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Categories: Mountaineering Fitness & Training
Poor foot care on a climb can make a mountain out of a molehill and even the smallest blisters or foot pains can become a challenge over the course of a trip. Here are a few things to keep in mind about your feet as you head into the hills:
Fit: It's all about setting yourself up for success and that starts with choosing the right footwear. In addition to the technical specifications of a boot, make sure that the boot fits your foot well. See Whittaker Mountaineering’s Guide to Mountain Footwear for a helpful guide to picking the right boot.
Even the most carefully chosen boots often require a little adjustment. Take them out and walk around. Sometimes you'll need to adjust the lacing tightness in certain spots or change the footbed to get that perfect fit for you.
If you're renting a boot for the climb take plenty of time to find the right fit. Bring the socks you plan on climbing in to try on with your boots and walk around a bit to make sure they feel comfortable.
Foot Care & Prevention: The easiest way to deal with blisters on a climb is to never get them in the first place. Use your training hikes to find the best lacing and tightness of your boot and the best sock combination for you. Remember not to lace your boots too tightly - blisters are created by friction and a very tightly laced boot, especially a rigid mountaineering boot, can create extra friction on your feet.
Keep an eye on your feet and treat hot spots immediately. It's easy to stop for a few minutes and make quick adjustments or fixes instead of letting them develop into blisters. Stick some moleskin or second skin over the affected area to reduce the friction. Duct tape works pretty well in a pinch too. If possible, try and identify the issue and fix it so it doesn't reoccur: is your boot laced too tightly? Did a fold develop on your sock?
When you reach camp, give your feet a break. Change out of your socks and put on a fresh pair. If you have camp shoes, slip those on. Your feet will appreciate it.
Treatment: If you do develop blisters, treat them as soon as possible so that they do not become worse. This means draining the blister, applying some antibiotic ointment to prevent infection, then covering it with a sterile dressing. Depending on where the blister is on your foot and how big it is, you may need to add a foam "donut" to create some space above the blistered area and give it a better chance of recovering.
If you are prone to foot problems, be proactive and use your training hikes to identify the best way to take care of your feet. The book Fixing Your Feet is a great resource for climbers and athletes and provides some excellent advice for a range of foot problems.
Foot care is a subtle art: it's certainly not the most exciting topic but if you’ve taken the time to address it, it can make a big difference on the climb.
Posted by: Ed Viesturs, Peter Whittaker
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Vinson Massif
Elevation: 12,400'
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Good morning, good morning. It is January 9th, and this is Peter checking in, we're just finishing up a great breakfast of Cream-of-Wheat and a hot drink. The sun just hit our camp, and we’re packing up and getting ready to make the move up to high camp. It was cold last night, cold this morning, but we have a little bit of sun right now. Weather looks good. And I'm gonna walk out and let my tentmate say a few words, Ed Viesturs.
Morning everybody, it’s beautiful day. We are loading up the camp here and we’re gonna make that ascent back up to high camp another 3,500 feet higher, and weather looks good and the forecast is pretty descent and we hope to go to the summit of Vinson tomorrow, Monday the 10th so be sure to check in tomorrow, follow the progress and we hope to be hootin’ and hollerin’ from the top of the bottom of the world. Ed Viesturs and Peter Whittaker signing out.
Peter Whittaker and Ed Viesturs talk about their move to high camp
Posted by: Kiira Antenucci, Emma Lyddan, Mira Schoeberlein
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Mount Rainier
Elevation: 14,410'
The All-Women’s Climb led by RMI Guide Kirra Antenucci reached the summit of Mt. Rainier on a clear and beautiful day. The team took on all the challenges the Disappointment Cleaver route has to offer in the late summer and stood on the summit at 7:15 am.
Congratulations Team!
Hello this is the Alpamayo climbing team and the word is we are climbing tonight. It is Wednesday. 3:00 PM local time and we decide to take a rest day today as we arrived yesterday up here. And all is well, we're pretty excited. Tony, Parker, Kenzie, and Pete are really strong, healthy, and ready to go. So we will hopefully keep you updated from the summit tomorrow sometime in the early morning and... yeah. You can probably hear our voice from the top of Alpamayo. We'll initiate soon afterwards our descent and the goal we be to actually make it to base camp but that is yet to be seen. [Broken] Hopefully we'll have good news for you. That's all for now, we're going to go to bed pretty soon here and we'll check in tomorrow. Bye.
RMI Guide Elias de Andres Martos
RMI Guide Elias de Andres Martos checks in from high camp on Alpamayo.
Posted by: Lindsay Mann
Categories: Mountaineering Fitness & Training
Footwork and the ability to "read the terrain" to find the best footing is an important element of being able to climb safely and efficiently. During our Mountaineering Day School, our guides focus their efforts on teaching the "rest step". The rest step is an important efficiency technique where climbers take small steps, pausing between steps with their weight on their back leg. This is a technique that enables climbers to get a “rest” with each step since their bodyweight is resting on their skeletal system instead of their muscles, effectively giving the legs a quick break.
An important aspect to the rest step is paying attention to your footwork and deciding on your foot placement: finding the right place to set your foot so that you have full control while still benefiting from the small, efficient movements of the rest step. We commonly ask people to “climb with their eyes" by scanning the terrain and other climbers foot placements ahead to spot the best places to set their feet. Instead of getting fixated on only the next step, it is important to anticipate future terrain and foot placement. Thinking a few steps ahead allows you to see all of your options in front of you.
This is something that can be practiced before coming to climb Mt. Rainier or taking part in any of our climbs and expeditions. When going out on your training hikes, whether long or short, take the time to focus on your footwork. Ask yourself, "How big are my steps? Can I take a smaller step? Is there a better flat place for me to put my foot?" Constantly challenge yourself to find the easiest and most efficient foot placement with each step. Combining your focus on footwork with improvements to your balance and body awareness will give you an added measure of comfort, stability, and efficiency in the mountains, especially when you begin to tire. Remember that flexibility is an important part of footwork since you need to be comfortable in your foot placements even when the terrain is not perfectly flat or level.
The more comfortable you can become with foot placement, reading terrain and climbing in balance, the less energy you will exert on longer hikes and climbs. Often times we get fixated on the immediate step in front of us. Instead, look ahead and challenge yourself to take small quick steps. By being aware of these footwork techniques on your training hikes will enable you to dance your way up the mountain on your climb!
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Lindsay Mann is a Senior Guide at RMI Expeditions and a NCAA D1 Skiing Champion. She has climbed and guided around the world, from Peru to Alaska. Read about her recent sailing and ski mountaineering trip to Norway's Lofoten Islands on the here.
Questions? Comments? Share your thoughts here on the RMI Blog!
Thankyou, For sharing such a useful information with us.
Posted by: Jen’s Get Fit Group on 8/13/2024 at 1:13 am
Truer words have never been spoken. Any time I bring new people to the mountains I always emphasize how important it is to step efficiently. The art of mountaineering-footwork deserves much more publicity than it gets!
Posted by: Austin on 7/2/2014 at 6:00 pm
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Categories: Mountaineering Fitness & Training
My Favorite Training & What Worked
I recently got to attempt my summit of Mt. Rainier. Although we were not able to reach the summit because the route was impassable, I was in the best shape of my life and was able to reflect on all of my training, what worked, what didn’t, and what I enjoyed doing to train for the climb.
A lot of my training worked quite well to get me ready for my climb. Here are a few of the exercises that worked best:
Gym
Stairs/Stepmill: The stepmill became my best friend while at the gym prepping for Mt. Rainier. It was very functional movement that would let me do interval training, side stepping, and long climbing durations.
Versa climber: The versa climber is an amazing cardio tool that I discovered at the ProClub in Bellevue. It serves as great cardio combined with functional movement and is very difficult to do for long periods of time. This was one of my love/hate relationships at the gym given the benefit I took away from it.
Running: Running is something that I hate in this world… especially on a treadmill. I prefer hiking and getting outdoors. However, I could not ignore the benefit that running gave me in general conditioning. I tried to get outside as much as possible, cover distance, and put in hill/stair training while I was out to break up the monotony.
Mountain Conditioning Course: This was one of my favorite parts of training. The ProClub in Bellevue offers a class twice a week that is solely focused on conditioning for hiking. This class offered a social aspect to my training with people who were training for Mt. Rainier, the Enchantments, Everest Base Camp as well as others who had already summited Mt. Rainier. This class offered circuit training, conditioning, and strength training all combined into functional movement.
Hiking
Hiking was one of the best things that I was able to incorporate into my training. What better way to train for a hike than hiking itself? The best part of my hiking training was the confidence in my abilities that some of these bigger hikes gave me once on Mt. Rainier.
• Mailbox Peak: 6mi round trip, 3100’ elevation gain, 4800’ highest point
• Colchuck Lake + Aasgard Pass: 11mi round trip, 4400’ elevation gain, 7841’ highest point
Altitude
Training at altitude was another key to feeling good on my summit attempt. I traveled to Colorado to bag some 14ers and did Camp Muir once. Knowing how the altitude would impact me and quickly learning the benefit of pressure breathing were key in my training.
Colorado: A week before my climb I had the opportunity to go to Denver for work which provided me the chance to hike several peaks over 14,000’ and see what the altitude would do to me. Additionally, this gave me a chance to do back to back days of serious hikes to see how a climb to Muir followed by a summit day would be like.
• Grays & Torreys: 8.25mi round trip, 3600’ elevation gain, 14270’ highest elevation
• Quandry: 6.75 mi round trip, 3450’ elevation gain, 14265’ highest elevation
Camp Muir: 10mi round trip, 4600’ elevation gain, 10000’ highest elevation
I only climbed Camp Muir once during my training even though it was one of the best training hikes near Seattle. I did this for several reasons - first, I wanted to prove to myself that I could do that part of the route so that when my trip came I could approach it with confidence. Second, I did not want that route to turn into what the Tiger Mountain cable line trail had become to be - a dreaded training hike that was no longer fun (I was doing that trail twice a week for training).
Backpacking: Pratt Lake: 11.5mi round trip, 3000’ elevation gain, 4200’ highest elevation
Backpacking was a fun part of my training where I carried over-weight pack for an overnight and I was able to test out my gear and equipment while out in the field. This was a great opportunity to check out my pack, boots, and clothing to ensure they were the right fit and equipment for the summit attempt.
Things I Wish I Had Done More
There were a few things that after attempting my summit I wish I had done more of in my training routine:
Hike more with full pack weight or an overweight pack: Carrying a 40 pound pack up the mountain and at elevation can start to tire even the most fit people. Training more with what that weight would feel like and just making it a part of every hike earlier on would have made a big difference. On each hike I did I would add in a decent amount of weight (25-30lbs) but only hiked at full weight once. Going back, I would have started with full weight much earlier in my training time and even gone overweight to help my body be stronger when I was at elevation.
Hike at a steady pace for long durations: RMI does a great job at managing energy expenditure if you listen to their advice. One thing that our guide targeted was that no matter the difficulty of the terrain that our energy expenditure would be the same. For example, if it was flat we might move a bit faster but that would be the same energy required as slowly going up a steep part. In my training I found myself hiking for a bit and taking 15-30sec resting periods and continuing vs going for a hour and then breaking. Although my micro rests were very helpful and made me move very fast, they were not ultimately the slow steady pace I would need for alpine climbing. Looking back I would have tried to maintain steady paces/energy expenditures for the duration of my training hikes, taking scheduled breaks and pushing myself through the tough points where I traditionally took a micro break.
All in all, all of my training was beneficial to the climb but there were definitely some things that helped more than others. I will make some tweaks to my training schedule before my next climb, and start carrying a heavier pack for training earlier. It is very important to invest in your training and start early because I saw more than one climber struggle with their fitness on the mountain. On a rope team, you are either an asset or a liability, and at the end of the day, all of your training is putting more fuel into your Mt. Rainier summiting fuel tank. So train hard and be an asset to your team - it only makes your climb better!
- Jeff Marcoux
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Jeff Marcoux is an avid hiker & lover of micro brews who lives with his wife in Seattle, WA.
Questions? Comments? Share your thoughts here on the RMI Blog!
I can only confirm what Jeff said about hiking with weight before the actual effort to get up Rainier. I trained with a 50 lb pack for weeks so that the actual pack weight would be less no matter what. I also hiked for, at least, an hour and a half at a time with no breaks to approximate the pace on the mountain. That alone helped me push through the tough spots.
Posted by: Kevin Donavan on 9/25/2013 at 10:09 am
We had high hopes of being able to fly today. After several days of protests and road blocks in Punta Arenas the crew was ready to load the plane with gear, food and more expedition members and fly to Union Glacier. Unfortunately, that didn't happen due to a broken fuel pump. It may be a few days before it can be fixed and the jet is back in the air.
The food and accommodations here are great and we are all doing well.
Best,
RMI Guide Ed Viesturs
Posted by: Joe Hoch, Henry Coppolillo, Daniel May, Michael Murray, Mira Schoeberlein, Lily Emerson
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Mount Rainier
Elevation: 14,410'
The Four Day Climb August 27 - 30 led by RMI Guides Joe Hoch and Henry Coppolillo reached the summit of Mt. Rainier around 6:15 am today. It's a beautiful and clear day on the mountain. The teams enjoyed an hour in the summit crater before starting their descent. They will return to Camp Muir for a short break before continuing down to Paradise. Their program will conclude this afternoon at Rainier BaseCamp.
Congratulations to today's climbers!
After completing our first rotation on the mountain we are back here at Base Camp. It was a relatively warm day here at Base Camp, the clouds blew in early and snow came midday - big, wet flakes filled the air as we sat down to lunch today, covering everything with a thin but wet coating of snow. It has been another restful day here to relax and recover from our time spent higher on the mountain. With the whole team resting today, both our climbing team and our Sherpa team, we've taken advantage of the breaks in the snow to play a few games of horseshoes. Tshering Sherpa once again proved his ace skills, throwing a couple of impressive ringers, as did Dave (although his end of game review was tarnished by the errant shoe that managed to skip the pit and roll into the storage tent - the shoe emerged a few moments later by surprised but laughing Jaya, one of our Base Camp Assistants). RMI's chances in the Base Camp Horseshoes Tournament that Tuck organizes are looking good. Base Camp, which felt high and difficult a few weeks ago, is becoming more comfortable, and I'll venture to say that the air is even starting to feel a bit thicker here at 17,500' since we returned, a sure sign that we are acclimatizing well.
The time spent on our first rotation was a good introduction into the process of high altitude climbing. We navigated the Ice fall, established ourselves at Camp 1, and ascended the Western Cwm to Camp 2, also known as Advanced Base Camp (ABC). In doing so our familiarity with the route grew, ladder crossings became easier, and we anticipated the challenges of the Ice fall. We battled high winds, cold nights, and hot days. The rotation reminded me of the adjustment in perspective that takes place every time I head into the mountains. Visiting Camp 2 a few days ago, at 21,300', looking up the Lhotse Face towards the South Col and the summit of Everest far above, we discussed how standing in the same place in several weeks time we will only be days from the summit. But then the altitude was squeezing on the lungs, and simply walking across camp was a challenge in itself. I watched in awe as Yubaraj Rai, who climbed Island Peak with me several weeks ago and is our Camp 2 cook, grabbed a pick axe nearly as tall as he and started chipping away chunks of ice to melt for water. The thought of lifting the axe was tiring. It served as a reminder that despite making progress up the mountain, we have much preparation to do before a summit bid becomes a reality.
There is a notable, but sometimes difficult, mental shift that takes place when we begin climbing. Long expeditions like this require moving away from the hard charging objective-oriented mentality that predominates are training and preparation at home to a mentality that is focused on the process of the climb - as cliche as that sounds. With the ground that we covered between Base Camp and visiting Camp 2, we actually spent relatively few hours of the day climbing. The rest of our days were spent on the far less glamorous but equally important aspect of simply living up there. Resting, eating, drinking, sleeping, and dealing with the adversities that the environment throws at you. Because of this our first rotation was hugely important in learning to master the overlooked details of living above 20,000'. It is a trial in discovering what foods appeal up there, how challenging but important staying hydrated is, the awkwardness of pulling on a down suit in a tent, how to keep moral and drive strong during the hours of down time in the tents, the difficulties of packing up the pack in the early morning hours when temperatures hovered below zero degrees Fahrenheit, and how to readjust to the sky rocketing temperatures a few hours later when climbing up the Western Cwm. If these details are ignored the mountain and the altitude wears on the body to such an extent that the actual climbing becomes a challenge too great to overcome, the mountains just take too much of a toll. It's only after we've figured out how to manage these challenges that we can confidently strap on our crampons and climb upwards.
These are the often overlooked aspects of climbing up here that we faced on our first rotation. Although the distance and the elevations to which we climbed seem small in regards to the scale of the mountain that stands above us, our days up there were immensely productive and successful. By the third night the altitude was becoming easier, the cold less harsh, and the living up there more manageable. Since returning to Base Camp the whole team is already feeling stronger and more prepared and are looking forward to heading back up on our second rotation in a couple of days.
RMI Guide Linden Mallory
Hello, Linden! We Wallaces are enjoying your blogs! We are thinking about you way up there in the wild, blue, yonder and wishing you and your team well, safe, strong. We send you lots of love! Mary and Roger
Posted by: mary wallace on 5/2/2011 at 7:18 pm
Another great post and love the pictures! Enjoy the “thick” air of base camp and know that we are thinking of you all! And Bro - Happy Anniversary to you and Lisa! You are both extraordinary people!! Stay strong!!
Posted by: Martin on 4/26/2011 at 6:30 pm
Posted by: Mike King, Taylor Bickford, Henry Coppolillo, Cal Smith, Axel Ryd, Lauren Macklin
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Mount Rainier
Elevation: 11,200'
Due to overhead hazards, the Mt. Rainier Summit Climb, led by RMI Guides Mike King and Taylor Bickford, turned at Ingraham Flats. They reported smoky skies and a busy route. After packing up at Camp Muir, the team began their descent to Paradise at 9:00 a.m.
We just got word that you successfully summited! Way to go team. We are in awe of this magical experience. Can’t wait to celebrate over Face-time with you. Now focus on getting down safely.
Posted by: Rhea Campbell & Alex Lickerman on 7/24/2014 at 10:05 am
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