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We concluded our nine day trek through Torres del Paine National Park with an 6 am start to get up to the Towers of Paine before the crowds arrived. The hike was 12 miles round trip with 3,900’ of elevation gain. Once at the towers we had cold wind, mostly clear skies for some good pictures. We saw a condor soaring around the cirque, we saw social media influencers doing acrobatic yoga, we saw someone fall into the glacial lake from trying to pose like an influencer and most of all we capped off a great trip with a nice brisk hike. The trio self named the “base layer boys” lead the charge up with our Chilean guide Fernando and once back at the hostel we packed up and are now back in Puerto Natales for the night. A few hour drive to Punta Arenas tomorrow morning and this fun trip will be done. We laughed a lot, ate great food, took lots of pictures and have some sore legs and feet. Guess that’s the price you pay to be in such an amazing location. We are going to celebrate with one last pizza dinner before the group disperses tomorrow.  Thanks for following along.

RMI Guide Mike King

The team has made it back to civilization! We are once again in Mendoza and have celebrated our success on Aconcagua with one final team dinner and trip to one of Mendoza’s famous gelato shops. It’s hard to believe our expedition is over, but not one of us is sad to have access to a shower again. It was a great expedition this year and all of the climbers put forth their very best effort to get up and down the mountain safely. Cheers to an amazing team!

RMI Guide Nick Scott

Today we got a casual start with a two hour drive to the Torres del Paine National Park. On the way we saw 20+ guanacos, which is a wild cameloid, similar to a llama. As we got closer to the park, flamingos and rheas where sighted.

The weather was overcast but we got some views of the glaciers and rock towers that this area is known for. Our hike to Campamento Seron was 5.5 miles and consisted of nice trail and beautiful Patagonia scenery. The tall grasses, wind bent trees and milky emerald green rivers kept people taking photos and enjoying conversations. We are in camp for the night, music in the background, good food being prepared and a charcuterie board with a few bottles of Chilean red wine to kick this trip off right.

RMI Guide Mike King

Katie Bono climbs Mount Rainier in 4 hours, 58 minutes on July 24, 2012. RMI Guide Katie Bono completed a car-to-car speed ascent of the classic Disappointment Cleaver route. Her effort is significant not only because it sets the female speed record but also because it adds a female presence to a list which had been exclusively male dominated. Bono described the route, which she climbed 12 times, as straight-forward and direct, minus the rocky section of Disappointment Cleaver itself, where she expressed difficulty keeping “the high-RPM, small steps” she was able to use on the remainder of the route. The first known speed ascent was made by Lou and Jim Whittaker, with John Day, in 1959 (7 hours, 20 minutes). Craig Van Hoy (5 hours, 25 minutes; 1981), Justin Merle (4:49:35; July 9, 2008), and Liam O’Sullivan (4:46:29; August 5, 2008), all former Rainier Mountaineering, Inc. guides, successfully lowered the record times until September 17, 2008 when renowned guide Willie Benegas completed the round trip in 4:40:59. Benegas’ record currently stands.

RMI is hosting several Prep for Rainier classes over the months of February, March, and April at local REI stores in the Puget Sound area. Join RMI's experienced guides to discuss everything that is needed to prepare for Mt. Rainier, including conditioning, trip planning, route selection, and equipment selection to climb Washington State's highest point! Come out to your local REI store to hear stories and answer your questions about Mt. Rainier!

Tuesday

4/15/2014

7:00pm

REI Redmond with RMI Guide Paul Maier

More info...

A well crafted training plan is one that comprises multiple phases of training. Commonly called Periodized Training, this is the method of dividing your training program into phases in order to focus on different aspects of your training while effectively incorporating the needed rest and recovery.  Periodized training is effective because it is a strategic approach to training. If you try to focus on every aspects of your training all at once, you're likely to get injured or burn out. Much like building a house, the foundation must be laid before the walls can be put up and the interior finished. In the same manner, periodized training is focusing on different aspects of your training in a complementary manner, where each phase makes you stronger and more prepared for the next. 

Basic Training Phases

Phase 1: Building Base Fitness 

Your goal in this phase is to build your overall "base fitness." This entails improving your aerobic endurance, increasing strength and flexibility, and incorporating occasional interval work. This critical training phase focuses primarily on aerobic fitness. Aerobic training increases the amount of oxygen carried to the muscles, lowers the rate at which lactic acid is created and helps the body remove it more effectively, and increases the overall metabolic rate (1). Put simply, you are getting into good overall shape in order to prepare your body for the stresses of more intense and specific mountaineering training. 

Phase 2: Introduce Mountaineering Specific Training 

This phase focuses on maintaining endurance and aerobic fitness while improving speed and strength by introducing more interval training and mountaineering specific training. Begin incorporating interval sessions into your training to increase your aerobic capacity and and broaden your range of comfort at various effort levels. Make your workouts more mountaineering specific with hikes and climbs with moderate weight in your pack. This phase is beginning to hone your fitness to the demands of mountaineering. 

Phase 3: Tailor Training Specifically for the Climb Ahead

In the final phase you are training specifically for the climb ahead. Try and train on terrain similar in steepness and difficulty to the mountain in terms of vertical change, weight in your pack, and length of days. Find training hikes with the vertical change that is similar to the amount of vertical change on your climb. Stack long workout days back to back to mimic the challenges of multi-day climbs. Train and with a pack weight mimicking what you will be carrying on the mountain and incorporate interval sessions to boost your anaerobic threshold.  Remember to dramatically dial down your training in the final week or so before the climb. This process, called "tapering", gives you the needed time to rest and recover from your final training push. The last thing you want to do is show up at the base of a mountain exhausted and worn out. 

Applying Phased Training

Pull out a calendar and mark down the date of your upcoming climb. You have every day between today and the start of your climb to build your fitness. Divide this time into three phases. Your current fitness level and the amount of time between now and your next climb will determine the length and focus of each phase. As you hone in on your different phases, also reflect back on your past climbs and training to determine what areas of focus (flexibility, balance, speed, etc.) to incorporate into the more mountaineering specific training phases. Find out more about specific training routines with RMI's Mountaineering Fitness and Training resources. We strongly encourage you to work with a trainer or fitness coach to help you map out this process and provided the specific routines and exercises for you. 

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(1: "Train Smart This Winter: Base Training Basics", Active.com)

Questions? Comments? Share your thoughts here on the RMI Blog!

From RMI Guide Hannah Smith: The Mt. Rainier summit is not guaranteed but the rising sun is. Gusty winds made for a high point at Ingraham Flats- short of the summit but still challenging.  Our team is packing up and heading downhill shortly.

There are several terms in training articles that get thrown around in confusing ways: aerobic threshold, lactate threshold, anaerobic threshold, aerobic capacity, VO2 Max, anaerobic capacity, and functional threshold power or pace. Many of these terms have definitions that are quite similar to each other, with minute differences that matter in the field of sports science, but are basically equivalent for athletes training. These terms all fit into three main categories that are important for us to understand as endurance athletes.

Aerobic threshold (AeT)

The aerobic threshold is defined as the intensity of exercise at which lactate levels in the blood begin to rise from their baseline. Lactate accumulation indicates that the metabolic pathways that are fueling our muscles with energy have begun to shift to a combination of aerobic and anaerobic mechanisms, and if the intensity that we are working at stays the same, or increases, lactate will continue to build. This is in effect an endurance limiter. Aerobic capacity is essentially the same term – it refers to the amount of work that can be performed before the athlete reaches their AeT.

Lactate Threshold (LT)

Lactate Threshold is the level of intensity at which lactate in the blood reaches 4 millimoles/liter. This is a tiny amount and is something that requires a blood test during exercise in a lab to determine. The more useful definition for athletes is that it is the intensity at which lactate production exceeds its removal. This is also the defining line above which, exercise can only be sustained at that intensity for short periods of time before fatigue and slowing set in. Consider this the upper-end limit to endurance. While the definitions are slightly different, this is essentially the same thing as Anaerobic Threshold (AnT) anaerobic capacity, and functional threshold. They all refer to the point at which the metabolic pathways switch to a primarily anaerobic pathway that burns glycogen (carbohydrates), and the ability to sustain that intensity will be limited.

VO2 Max

VO2 Max refers to the maximum amount of oxygen that the body can utilize for energy during an all-out effort that is well above their AnT. Theoretically, the better your body is at delivering oxygen to where it needs to go, and the better adapted your muscle cells are to exercise, the more oxygen they will be able to utilize to make ATP (energy) and the more energy they will have to do work. Sounds simple enough right? VO2 Max has been a big focus in endurance sports for a long time, partly because it is easily quantifiable. However, ask elite coaches, such as those at Uphill Athlete, and they will tell you that VO2 Max doesn’t correlate very well to performance, and seems largely determined by genetics. Athletes for decades spent considerable effort training to increase their VO2 max, but recent studies suggest that that time would be better spent increasing the aerobic threshold.

Why do these terms matter? One dispels a popular myth related to training (VO2 Max), while the other two are the categories where we as athletes have the greatest abilities to affect our metabolic and motor pathways to achieve better performance. The balance of aerobic threshold and lactate threshold training that we do as we prepare for a large climb will determine how we perform. We’ll be diving into these two topics in more depth in the coming weeks so stay tuned!

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There are several great resources that provide a lot more information on these topics. For this article, we pulled from Joe Friel’s blog and from the recent book, Training for the Uphill Athlete, from the folks at Uphill Athlete. We can’t recommend the book enough if you are serious about training for endurance mountain sports!

Comments? Questions? Share your thoughts here in the comments!

As we focus forward on the training for this year’s climbing adventures, we know we’ll be hiking, climbing, probably doing some stair interval training with heavy packs, and developing strength training routines. The training adventures need not be boring though, cross-training keeps us both balanced and motivated. I like to categorize my cross training by asking, “Is this a direct benefit to mountain climbing or is this activity more general conditioning focused?” Sports like cycling, cross-country skiing or skating have a very direct benefit in building endurance for the mountains, in fact a bike ride can be a perfect substitute for a hike. Other sports like soccer, kickboxing, or activities like dancing and yoga, while perhaps not as directly related to mountain climbing, can have wonderful benefits for overall conditioning. Thinking out of the box completely, I met a person last week who did remarkably well on a training hike despite not having ‘trained’ very much. I asked him where he thought his fitness came from and he said, “I’m a UPS driver, I use a pedometer to track my steps and generally do 15,000 steps each day - most of them carrying boxes.” 15,000 steps equals about 5 miles walking! I think he’s going to have a big head-start on his 16 week training program! Cross training is an important part of your training program, keeping you mentally engaged and physically healthy. Beyond the cornerstones of your regular training program that includes long hikes, short intense sessions, and strength training, what fun things do you enjoy to do to which add to your fitness? Are you lucky enough to have one of those jobs which gets you walking during the day? How can you plan your days to add an activity or sneak in a few extra miles from place to place? Get outside and be creative with your cross training! - 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. Questions? Comments? Share your thoughts with John and other readers on the RMI Blog!

Between training and the climb itself, climbers spend a lot of time with a pack on their backs. Somewhat of a necessary evil, the goal is to make your pack carry comfortably and efficiently so that it doesn’t work against you. A few tips that will result in a more enjoyable pack to carry:

1. Minimize dead space in the pack

2. Try to fit everything (except the ice axe) inside the pack

3. Keep the mass of the pack close to your body

4. Frequently adjust the straps to carry the load more comfortably

5. Have a system 

Minimizing dead space in the pack will help the pack ride in a more balanced way, and allow you to fit everything inside. A big factor that creates dead space is too many stuff sacks packed together. Round or barrel shaped stuff sacks don’t nest together well, instead leaving large gaps between them (like a cup full of marbles). To minimize this effect, try to limit the number of stuff sacks you use. A compression stuff sack for your sleeping bag is important, as it dramatically reduces the volume of the sleeping bag, but most of the other items can be packed loose, without stuff sacks. The down parka and spare insulating layers do a great job of packing around the sleeping bag to fill any spaces. Some guides go so far as to pack their pack partway, and then (taking care not to crush anything breakable) insert their foot into the pack and squish everything down to squeeze out all of the air. In addition, if climbers have packs with dedicated sleeping bag compartments, I often recommend that they detach the shelf that separates the compartment from the main pack, and treat the pack as one large tube. Sleeping bag compartments tend to create dead space where we want it least, right near the center of mass of our bodies.

Minimize the number of items that are attached to the outside of the pack. The ice axe generally has a dedicated attachment point (the ice axe loops), and is really the only exception to this rule. The rest of our equipment should fit inside the pack. With a little bit of thought, items that seem to take up a lot of space can be packed more efficiently. For example, by stuffing the helmet with extra socks and food before packing it, the volume of the helmet itself becomes very little. Crampons can be put together so that the tines cover each other, and they too can be placed in the pack. Items clipped to the outside of the pack tend to swing, get damaged, and make a ruckus. By minimizing the number of items clipped to the outside of the pack, your pack will carry more comfortably and with less noise!

In general when you are packing, place items that you won’t need or use that stretch to the bottom of the pack, while items that you would like to keep handy (food, sunscreen, etc) stay near the top. Additionally, place heavier items closer to the back panel of the pack, keeping them nearer your center of mass.

There is no perfect fit for a pack, and comfort and fit of your pack will change throughout the course of a climb or training session. In general, try to carry the majority of the weight on your hips. When putting on a pack, hitch the pack up higher on your back than it will ride, and cinch down the waist strap. Then tighten the shoulder straps until they just make contact with your shoulders. Next, lightly tighten the load lifter straps on the shoulder straps and waist belt. This helps to pull the weight of the pack in closer to your back and helps with balance. Lastly, constantly adjust throughout the day as discomforts arise!

Have a system to your pack so that you have a good idea where each item is. This will save you time and frustration throughout the climb, if you can reach straight to a warmer pair of gloves for example, rather than unpack most of your pack each time you need an item. With a well-organized system, you will spend more time at each break resting and recovering, and less time digging for items in your pack. With a little bit of time and practice your pack won’t be such a burden and your training sessions, and ultimately the climb, will be more enjoyable!

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Pete Van Deventer is a senior guide at RMI Expeditions. A former collegiate nordic skier, Pete climbs and guides around the world, from the Andes to Alaska. Read about Pete's recent sailing and ski mountaineering trip to Norway's Lofoten Islands on the RMI Blog.

Questions? Comments? Share your thoughts here on the RMI Blog!