Author: Uphill Athlete

How Satish Gogineni climbed Everest and Lhotse in a 96-hour push It’s impossible to know you’ll climb a mountain like Everest (8,849 meters) before you actually do so—there are so many variables, like weather, the condition of the route, your health and response to the altitude, and objective hazards like serac falls and avalanches. But as he acclimated on the hike in to Everest Basecamp in spring 2022, Satish Gogineni, a vice president at Bank of America, felt optimistic. A diehard runner since 2007 who has raced in 14 major marathons and two 50 K races as well as a…

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In this episode Scott Johnston welcomes his long-time friend and fellow sexagenarian climber Jim Nelson. Jim and Scott discuss Jim’s latest guide book. Classic Cascade Climbs. Jim, with co authors Tom Sjolseth and David Whitelaw have just published a follow up to his 2 previous Selected Climbs books. This one; Classic Cascade Climbs, published by The Mountaineers Books is sure to fire the imagination of even the most seasoned climber. While giving plenty of relevant beta for the climbs the killer photos are going to make you want to leave this book on your coffee table as inspiration. Listen on Apple…

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How the retired physician Jonathan Sugarman made it to Camp 3 on Everest despite a pre-trip forced layoff. Note: We recently received word that Dr Jonathan Sugarman died on Monday while attempting to climb Mount Everest with a Washington-state guiding service. While we were not working with Jonathan for the past year we previously had worked with him for 3 years. We knew him as a good, earnest guy. He was humble and he really cared about the Sherpa people. He also had a whimsical side. He brought a plastic trumpet to basecamp to practice! In Jonathan’s memory please remember…

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In this episode, Scott Johnston is joined by David Goettler. David is a member of the North Face Athlete Team, a professional mountain guide, and an accomplished alpinist. Fresh off of Everest after his successful summit without the use of supplemental oxygen, the duo discuss David’s physical and mental preparation, embracing suffering, use of intermittent hypoxic training for preparation, and David’s new approach for acclimatization this year that was a major factor in his success. Listen on Apple Listen on Spotify Listen on Google More Episodes View All Tragedy on the Haute Route: A Conversation with Steve House Training for…

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The aim of this article is to describe the preparation, training, and experiences I had while preparing for and racing backcountry ski mountaineering efforts on Mount Tallac, Shasta, and Hood during the 2021-2022 season. There are also passing references to me running Mount Shasta for time (4/1/22).  I conducted all high intensity training for these efforts on a stairmaster or incline treadmill, a link to my workouts is at the bottom. Training This winter, my training was primarily focused on preparation for mountainous 100 mile efforts during summer 2022. I wanted to have an off season and intentionally placed ski…

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In the episode, Scott Johnston talks with Damon Tedford who recently returned from successful climbs of both Mt Everest and Lhotse.  While Damon and Scott have been in sporadic communication over the past couple of years using our phone consultation service he has been completely self-coached, using first our book Training for the New Alpinism to create his own training plan for the first couple of training cycles.  For this final training build up prior to the Everest-Lhotse trip he bought and used our 24 week expeditionary mountaineering plan and slightly modified it because we consider those plans to be…

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A Race Report from the 2022 Tahoe 200The 200-miler is the most exciting discipline in mountain running. The distance is alluring because it requires the endurance and strength demanded by an ultra-marathon and the problem-solving required on a multi-day fastpacking expedition. The discipline is a puzzle. Each race presents a challenge that, once overcome, allows some pieces to fall into place while never quite revealing the full picture. For me, tackling this puzzle amidst a 60-hour work week as a leader at a start-up and among all of life’s chaos and entropy has been a challenge and a privilege, as…

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How the jet-setting biomedical engineer Ruchika Singhal made it to 7,000 meters on Mount Everest Growing up in a conservative middle-class family in Delhi, India, Ruchika Singhal never had much exposure to sports. Beyond a walk around the neighborhood, athletics were simply something women didn’t do. During her undergraduate and graduate years of study in the United States, little changed; Singhal would play the occasional game of basketball, but never pursued exercise seriously. The basic concept of sports was, “I like this from a distance, but I don’t do this,” she says.Then Singhal decided to climb mountains.A biomedical engineer by…

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2qXUxlTk0IMClimbing the Slovak Direct was a pivotal experience in my climbing career. So it was really fun to be able to reflect upon it 22 years after the climb, and help those that have climbed it in a new record time appreciate and celebrate their own experience. Step by step, swing by swing, climbing’s deepest experiences are not about climbing, but about understanding our fears, our loves, our courage, and who we are as humans in this rich tapestry of experiences. -Steve House

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What is HRV? Heart Rate Variability (HRV) is technology that claims to score our HRV and predict how long we need to recover from a given workout and when we’re ready to train again. Whether it’s an app or a program built into a watch, it is wonderful to think that one metric is all we need. But inaccurate recommendations, especially false positives, mean that this technology must be treated with deep skepticism.For more on the purpose of monitoring HRV, and how to measure it accurately, in our comprehensive article.We also have an updated article to share how our coaches…

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