Training for big alpine traverses

I've set some goals for the new year and a few of them are big alpine traverses. I was wondering what kind of training advice people have for this kind of objective ex. the cirque traverse in the Wind Rivers, Evolution Traverse, Grand Traverse, etc....

I'm currently in decent shape but not anywhere near were I want to be to attempt any of those. My weekly training right now consists of climbing 2-3 days at least 1 day outside on a multipitch, and trail running between 20-40 miles per week.

I'm really wanting to refine this to add a day in the weight room (not sure what to do though). Have read New Alpinism and like the approach but am searching for advice from folks who have done these kinds of routes and what worked or didn't work. Thanks in advance!

I've got a few alpine traverses under my belt at this point and I've read the New Alpinism, so maybe there's some insight to be had.

You'll want to figure out how far you have to go, about how long you hope for that to take, and how hard the climbing portions will be. That will inform everything else. Inherent in this is also how much you plan to carry, which also impacts your training.

For example, if you're planning the Grand Traverse, will you do it in a day? Two? Three? That will affect how much weight you carry. That will also affect how much time you'll want to spend in zone 1 training.

You need to assess your technical climbing skill (while carrying that weight). Will you float the 5.8 pitches on the north side of the Grand because you regularly onsight 5.12 trad? Or will 5.8 with a pack on be near your limit? What about 3rd and 4th class terrain? Do you trail run ridges all the time and think nothing of sprinting over exposed rock? Or do you stick to well-traveled trails in the trees and would like the security of a rope for exposed moves? What about rope management, technical descents, anchor building? An efficient party might be able to get 2 to 3 roped pitches an hour, but a less experienced party maybe only get 1 pitch an hour. Those add up to dramatically different time-on-route amounts.

I think of "running" as a zone 3 activity and "jogging" as zone 1, give or take. I tend to use my trail running for zone 3 training and reserve my zone 1 training for weighed uphill pack carries. As much as possible in the weeks closing in on the climb, I try to get to altitude to pre-acclimatize a bit and reduce the suffering. I live in the Wasatch, so when prepping for a Tetons climb last year, I went to 11k+ once a week and 9k+ twice a week, which definitely helped.

A decent schedule would be x2 zone 1 pack carries, x2 gym sessions (full-body or climbing-specific as needed), x1 zone 3 trail runs, x1 day in the mountains/climbing, and x1 rest day per week. However, if climbing movement or technical skills need work, you'll probably need to trade some of that time for more time spent on climbing and rope work.

As you progress through the training, increase duration and intensity of pack carries (more vert, heavier weight, or faster pace). Gym sessions vary. I tend to start with base fitness work (there's a decent workout in New Alpinism), then move to more specific strength training (squats, box step ups) with hangboarding and then bouldering, then dump the weights and move to climbing power endurance in the gym and and up pack carries to zone 3 for a couple weeks. Then some rest, then send.

Realistically, the biggest limiting factor will likely be your legs and lungs for those objectives. It can also be useful to do smaller objectives to gauge fitness/systems first. For example, you could climb the Grand, then do the Cathedral Traverse, then the Grand Traverse.

As mentioned, it depends on the style/time you want to do them in, which comes down to training volume to some degree. In a day? Solo?

None of those are "technically" very hard but take good mountain fitness.

You're base of running and climbing sounds reasonable.
You may want to incorporate vertical gain as a key metric, not just miles.
I find a mix of cycling and running to help in mountain endeavors. Cycling works the legs in ways running alone doesn't (imo) unless you're really focused on vert. gain and mountain runs (or hiking).

Have fun! I've been looking to do those exact same 3 traverses but haven't found a partner.

Your current training regimen sounds reasonable to me if you are running hills and are spending a lot of time, or planning to spend a lot of time, at altitude prior to the traverses. Note that I hate gym training.

How much time have you spent on alpine routes and how are you with exposure/choss? From experience, where you can shave off significant time on alpine traverses is efficient route-finding and minimizing rope usage. The three routes you mentioned are more about legs, lungs, and mental endurance than upper body. If your profile is current, you can clearly solo any of these routes (with raps at least for Cirque Traverse) if you're comfortable with exposure/choss.

Thanks for the great feedback! I feel really comfortable in the alpine and love the exposure and choss factor. Biking is a really good idea. I'm thinking of doing some simulation days where I run/hike/bike between easy multipitch climbs and throw in a peak for some elevation to simulate the mileage, elevation gain, and climbing. I'm pretty lucky per location for vertical gain training with an 11,000 foot peak and the grand canyon both within day trip distance.

Have a super experienced partner lined up at least for the cirque traverse whose literally spent years in the Wind Rivers. I've been piecing together a six month traning plan with some smaller objectives mixed in along the way. Really appreciate the advice and feedback!

I found this 6 month training program online, it is pretty good as a guide, you can then tweak it to fit your specific needs for the Traverses.

alpineascents.com/pdf/denal…

All good advice.

Having attempted the Grand Traverse, I will add: Don't underestimate routefinding - It's not always trivial.

buckie06 wrote:I found this 6 month training program online, it is pretty good as a guide, you can then tweak it to fit your specific needs for the Traverses. alpineascents.com/pdf/denal…

mountaineering != alpine rock

fossana wrote: mountaineering != alpine rock

thus why I said to tweak it specific to the traverses, substituting x days a week with rock climbing or something similar.

It is a good guide to build the fitness/endurance needed for these climbs.

I havent done any big alpine traverses but i have done mountaineering routes that require multiple days of moving for many hours. I have done a few different methods of training and found that I got the biggest jump in fitness when I added interval training to my plan.

For me this consisted of my 4 1 hr long weekly cardio sessions with alternating between 1min high speed, high resistance activity (running up hill, biking fast on difficult level) then 1min of cool down (walking or light pedaling) and repeat. My goal was to get my heart rate very high during the work minute and get my heart rate back to a reasonable level during the cool down.

Eventually you will get to a point where you dont need a full minute cool down and you can go all out for more than a minute. Getting to two minutes on, 30 second cool down seemed to have a lot of benefit.

This made a huge difference for me in my pursuits, tailor it to what your goals are.

Man you guys make such a big deal out of stuff. I just go do things. If I am worried about being slow I do them alone.

Jeremy in Inyokern wrote:Man you guys make such a big deal out of stuff. I just go do things. If I am worried about being slow I do them alone.

here in MN we dont have many (any) alpine climbing or mountains, so yeah I can go do some single pitch stuff or go hiking... I need to do the training I mentioned to be ready for a trip.

But hey, Id would love to be able to go climb to get ready for a climb. Man that would be nice.

Go big. Training at low elevation doesn't necessarily equate to success in the mountains, although it will help. Destroy water the day before and don't short yourself on calories. bring caffeine and OxyCodone for a spike. Bring headphones and your best music. Spend as much time at 10000 + as you can. Think thin blood. None of those objectives need to be trained for in excess. Go big, and have fun

Jeremy in Inyokern wrote:Man you guys make such a big deal out of stuff. I just go do things. If I am worried about being slow I do them alone.

Some of us have loftier traverse ambitions than the E Arete of Russell.

fossana wrote:From experience, where you can shave off significant time on alpine traverses is efficient route-finding and minimizing rope usage.

Agreed. Most of your time will be spent on easier terrain, so efficient route-finding and movement on class 2-5.easy is really important. I'd skip the weights, and instead try to do some long class 3-4 scrambles where you're moving at aerobic speed, but using your whole body and thinking about your movements and path. I don't know the Flagstaff area very well (assuming your profile's up-to-date), but you might try to find a scrambly route off-trail up to Elden Lookout. Since I'm guessing your solo grade is already plenty high (5.8-5.9?), you might also replace your multipitch trad time with long, moderate solos that require a sustained effort.

Get a sense for how many vertical ft/hr you can gain, which tends to be surprisingly consistent across terrain. Know what you can solo in trail runners: carrying rock slippers is a pain, running in them is worse, and switching shoes between 5.x and class 2-3 sections will waste lots of time.

BTW, having done bits and pieces of the Grand Traverse, I'd suggest scouting it out, as you can waste a lot of time backtracking on some sections.

Jake wander wrote:I havent done any big alpine traverses but i have done mountaineering routes that require multiple days of moving for many hours. I have done a few different methods of training

Running 100's will definitely get you in good mountaineering shape.

fossana wrote: Some of us have loftier traverse ambitions than the E Arete of Russell.

+100 Haaa!

Typical. Anyway I'm new to mountaineering and just started trail running to stay in shape in the winter months. It's just funny to me that so much obsession gets applied by so many. I am planning a long traverse and like I said if I think it's going too take to long I'll do it alone rather than make all you elites suffer through my sluggish newbness. I just think it's interesting how much obsession a lot of people put into "the best" training method. I mean the "best" anything is always going to be subjective anyway. And BTW I am proud of my car to car of Russell. Just three months prior I was rusting on my couch and had never even considered mountaineering. Climb Safe and all that guys. And have fun insulting people from behind your keyboards.

Jeremy in Inyokern wrote:Typical. Anyway I'm new to mountaineering and just started trail running to stay in shape in the winter months. It's just funny to me that so much obsession gets applied by so many. I am planning a long traverse and like I said if I think it's going too take to long I'll do it alone rather than make all you elites suffer through my sluggish newbness. I just think it's interesting how much obsession a lot of people put into "the best" training method. I mean the "best" anything is always going to be subjective anyway. And BTW I am proud of my car to car of Russell. Just three months prior I was rusting on my couch and had never even considered mountaineering. Climb Safe and all that guys. And have fun insulting people from behind your keyboards.

I think for me getting the training dialed is a safety aspect. The better shape one is in the faster, lighter, and more safely they move. In the mountains this means you can be off before unpredictable weather sets in or that you aren't totally worked for the descent and hike out. Not being worked can contribute to better decision making. Anyway possible to reduce risk in the mountains is without a doubt worth it.

Wyboltf4g wrote:Go big. Training at low elevation doesn't necessarily equate to success in the mountains, although it will help. Destroy water the day before and don't short yourself on calories. bring caffeine and OxyCodone for a spike. Bring headphones and your best music. Spend as much time at 10000 + as you can. Think thin blood. None of those objectives need to be trained for in excess. Go big, and have fun

I like the way you think minus the narcotics and headphones.

Jeremy in Inyokern wrote:Typical. Anyway I'm new to mountaineering and just started trail running to stay in shape in the winter months. It's just funny to me that so much obsession gets applied by so many. I am planning a long traverse and like I said if I think it's going too take to long I'll do it alone rather than make all you elites suffer through my sluggish newbness. I just think it's interesting how much obsession a lot of people put into "the best" training method. I mean the "best" anything is always going to be subjective anyway. And BTW I am proud of my car to car of Russell. Just three months prior I was rusting on my couch and had never even considered mountaineering. Climb Safe and all that guys. And have fun insulting people from behind your keyboards.

As someone NEW to it, you will learn that climbing is a PERSONAL practice, like Yoga, like photography or like shooting hoops by yourself. Do you feel like doing a head stand, today? Do you feel like practicing lay-ups or shooting more 3 pointers? Do you want to take a class where you learn about new tricks to editing photos, do night shoots, or do you simply want to go and shoot sunsets at the beach? Yes or no, either choice is OK. Some like to train hard for alpine climbs, some don't. It is as much of an obsession as any other obsessions out there. You brought the negativity upon yourself by being judgmental in your own response. Hope there is a positive message in my response...

IMO the best training before the traverses, is getting well acclimated and doing actual alpine routes during the month or two prior to your biggest objective. Maybe stack the goals in an order of an ascending difficulty. The hardest being the last. Depends how much time off work do you have. AND REST at least 3 days after doing any of your last cardio before a big climb. Good luck!