Kilian Jornet talks to Steve House about his childhood. His father, a mountain guide, introduced him to the mountains at a very early age. By the age of 3, he was doing ski ascents and descents of nearby mountains, and by the time he was 5 years old he was climbing 3,000-meter (12,000-foot) peaks with an ice axe and crampons.
Author: Uphill Athlete
I’ve been doing sport for as long as I can remember, mainly mountain sports like rock, ice, and alpine climbing. For the past 20 years, I’ve been going mountaineering all over the world—from the Alps, where I grew up, to the 8,000-meter peaks of the Himalaya where my focus as a professional athlete is right now. I’m also a Union Internationale des Associations d’Alpinisme (UIAA) mountain guide, and when I am not on an expedition, I regularly work with clients climbing in the Alps and beyond. I was especially frustrated by my lack of ability to gain more endurance and…
Bill Allen’s guiding career stretches across 20 years, and he’s climbed the Seven Summits twice over. Uphill Athlete coaching for both him and his clientele led to back-to-back successes on Everest and Denali in 2016. Most climbers are quick to highlight their own personal goals and achievements. But in chatting with mountain guide Bill Allen, co-owner of MountainTrip, about his recent forays into the mountains, I immediately noticed his remarkable care for others’ goals: in this case, helping his clients reach tall and difficult summits. On how he got involved with Uphill Athlete, he says, “I was searching for a…
Abe T. is a 43-year-old doctor who spent a decade and a half working 80-to-100-hour weeks, only taking five days off some years. He’s now lost over 50 pounds and returned to a life of climbing.In his early 20s, Abe T. had much in common with motivated young alpinists: he’d climbed the Grand Teton, Mount Stuart, Pingora, Mount Rainier, and others. His imagination was caught up in stories of fast and light Himalayan expeditions by the likes of Doug Scott and Alex MacIntyre. He wanted to climb in the greater ranges one day.Then Abe started medical school. He thought life…
The MAF method, short for Maximum Aerobic Function, is a third option for determining Aerobic Threshold (AeT). It’s quick, easy, and we promise that you won’t break a sweat! This is a method that we recommend for those who have never engaged in organized aerobic training. It uses a simple formula that Dr. Phil Maffetone developed over 30 years ago. The MAF method gives a conservative estimation of an individual’s AeT. With this method, your aerobic base training will be most effective if you use the resulting number as the top heart rate for Zone 2. The calculation is simple:…
You know what endurance is, right? It is the ability to maintain a high rate of work output for long durations, or some variation on that definition. But what enables endurance? Stated another way: What is it that powers the muscle contractions that propel you for hours of a climb or race? The answer can be stated in three letters: ATP.The molecule ATP provides the energy for movement and is the product of metabolic processes in the muscles. Training for endurance is simply an organized method to enhance your metabolism, or, in other words, to increase your muscles’ rate of…
This at-home Anaerobic Threshold test will help you determine your Anaerobic Threshold (AnT) heart rate, which will be useful when it comes to controlling and monitoring your training. You should perform it at least three days after any hard efforts. It can be done either on a steep treadmill (15 percent), a steep uphill, or, if you are a well-trained runner, you can do it on the flats. The test portion (excluding warm-up) will take at least 30 minutes and up to 60 minutes. You will need a recording heart rate monitor. This test requires maximal output so you need…
Pinpointing your Aerobic Threshold (AeT) heart rate is the first step in setting up your training intensity zones. These zones will help direct your training to ensure the development of a strong aerobic base. While the gold standard for measuring it would be a laboratory test, the following Aerobic Threshold outdoor test works well for most (around 70 percent of) people when it comes to determining a baseline for aerobic training. If you have access to a treadmill, consider doing an indoor variation of this test: Read the eight-step instructions for determining your AeT on a treadmill.You’ll want to do…
Determining your Aerobic Threshold (AeT) heart rate is the first step in setting up your training intensity zones. These zones will help direct your training to ensure the development of a strong aerobic base. While the gold standard for measuring it would be a laboratory test, the following Aerobic Threshold treadmill test works well most of the time to determine a baseline for aerobic training. If you do not have access to a treadmill, we have also developed a DIY outdoor test. Note that treadmills allow for more control. You’ll want to do the following AeT test in a fasted…
We rely heavily on something we call Scott’s Killer Core Routine, as detailed in Training for the New Alpinism. This is a progression Scott Johnston developed and fine-tuned over 25 years of training world-class cross-country skiers. Many of his athletes competed at the Olympic and World Cup level, so we’re confident in the efficacy of this program for endurance athletes. We’ve modified his time-tested routine here for ski mountaineering and skimo racing. Ski Mountaineering Core Training: How to Do Scott’s Killer Core Routine 1. To learn the exercises, start with one time through the circuit per workout. 2. Do the…