Our tips for expedition success and be boiled down to three things: Control what you can control. Take the long view. Work to be in the right place at the right time. We have many years of experience on dozens of expeditions in every major mountain range in the earth. Amongst the Uphill Athlete coaching staff we have over 45 successful Denali ascents, twenty-plus expeditions to 8000m peaks, and many more trips to peaks 7000m and below. This gives us the perspective to be able to offer some tips for expedition success that help you make the most of the…

Our General Strength Training Routine for Mountaineers and Climbers relies on simple to learn, mostly body-weight exercises. The exercise list alternates between upper and lower body movements and is set up to do as a circuit. The need for minimal props means that this routine is highly portable and can be completed almost anywhere. For an in-depth explanation of the role strength training plays for mountain athletes we recommend Strength Training for the Mountain Athlete. Start with Core as your warm-up. Postpartum? Start here. Here is easier our Core Routine Video The more difficult Scott’s Killer Core Routine General Strength Routine…

In the past I’ve trained toward massive, singular goals: summiting Everest, climbing in Antarctica, skiing Cho Oyu. Having a clear goal lets you know exactly where you need to be in terms of fitness, and when you need to get there. A big mountain on the horizon is a strong motivator.Then in 2017, not long after Everest, I joined Uber as Chief Business Officer, Asia Pacific. One year later, my role expanded to CBO for all of the company’s international operations. That means moving people around cities in 60-plus countries. I became so busy developing new teams and markets around…

A hundred years ago my great-grandfather walked out on my great-grandmother, leaving her with two young children to raise, Jack and Twila. Seventy-five years ago, Jack’s young wife died of cancer, leaving him alone with a 6-month-old son, Don. Don is my father. I was raised by two loving parents and I never thought about loss. Until recently. Loss, both tragic and routine, is something I left largely unexamined until a massive climbing fall in 2010. The resulting life-threatening injuries plunged me into a cold bath of self-examination and upheaval. Changes came rapidly: I stepped back from extreme alpinism, began…

Little did we three authors of Training for the Uphill Athlete anticipate the resulting uptick in interest in individual blood lactate testing. Since the book was published, we’ve fielded numerous inquiries from gym owners, coaches, and athletes about this testing protocol, which is especially helpful for determining Aerobic Threshold (AeT). Apparently there is a dearth of information out there, and we’re glad to have ignited some enthusiasm. This article provides a deep dive into how to conduct your own blood lactate test and analyze the results without having to go to a lab. Read on for the pros and cons…

TRAINING PLANS Build your ice and mixed climbing strength for epic mountain days. Prepare for your best ice season. This plan is ideal for beginner through advanced-intermediate climbers preparing for the winter climbing season. Climbers looking to start leading grade 4 and harder ice will realize a big boost in confidence that comes with increased ice-climbing-specific strength, especially in the forearms, shoulders, and calves.This is a strength-focused eight-week program and assumes that the climber has some basic fitness, including the ability to hang from two ice tools for a minimum of 10 seconds and complete 0-3 unassisted pull-ups on ice…

Climbing onsight, meaning leading a pitch or route with no prior knowledge of the details about protection or movements, is de rigueur in alpinism, where you start at the bottom of the mountain and climb to the top and, typically, descend another way. So if you want to climb difficult alpine rock routes, you’d better be good at climbing onsight. Here I provide some onsight climbing tips that will help you hone this essential skill. Adding an intelligently built training plan that includes tools like ARCing, Climbing Marathons, and power and power-endurance training techniques is the best way to progress your onsight climbing…

#AlpinePrinciples Debriefing a complicated climbing day can be one of the best ways to learn and strengthen your climbing partnerships. This is something I adopted from the guide-training process I went through back in the 1990s. At Alpine Mentors, we debriefed every day of climbing, and all came away with a feeling that this process was the most valuable part of the Alpine Mentors experience—the place where the real learning happened. Here are two tools to help you, first a video and then a printable checklist so you and your partners can conduct your own debriefs. Here is the video,…

Bouldering 4×4 drills have been around for a long time. But what are they and when should you do them? I first heard about 4x4s one of the first times I ever entered a bouldering gym. It was the mid-1990s in Salt Lake City and I was with Kim Csizmazia and early sport climbing pioneer Chris Grover. I was in town to climb Wasatch ice and all I remember is sweating a lot and falling off most of the crimpy-feeling holds. Not a great start to my relationship with this valuable tool. 4x4s: A Tool for Power-Endurance Bouldering 4×4 drills,…

In the Alpine Principles video series, one of the most popular videos to date has been "Pay Attention." It covers a lot of important topics in a short time: speed, efficiency, random chances, situational awareness, partner communications, staying attached, and the risks of "easy" climbing. I’d like to take the opportunity here to flesh these out and dive deeper into the meaning of each concept. But first, the video: Speed and Efficiency Speed and efficiency are terms that are thrown around a lot in climbing. And it’s amazing how much variation there is in what people consider "fast." Let’s look…