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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. For this example, I used a January Expedition to 22,841' Aconcagua in Argentina if I started training in October:   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. It can be helpful to establish specific, repeatable benchmarks to revisit during your training to measure your progress. Check out RMI Guide Pete Van Deventer's ideas on using benchmarks.   - 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. Questions? Comments? Share your thoughts here on the RMI Blog!

The Four Day All Women's Climb August 6 - 9 was unable to summit due to weather.  RMI Guides Emma Lyddan, Hannah Smith and Lily Emerson turned the climbers around at 12,800' due to lightning, ice and rain. The teams returned safely back to Camp Muir. They will descend the remaining 4.5 miles to Paradise later this morning and conclude their program at Rainier BaseCamp later this afternoon.

Photos: Hannah Smith

Today was the day, the team successfully reached the summit of the eighth tallest mountains in North America, Ixtaccihuatl. We woke up dark and early at 1230 AM for our alpine start, scarfed our oatmeal, chugged our coffee and we were off.

The route from high camp starts off with most of the elevation gain and a steep scree field to boot. Taking two steps up and one step back, the team trudged up “the knees” of Ixta to gain one of its magnificent ridges. Though the skies were clear, the wind was out with a vengeance. A cutting, constant 30 mph wind greeted us at the top of the ridge and decided to join us for the rest of the climb. With most of our layers on our person and buffs covering all but our eyes, we leaned into the wind and traversed until we dropped down into the ever-receding Ayaloco Glacier. Down and up the half pipe of a glacier, we gained the final ridge and pushed on to the summit. The team moved so well that we beat the sun to the top, but we were able to find a wind break and watch a gorgeous sunrise at the summit. Congrats to the team!

Now we’re off to well-deserved showers and beds in Puebla.

RMI Guide Dominic Cifelli & Team

This is from KING 5 News special coverage about United Way's Climb for the Community up Mount Rainier, which took place July 5-8, 2009. The climb team, which was lead by mountaineering legend Ed Viesturs, included NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell, Seattle Seahawks coach Jim Mora and United Way CEO Jon Fine.

Monday, June 27, 2022 - 8:14 am PT

Good morning all!

What a walk we had! Leaving 14,000' Camp with sights on basecamp is a long journey. We woke at 10pm, packed our things, and were on the downward trend by midnight. It felt good to be walking downhill but pulling a sled was less than desirable. But with so much motivation it made it possible. With the help from another RMI team, who dug up our 11,000' cache, we made fast work reorganizing and moving on. The glacier down below has changed a little. We zig and zagged left and right to avoid big crevasses. Hours went by, miles gained, elevation lost. As we got near basecamp we did a quick crevasse rescue scenario, before making our last uphill walk. Heart break hill is truly heartbreaking with tired legs, tired bodies, and tired minds. But as usual the team dug real deep and blew up it.

After a few hours napping at base and some luck the clouds parted in Talkeetna and the pilot took off. The sounds of those Otter planes were glorious music to our ears! A shower, a toilet, a beer, food, and sleep never felt or sounded so good. The team earned every amenity possible from such a long hard day. I am thoroughly impressed and proud of all the team members. It has been a fantastic journey. One for the books! Here's to healing sunburns, chapped lips, and sore muscles.

Congrats team, you made it!

RMI Guides Hannah, Kiira, and Dan

Another day of waiting and hiking for those of us at Mt. Everest Base Camp, but an important day none-the-less. The "fixing team" made it to the summit today, taking advantage of stable weather in the morning. We heard that things weren't quite so stable in the afternoon, with wind and snow working over the upper mountain, but climbers pushed on to the mountaintop anyway and then descended safely. The word was that several hundred climbers moved up the Lhotse Face today to be in position for summit bids tomorrow. We wish them all fine conditions for those bids, but we are keeping focused on our own window, which the forecasts still predict to be a good one, several days out. Best regards, RMI Guide Dave Hahn

RMI Guides Mike Walter & Abby Westling led the Four Day Climb August 26 - 29 to the summit of Mt. Rainier this morning with all climbers in both groups.  Mike reported a beautiful day on the mountain as the teams were approaching the crater rim around 7:10 am.  Climbers will spend time in the summit crater before starting their descent, dropping 4,500' back to Camp Muir.  After a quick stop they will continue the remaining 4,500' to Paradise.  Once back at Rainier BaseCamp later this afternoon the program will conclude with a small celebration for the teams.

Nice work today everyone!

The use of trekking poles during climbs (in appropriate terrain) can dramatically reduce your expended effort, allow you to move more efficiently, and ultimately let you climb longer and further.  Trekking poles help us to balance, taking some of the work away from the small muscles in our feet and ankles responsible for balancing, and involving the core and skeleton instead.  They also help enormously when it comes to managing a large and unwieldy backpack.  There are ways to use and hold trekking poles that improve their efficiency.   A common question is how long should the poles be?  For climbers’ purposes, trekking poles should be significantly shorter than most would think: right around hip height.  By setting our poles at hip height, and holding the pole by placing the palm on the top of the grip and draping fingers over the pole, the skeleton can take much of the load from the pole, reducing fatigue and effort.  The shorter height allows the bones of the arm to stack over each other, taking the load rather than the muscles.  Remember, this is not cross country skiing and having the pole tall and out in front of you only means more, yet less effective, work for your arms.   Another element to think about is how overly active arms can actually create more exertion for your body.   Imagine that you were hiking up a set of stairs.  Now put a tall pair of poles in your hand, and hike the same stairs while you try to push yourself up with the poles at the same time.  Rather than two of your limbs working hard to move your mass uphill (lots of work already!) all four are doing the job; only your arms, working out in front of you, act as levers instead of pistons (like your legs) so they are mechanically much less suited to the task.  But, by moving your arms and trying to push on those levers, your heart rate will rise with the extra exertion; the result is a higher heart rate, earlier fatigue, and less efficient use of your system if your poles are out in front of you (like a cross country skier).  Even with the poles set to hip height, we see this happen often on steep rolls, when climbers don’t lower their grip on the pole to keep their hands at a comfortable height.  Once the hands are above the heart, they have little effect on balance or upward motion, and the heart has to work harder to pump blood uphill to them. Through small steep terrain features it's key to choke up on your poles to avoid this.   These are not absolute principles but suggestions. Play with them during your training to teach yourself to move more comfortably and efficiently with poles.  It will pay big dividends on your next climb, and can help to take some of the training stress of hiking up and downhill with heavy packs, off of your joints, helping to prevent injury! Questions? Comments? Share your thoughts here on the RMI Blog!

Update 5:23 pm PST: I received a radio call from the team. They are now on top of the South Summit! Weather continues to be okay for them; a few clouds down here at Basecamp. Sun may have an impact soon in a very positive way. RMI Guide and Everest Basecamp Manager Mark Tucker

On The Map

Update:10:51 pm PT The team has safely reached the South Col. Everyone is doing well. They are going to take a quick break before continuing down to Camp 2 (Advanced Base Camp). Mark Tucker Update: 6:46 pm PT Mark Tucker reports from Everest Base Camp that RMI Guides Dave Hahn, Seth Waterfall and their Sherpa team, Tshering and Kaji have reached the summit of Mt. Everest! This marks Dave's 15th summit of Mt. Everest and the third time for Seth to have reached the summit. Tshering and Kaji have both made their sixth successful summit of Mt.Everest. The team reported a beautiful day with a cold wind. They will spend about 30 minutes on top before starting their descent. Congratulations to all!

On The Map