Hardwear Sessions

By Mountain Hardwear Athlete, Micah Dash

Jonny and I leave for Asia in just ten days and our spring training is in full effect. Since breaking my heel last summer, and spending three months on crutches followed by another three months walking at an ants pace, I wasn't sure how to get back into shape. Keeping up with Jonny in the mountains is no easy feat. He is a cardio machine and since our objective in Asia will be more of a mixed alpine route than a big wall rock climb I decided I needed to train a bit differently.

Time for some spring training! Photo Credit Micah Dash

Thanks to Connie Sciolino and the Mountain Athlete program www.mtnathlete.com from Jackson Hole, but now also in Boulder, I found just what I was looking for. Mountain Athlete, similar to Cross Fit, is a hardcore, ass kicking one hour workout session. Its leg crushing, heart pumping, back burning, barf on the floor marathon.

This kind of training won't necessarily make you a better climber, you need to climb to do that, but what it will do is make you hard to kill in the alpine. Mountain Machines like Bean Bowers, Stephen Koch, Ben Gilmore, and Kevin Mahoney have been this training method for some time. In combination with climbing fulltime I think it will be a huge asset to climbing in the Himalaya this spring. If nothing else, I feel like it is bringing me closer to where I was prior to getting injured.

If you find yourself in Boulder and cranking on the rocks doesn't seem to be doing the trick, stop in and check it out. You can contact Connie at sciolino@q.com.