CONNECT | Uphill Athlete

SUBSCRIBE TO THE UPHILL ATHLETE NEWSLETTER

0 Shopping Cart

CONNECT

ASK QUESTIONS, LISTEN, SHARE YOUR STORY

the Uphill Athlete forum

Search our extensive forum archive - or ask a question of your own.

Athlete Stories

View All

Athlete Stories

“Girls Don’t Do That”

Athlete Stories

“I Really Wish This Was Longer”

Athlete Stories

140 Miles in Four Days through Bears Ears National Monument

Athlete Stories

55 Miles at 56 Years Old: Running the Mount Baker Marathon

Athlete Stories

A Himalayan Odyssey

Do you have a story? Share it with us and get published here on uphill athlete.

SHOP
UPHILL
ATHLETE
APPAREL

Rep the community

JOIN UPHILL ATHLETE ON SOCIAL

Winter is coming – and now is the best time to put

Winter is coming - and now is the best time to put the final touches on your ski training. If you’re looking to take your skiing to a new level, check out Uphill Athlete’s 12-week Freeride Training Plan. Designed by professional backcountry skiers using scientifically supported methods, this plan both expands your aerobic capacity for the long uphill hours, and builds up muscular endurance in the specific spots that skiers need it most. If you’re ready to grow your skills for backcountry skiing or ski mountaineering, this is the plan to use, and the time to use it. Learn more here: https://bit.ly/3XTMhNt or check the link in our bio.

#UphillAthlete #UphillAthletes #trainingplan #freeride #skiing #outdoorextreme #exploretheworld #coaching #alpinism #alpinismo #mountains #strengthtraining #ski #snowboarding #snow #winter

Ruchika Singhal, a biomedical engineer and jet-set

Ruchika Singhal, a biomedical engineer and jet-setting executive, had an on-again-off-again relationship with mountain climbing due to the demands of her job as president of Medtronic LABS. After announcing her intent to climb an 8,000-meter mountain and connecting with Uphill Athlete, she got a customized training plan that let her develop the strength and skills she’d need even when all she had to work with was a tiny hotel gym. In April of 2022, she finally got the chance to follow her dream of climbing Everest as high as she could, 20 years after getting into climbing as a hobby.

Traveling with an expedition group and her climbing partner, Pemba Sherpa, Singhal ran into an early bout of altitude sickness at Base Camp (17,600 feet). She felt discouraged, and her fellow climbers were acclimating much faster than her - she needed a whole week to start feeling better. However, once she started feeling better, Singhal found that the rest of the climb was shockingly easy for her. “There wasn’t a single day that I was sore, and my speed was really good. I could keep going for the hours you needed to keep going,” she recalled.

The Khumbu Icefall, which is situated on the way from Everest Base Camp to Camp 1, was Singhal’s first goal for the climb, and marked the point where she originally felt she’d be satisfied with the trip even if she could go no higher. She completed that climb to Camp 1 in only 8 hours, the average for climbers targeting the summit of Everest - for comparison, Uphill Athlete had recommended Singhal try for Camp 3. Making the same time as an advanced climber didn’t immediately sink in for Singhal, but the trek to Camp 2 (21,500 feet) went just as well, and that’s where she realized just how far she’d come.

(1/2)

Ruchika Singhal announced at her 40th birthday cel

Ruchika Singhal announced at her 40th birthday celebration that she intended to climb an 8,000-meter peak to accomplish a dream she’d always held on to. Since joining Medtronic in 2001, Singhal has ascended to the role of president of Medtronic LABS, a non-profit branch that expands healthcare access for low-income communities globally. She describes it as a classic jet-setting lifestyle, flying around the world for weeks at a time, and being able to spend as little as a week per month at her home in Colorado.

For all her climbing on the corporate ladder, however, Singhal didn’t have much time to climb mountains. She lived in Colorado, so she had access to plenty of skiing, hiking, and rock climbing. She could take an occasional climbing trip to Ouray or Ecuador, but the life of a jet-setting executive meant she couldn’t keep a regular training schedule. Nevertheless, when Singhal expressed interest in climbing an 8,000-meter mountain, a guide encouraged her to reach out to Uphill Athlete.

With the help of her Uphill Athlete coaches, Singhal was able to put together a training plan that took into account the fact that she couldn’t guarantee access to gym equipment or a regular schedule. “One of the most amazing things about Uphill Athlete has been that despite my insane travel schedule, they’ve been able to adapt training so that I could make it work within that,” says Singhal. “With the jet lag and the time zones and whatever I have access to in terms of hotel gyms, they somehow make it work.”

Uphill Athlete’s training is all about incrementally increasing strength and endurance, and we were with Singhal every step of the way to measure progress and customize the plan for her specific needs. Before her Everest trip, Singhal tried several smaller climbs in Wyoming, Montana, Washington State, and Chamonix to test her own abilities, and saw a huge increase in her performance with no soreness or exhaustion, even after several days of climbing.

(1/2)

Ruchika Singhal grew up being told that athletics

Ruchika Singhal grew up being told that athletics were not for women. Born and raised in Delhi, India, her family held old-fashioned views about gender roles. Even after moving to the United States to study biomedical engineering and business, she only occasionally played a game of basketball or took a walk to stay active.

Something changed for Singhal upon finishing graduate school. She got a job with Medtronic in 2001, working at the company’s Minneapolis, Minnesota headquarters (a big change for someone who had never seen snow before she was 17). Being a fully independent adult gave her a chance to rekindle a lifelong fascination with mountains - she’d been on a few trips to the Himalayan foothills with her family, but had never gotten close to the actual mountains. She decided to try climbing, and organized a trip to Mt. Rainier with some friends.

Singhal started taking a rock climbing course with a local gear shop and practiced hiking by climbing the steps of Minneapolis’ 57-story IDT Center skyscraper, as Minnesota does not have much in the way of mountain climbing.

Singhal described her first attempt at Rainier in 2002 as “a disaster.” With no altitude training or experience with actual alpine conditions, she still made it to 12,000 feet of Rainier’s 14,411 before being overwhelmed. “I had no idea how much training you should have,” she says. “I had never worn crampons before. It was all the things you do wrong.” Five years later, Singhal made another attempt on a guided course to finally summit Rainier, and moved to Colorado in 2008, which had both a Medtronic campus and an environment more conducive to her ongoing training. Unfortunately, her work kept her very busy, preventing her from committing to a structured training schedule or setting any major climbing goals.

To read more about Ruchika’s story, check the link in our bio.

.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.

#UphillAthlete #UphillAthletes #AthleteStory #womeninmountaineering #femaleathlete #colorado #altitudetraining #climbing #mountrainier #mountaingoals #alpinism #alpinismo #climbing #iceclimbing #outdoorextreme #exploretheworld #mountaineering #mountaintraining #coaching #everest #chamonix #India

Load More Follow on Instagram

KEEPING UPHILL ATHLETE RUNNING

Talk to a coach

Phone consults starting at $60 for 30min

Schedule a coach call

Talk to a nutrition expert

Phone Consult with High Performance Dietitian Rebecca Dent starting at $60 for 30min

Schedule a call