Category Archives: Training

Bouldering as Training

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I hate to admit this but climbing at the gym has grown on me. Actually, nix that, bouldering at the gym has grown on me. A year ago that would have been an unspeakable thought but now I’ve learned to appreciate bouldering in the gym for what it is.

Since moving to Seattle I have been going to Stone Gardens on a semi-regular basis. One of the unfortunate side effects of moving to a new city is that I didn’t have a go to climbing partner. That has since been remedied but at first I was flying solo so to speak. Without a belayer I took up bouldering.

In the beginning it was rough. I would thrash and dangle on the easiest of V0′s and my forearms would pump out on even the slightest of overhangs. On the all day climbs in North Carolina my Mythos performed wonderfully but on the plastic of the gym my feet wouldn’t stick like they had on the east coast. It would’ve been easy to blame it on the rubber or the slippery holds but I knew better.

It was frustrating but it all changed the instant I learned the drop knee. When that happened everything just clicked. Soon enough I was keeping my weight over my legs. I could take the time to place my feet instead of thrash for holds. I was making progress and though it wasn’t the same as looking down on the birds on a long route in NC, it was fun.

Now that the weather is starting to turn in Seattle I am getting outside more. The single pitch stuff I’ve been doing hasn’t been fantastic but I find myself ho-humming up 5.9′s, dancing up easier 5.10 friction, and even sinking gear in a splitter 5.8 in marginal weather a couple of weeks ago. Even though these are moderate achievements, they are half past amazing for me considering a year ago I was barely sketching up 5.7.

Bouldering in the gym has allowed me to break through a barrier in my progression as a climber. Not only am I stronger but I have learned how to move, how to balance and how to visualize the sequence. In a couple of years I’d like to be able to TR 5.11d, I’d like to lead 5.10c and I’d like to be confident that I can pull through the bouldery crux thirty feet above my last piece of pro. Maybe I’ll get there, maybe I won’t. What I do know is that without the gym I’ll never get there only climbing two weekends a month.

Cheers.

CrossFit – The Ultimate Mountaineering Workout?

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There is a lot of talk about using CrossFit as training for mountain climbing.  Some people swear that CrossFit is the ultimate training for mountaineering and based on their enthusiasm that is almost fanaticism, I’d have to CrossFit intrigued me.

I am guessing if you’re reading this you know a thing or two about CrossFit.  If you haven’t heard about it the ten second run down is you train for functional fitness by doing full body exercises at a no holds barred pace.  A typical work out goes something like this:

5 box jumps
5 dumbbell squats
5 burpees
5 medicine ball slams
repeat for 20 minutes

While that may sound easy, it is most definitely not.  The key to CrossFit is going at 100% the entire time and that intensity is what makes it tremendously difficult.

My climbing partner has been doing CrossFit for a while.  I was intrigued by the following of the program so I tagged along.  I knew what I was getting in to but I didn’t fully comprehend what was about to happen.

Upon arriving at Northwest Crossfit in Seattle I was given the run down of what the workout was going to consist of.  Very conveniently the typical workout from above was the demo workout they had planned.  The trainer led me through a thorough warm up and then critiqued my form as I learned the basic movements of the workout.  He pointed out little things like on a medicine ball slam I should slam it hard enough to bounce and then catch it before it hit the ground again.  Or that when I was doing squats for this workout I should use my momentum to push the dumbbells above my head.

So then I started.  Everything was going fine for the first three cycles.  It was fun, challenging but ultimately uninteresting.  Then the fourth cycle happened which corresponded to about the fourth minute of the workout.  My pulse started rising, my breathing started getting labored and everything started going to hell.  By the seventh cycle I was struggling not to rest between exercises.  While I wanted to rest, the trainer would challenge my manhood and prod me along with positive encouragement like, “you’re not a quitter are you?  Do you want to be a failure?”

Ultimately I made it 12 or 13 rounds depending on how you count before my body gave out.  In total I made it an entire 15 minutes before I succumbed to exhaustion.  Kind of pathetic but also kind of the purpose of the demo workout.  CrossFit gave me a helluva workout in under 20 minutes.

I recovered a bit and still in an oxygen deprived state of mind I got the hard sell.  Even with the broke grad student discount, at $120/month there was no way I could afford to sign up.

What I took away from CrossFit is that it is a helluva a workout in a very short period of time.  Is it the ultimate mountain climbing workout?  Maybe it is, maybe it isn’t.  I don’t doubt that I would get in great shape if I did it… but in my lowly opinion joining a rock gym for $40/month, trail running on hilly terrain and just getting out there on the weekends is a much better use of time and money.  I’m not going to learn how to climb smoothly on vertical terrain by jumping on a box or how to move efficiently by doing burpees ’til I collapse.  But then again that is just me.  I care more about the 6 pack of cheap beer at the end of a climb then trying to get a six pack under my tattered Gore-Tex.

Training for Rainier & Training for Mountaineering in General

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Mt Rainier sitting silent in winter

Training for mountaineering and training for Rainier in particular is an expectations game.  If you don’t know what to expect you fret over every little detail and want to make sure that your training regime is the “right” one for mountaineering.  If you do know what to expect especially on a climb like the standard Disappointment Cleaver on Rainier you know that you need to have a solid base conditioning level and a propensity to suffering.  Acclimatization is often the weak link, not fitness, and unfortunately almost everyone, even locals, can’t do anything about it.

My girlfriend’s brother wants to climb Rainier over Labor Day weekend.  I found this out about a month ago and even though the beer and pizza diet has caught up with me I am not too worried.  My base level of conditioning when I found out was I could jog, albeit slowly, for about an hour.  Not in good shape but I’ve certainly been in worse shape.  To prepare and whip myself into condition, for the last few weeks I have bumped it up a notch and added hill work and heavy backpack slogging.  I added these two types of training for very different reasons and I think they will each payoff.

Hill work is always good.  If you’re trying to climb Disappointment Cleaver you’re essentially climbing a big snowy hill with crevasses.  Undertaking a Rainier climb is not something to be taken lightly but on a nice day the standard route is fairly safe.  I added hill work because I can push myself to exhaustion relatively easily, recover and then do it again.  I have a very steep hill near my house, steep enough for my little Honda Civic to have a hissy fit going up it.  I do a quick warm jog and then do three reps of this hill at 80% walking down between each.  Very conveniently at the top of the hill is a dirt running trail that loops for 3/4 of a mile and has a few pleasant ups and downs.  This is my recovery loop and it gives me a chance to get my lungs under control.  All in all this set of 3x hills and then trail jog takes 20 minutes.  I do three sets of these and then about a mile cool down.  By the time I am done I have burned out my lungs, burned out my legs and am all around spent.  If I didn’t have a trail run in between sets of hills I think my hill work would be considerably less effective.  By jogging between sets I recover enough to push myself on the next set, I keep my heart rate up for much longer and I can really focus on recovering my breath while still moving.  All of these things are important while climbing.

I have also added heavy backpack work to my training.  I am lucky enough to have Mt Si close by which allows me to hike about 3500 vertical feet with a 50lb pack but when I lived on the east coast I did just fine on the stairs of a nearby parking garage.  The key is to start light and go for as long as you can with an hour being the minimum.  I like to be able to feel relatively ok with a 50lb pack on my back for a couple of hours but that is just me.  Now that I have Mt Si to train on I do about 3500 vertical feet in two hours and then take a little over an hour to get down for a grand total of three-ish hours.  While heavy backpack work is mind-numbingly boring it builds that run-you-like-a-rented-mule endurance that is crucial for mountaineering.

Will this training be enough for Rainier?  I’m wagering yes because I know what to expect.  On the hike to Camp Muir I am going to start early in the AM and take as much time as I need.  There is no rush and the longer I am on the mountain the longer I have to acclimate.  This is the only day that I will have a heavy pack and I can rest as much as I need.  On summit day I’m going to leave early for safety reasons and my pack will be next to nothing.  I’ll pace myself and take decent breaks where it is safe.  I know I have the endurance and suffering capability to move through the objectively hazardous sections quickly and that is the only place where true speed matters.

I also have a few tricks up my sleeve this time.  This time I am ditching my heavy Koflach Degre plastic boots and will be sporting a much lighter pair of La Sportiva Trango Alp GTX boots.  They are similar to the La Sportiva Trango S Evo GTX but a little less technical.  Another very similar pair of boots are the Scarpa Charmoz GTX.  All said I should be rockin and rollin all the way to the top.  I’ll let you know how leather boots on Rainier go.