By Ben Clark
Intermittent snow showers are falling in the San Juans. Swirls of wet and heavy gropple are slowly accumulating in steep couloirs and barren bowls. Trickling cascades are cycling from raging torrents to verglased slabs soon to become frozen pillars. The southwestern Colorado desert is windy and wet with rain, soon we will traverse sandy clay washouts to our famed sandstone for 50 degree days on South facing cracks. Winter is on its way.
Every autumn is the same for me except for this one, I already went on 2 expeditions this year, I canceled my third trip to China to get some work done and avoid political turmoil. Now I am pinned to a desk job that lets me ski 90 days a winter and shoot video on climbs. That isn't so bad, producing and writing television is worth a little sacrifice...but not at the cost of fitness. Not Newport Beach fitness, all around expedition fitness. The expedition I'm training for now; an unclimbed 70 degree face on a 7000M peak that we will traverse and also ski for a first descent. So how do I get from my desk to there? Lifting a lot of weights and getting outside as much as possible.
Going to the gym sounds scarier to some climbers and mountaineers than a run out over powder covered granite slabs but is every bit as useful for the professional's arsenal of experience. Weather, conditions and hazards are always closing in on big mountains. You must always be pushing yourself, eliminating the risk from the everyday struggle can actually save your life when speed really counts. In ten years of expeditions around the globe, I've learned to prepare for everything that comes with the mountain, running through airports in Cusco with 100 pounds of gear in hand, hiking to basecamp with a 50 pound duffel bag under the lid of my 70 pound pack, running from gun shots. Overall fitness and good health, not just route sending adrenaline, will guide you through the cumulative test of challenges.
To prepare for a climb and the travel to it, endurance and power come into play but most importantly, recovering while moving is the most critical element of Alpine exploration. The ability to keep moving after climbing over an overhanging ice route with skis on your back above 6000M is critical to our method. I have yet to find myself on any of the cruxes of my dream climbs in the Himalaya basking in the sun of a balmy day and relishing in my accomplishment with hours to burn. It is often at the end of the day when weather is closing in and the conditions are threatening to close us out. That is when training really counts. Your imagination and experience will lead you into these situations, your body will move you through them.
The training method below is a template for such maneuvers of mind and body, it is done in 16 week cycles as I put myself back together from the previous expedition and prepare for the next. I have tested it on my climbing partners and athletes ranging from 19 to 47 years of age. It is not as sexy as Crossfit or Gym Jones but is something you can do with access to even the least equipped facility, i.e., affordable on a climber's budget. The following scenarios and goals are what this program is intended to supplement and allow you to overcome: mastering the approach, deep wallowing in dangerous snow, fast ascents up monotonous snowfields below objective hazards, steep climbs with a pack and awkward balance, WI 6 and 5.11 or technical mixed ground at over 5000M, skiing lines with a 45 pound pack that are 5000' or greater in vertical at altitude, having enough steam to build a tent site at the end of a long technical day and of course---shoveling a lot of snow.
Smile at the end of every workout...it will help you forget about the nausea and remember, I like to do these workouts 3 days a week on top of any other climbing, mountaineering or skiing I've already done!
You can not possibly overtrain for high altitude alpine climbing and skiing and this training will not just focus on strength, it will give you agility, some athletic skill, as well as improve your footwork and reaction time. Use it however and whenever you like, laugh while you do it and adapt it to your focus, greater discipline will produce greater results.
