the bus in the snow, so much for life in the tropics. It has been a real treat to share these climbs with such a good team, thanks everybody.

RMI Guide Jake Beren

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Mountaineering Training | Fit To Climb: Week 3

Posted by: | February 18, 2013
Categories: *Mountaineering Fitness & Training

Now the real work begins! This is the beginning of Phase 2: Foundation / Build. You’ll be adding strength work and cross training to your daily training routine.

Fit to Climb: Week 3 Schedule

DAY	WORKOUT	TOTAL TIME	DIFFICULTY
1	Rainier Dozen (*see below) / Easy Hiking ( 30 min)	42 min.	Medium
2	Rainier Dozen / Stair Interval Training (40 min)	52 min.	Hard
3	Rainier Dozen / Rest	12 min.	Recovery
4	Strength Circuit Training x 2 (*see below)	38 min.	Hard
5	Rainier Dozen / Rest	12 min.	Recovery
6	Rainier Dozen / Cross Training (1 hr)	72 min.	Medium
7	Rainier Dozen / Hike (2 hrs)	132 min.	Medium
	Total	6 hrs

THE RAINIER DOZEN
You’ve been doing the Daily Dozen for two weeks, going forward the new Daily Workout will be the Rainier Dozen. The Rainier Dozen is based upon the Daily Dozen and it’s a more advanced workout.

Here are a list of the exercises. You may be familiar with all or some. A description is added below for each exercise. Following the Rainier Dozen, you’ll find a description of the Day 4 Strength Circuit.

1.  Steam engine
2.  Three quarter squats
3.  Turkish Get Up
4.  Lunge
5.  Arm extender
6.  Triceps Dip
7.  Deep squat
8.  Steam engine laying down
9.  Mountain climber
10.  Push up
11.  Ranger crawl
12.  8 Point Body Builder

If you have any concerns about performing these exercises, consider hiring a coach or fitness trainer to help you learn how to get the most from each movement.

1. Steam Engine
How to do it: Stand with your feet shoulder width apart and your hands clasped behind your head. Lift your left knee, simultaneously twisting your body to the right, while keeping the muscles of your core engaged. Alternate the movement, using your right knee and left elbow.

2. Three Quarter Squats
How to do it: Stand with legs shoulder width apart and arms at your sides. Swing your arms forward and up, raising them above your head, palms facing forward. At the same time, bend your knees as if you were sitting in a chair. Hold the Squat briefly, then stand up by pushing through your heels, until you are in a full upright standing position.

3. Turkish Get Up
How to do it:
Step 1: Starting in a laying down position, with the right hand vertically toward the sky, bring the right knee into a bended position, while rolling towards your left. Placing the left hand on the ground, bring the right foot over the body and placing it on the floor. From here, keeping the right arm vertical, bring your body into the lunge position. From this position, push down on the right leg to bring your entire body into the standing-upright position.
Step 2: Drop back to the lunge position, with your left foot back. Place your left arm on the ground. Simultaneously rotate your body towards the right, while extending the right leg. Place your bottom on the ground, proceeding to lay flat while the right arm remains vertical throughout.

4. Lunge
How to do it: Stand upright, feet and legs together, hands on hips, elbows out to sides. Step your right leg backward. Bend your left knee until the kneecap is directly above your foot, causing the leg to form a 90-degree angle. Simultaneously lower your right leg until the knee almost rests on the ground, forming another 90-degree angle. Step back to starting position, and repeat, stepping backward with the left leg. Continue to alternate legs.

5. Arm Extender
How to do it: Standing upright, start with the hands and elbows at shoulder level. Simultaneously extend elbows outwards three times, and on the fourth time, completely extend the arm to finish with arms completely straight out to the side. Pause, and repeat.

6. Triceps Dip
How to do it: Find a solid object, such as a wall, stairs, or a bench. Facing outwards, place the hands behind your body on the edge of the object. Your legs can be straight, or to reduce the resistance, they can bent at the knees. With the core muscles engaged, simply lower your body until the angle behind your forearm and upper arm is approximately 100 degrees. Be careful to not lower yourself more than this, because to do so will place undue strain on the shoulders. Reverse movement to start position.

7. Deep Squat
How to do it: Stand with your feet a little wider than hip distance apart, toes pointing out at 45-degree angles. Put your hands on your hips and bend your knees out to the sides, making sure to keep them in line with the toes. Lower your body in a Squat until your thighs are parallel to the ground, and then push up through your heels to a standing position. Repeat.

8. Steam Engine (on ground)
How to do it: Lie on your back with your hands behind your head, head slightly raised, taking care not to pull on your neck. Extend your legs fully, holding them an inch or so off the ground. Bend the left knee in toward your body as you extend your right elbow to touch the left knee. Alternate the movement, touching your right knee to your left elbow as you extend the left leg fully.

9. Mountain Climber
How could the mountain climber not be good for mountain climbing! Seriously though, the mountain climber is a great exercise for core strength, hip flexor extension, agility in the calves and strength in the feet and ankles. How this benefits the climber is through the improved flexibility, coordination, strength and endurance required during the stepping-up motion.
How to do it: Starting in the plank position, bring the right foot forward as if you were in the starting blocks of a 100 meter sprint. From here, simply alternate your left and right legs between this position, as if running or bounding. The length of the movement can be shorter or longer depending on your level of ability.

10. Push Up
How to do it: Start with palms and toes on the ground, body in the air, as straight and strong as possible. Your arms should be directly underneath your shoulders, and you can spread your fingers wide for stability. (If this is more of a challenge than you’d like right now, do a modified Push-up with your knees on the ground.) Keeping the back and neck straight, inhale, bend your elbows and lower yourself until you are about 2 inches off the ground. Exhale as you push back up into the starting position. Repeat.

11. Ranger Crawl
How to do it: Starting in the plank position, bring the right knee towards the right elbow. Pause, then return to the start position. Then, bring the left knee towards the left elbow, again, pausing, before returning to the start position. Repeat. What’s important with this exercise is to engage the core muscles and the arm and shoulder muscles prior to beginning the movements. Keep the hips low to maintain the plank position.

12. 8 Point Bodybuilder
How to do it: Starting in the standing position, drop to the ground and then thrust both legs back to the plank position. Perform a push up. Then, perform a scissor, spreading the legs wide, then returning them to the start position. From here, bring the feet forward into a position to be able to perform a power jump. Finally, perform the power jump, finishing with a hand clap before returning to the start position.

STRENGTH CIRCUIT TRAINING
A. (Rainier Dozen to warm up) - 12 minutes
B. The 8 exercises for this circuit (40 seconds on, 20 seconds rest) x 2 - 16 minutes, based on the Rainier Dozen, are:

1.  Stem Engine
2.  Push Up
3.  Squat
4.  Lunge
5.  Plank
6.  Jump rope / Jumping Jack
7.  Mountain Climber
8.  Side Lunge

C. (10 Minute Cool Down) - 10 minutes. See the Home Stretch for exercises.

-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, and is working on his second book, Fit to Climb - a 16 week Mount Rainier Fitness Program.

Questions? Comments? Share your thoughts with John and other readers on the RMI Blog!

You can read the past Weekly Mountaineering Training Series on the RMI Blog.

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