Lots of climbers who want to improve tend to say, “I’m gonna go to the climbing gym two times a week for the next six months.” That’s a pretty good idea. It’s certainly not a bad idea. If nothing else it will be fun. That said, simply climbing in an uncontrolled and unmeasured way, without a specific training strategy, will not typically yield great results or improvement. If progress is your goal, then you need to be intentional about how you train, and you also need to be careful not to mix up, or condense, skill and strength training into…
Author: Steve House
The most time- and energy-efficient training tool for building climbing-specific grip strength is a hangboard. If you don’t have one at home, I’m sure your climbing gym has several. I own two boards, both from Metolius: the newer Contact Training Board, which I love for the huge variety of incrementally smaller-size grips, and the longtime standard, their Simulator 3D, which has somewhat easier grips. Read more: Training for Rock Climbing Hangboard Training Routine This little hangboard routine is one I made for myself for those times I first begin to think about rock climbing, usually sometime in March and again…
BUY NOW FOR $59 I wrote this program with myself and several friends in mind. The typical goal for this plan is a long summer alpine rock route in the Mont Blanc Massif, Bugaboos, North Cascades, or Sierra. In each of these places long approaches are commonly followed by demanding rock climbs. This would also be an excellent plan for a climber bound for Argentine Patagonia.This rock-alpinist training plan is designed for the already fit and functional climber that wants to achieve peak fitness for a specific alpine rock climbing objective. If you have not engaged in recent training, you…
BUY NOW FOR $89 This plan is ideal for ANY big technical alpine climbing route. I originally conceived of and designed this training plan for a climber prepping for a 1-day ascent of the 1938 Route on the Eiger’s North Face. It would work very well for any big technical alpine climb from the Moonflower Buttress (aka Bibler-Klewin Route) to the Walker Spur to the 4,500m-long Intégrale de Peuterey on Mont Blanc.The plan includes a bonus 1-week maintenance plan that can be repeated up to four weeks while you’re waiting for your objective to come into condition. It also includes…