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New to Mountaineering
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Greetings! I did some climbing for a while before injury set me out for a while. I am getting into mountaineering, looking to train in the Catskills, ADK, Whites/Maine in that order. Is there any recommendations for the best way to get into it? Recs for: training-schools-guides-literature etc. would be appreciated. I understand the dangers, so we can skip that part, that is why I am asking and using a structured training approach. Thanks! |
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I’m following a similar path. Been climbing for about 2.5 years. Broke my collarbone in April and finally got back to climbing in July. Started getting serious about my fitness and health. My best suggestion for starting to train would be to start a simple, daily calisthenics program and pepper in some cardio every other day or so. Greens and whole grains, chicken if you need protein. If you gotta drink, 1 tall boy of voodoo ranger in the evening. If you partake in marijuaunas I would suggest you switch to edibles, cause smoke is still smoke and can affect lung capacities. Get out as often as you can, the hills are calling and you need to listen. Hang out in your house in underwear with only your climbing harness on and practice rope skills / knots / et cetera. Watch docs, read books, articles on anything mountain related. pick up a copy of: Mountaineering: Freedom of the Hills (lots of good underwear clad research) |
Pagan GOBLINwrote: Excellent advice for general health, but my god, if you eliminated every alpine climber who doesn't adhere to these rules there might only be like 3 left (Colin Haley being one of them, which is worth noting), and I'm not sure any demographic of climbers consumes more cigarettes than alpinists. But anyway - Sean, when you say mountaineering, what are you imagining? What are your dreams and goals? Being fit, spending as much time as you possibly can in the mountains in any capacity (gotta develop that sixth sense, comfort level with remote places, and learn how to make decisions), and reading Freedom of the Hills are the traditional ways to start. |
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Well I’ll rip a jay before I go up, kind of odd not to. Do as I say, not as I do. |
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Mountaineering is basically getting yourself to the top of mountains using your own power. So do that, starting with trail hiking in the summer. Then move into steeper terrain and/or climb mountains in the other seasons (Fall, Winter, Spring). Also, find mentors, join a climbing club, or take a class. |
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Slight hijacking here to avoid starting a new thread…in the same boat as OP except on the west coast.
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To get started, I would say read training for the new alpinism and mountaineering: freedom of the hills. The terrain you are talking about isn’t all that technical. It’s hiking and maybe some moderate ice pitches. No glacier travel or super exposed ridge traverses, so a bit easier to get started and see if it’s your thing. |
DJ Jazzy Jeffwrote: This one: https://uphillathlete.com/product/training-for-the-new-alpinism-book/ Preview: https://www.google.com/books/edition/Training_for_the_New_Alpinism/WGHoBAAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1 |
Ryan Cwrote: In the context of what I wrote, it means reaching an adequate level of physical and mental preparation for whatever your goals and objectives are. So, I'd pose the same question to you that I did to Sean: what are your goals? What do you want to accomplish in mountaineering? Take Mt Rainier's Disappointment Cleaver for example: big route on a big mountain but also commonly done by guided parties without much additional mountain experience. It's about 14 miles round trip with 9000 feet of elevation gain. Most people will split it up into 2-3 days, making the biggest day about 7 miles and 4200 ft gain RT. If this is your goal, you should be able to do some hikes that match or exceed those numbers, ideally 2-3 days in a row. This is a gross oversimplification, but hopefully you get the idea? There isn't really a one size fits all answer for what being fit means. "Easy" mountaineering routes are pretty subjective. You could argue that hiking a trail to the top of a local hill is an intro to mountaineering and you'd be right. A lot of folks will probably have different definitions of when "hiking" becomes "mountaineering". Start by finding some mountains that inspire you, and then figure out what you need to do to get there. |
Ryan Cwrote: Other have the long answer for what “fit” is, but the short one is being able to move with weight up slopes too steep for trails for hours on end with less O2 than you want and not stop. It is actually a little difficult to measure outside of trying for real because there isn’t often anywhere else to put 25-40lbs on your back, and extra couple of pounds on your feet, and go up 20-45deg slopes for a thousands of feet. I consider myself a moderately fit weekend warrior and this year I XC skied 160km in back-to-back days, finished a 50k trail race about mid pack, and still was surprised how cooked I felt at 13500 on Shasta (still summited and had a great ski on the west face). So my recommendation is to do as much as you can (running and weighted uphill) to prepare but don’t wait for some front country fitness target before trying. Go and try and fail and learn. Just stay within your retreat safety margins. |
Ryan Cwrote: I've seen one guide service from CA use the Harvard Step Test to try and quantify what kind of fitness you need to take on different objectives, but I forget which service. A quick Google search can give you the details of the test and guidance about how to interpret the results. I would also imagine the New Alpinist/Uphill Athlete books help tie different quantifiable metrics of fitness to the demands of different objectives. |
