Uphill Athlete is an organic outgrowth of our first book, Training for the New Alpinism. Published by Patagonia Books in 2014 and written by co-authors and close friends Steve House and Scott Johnston, this best-selling book changed the conversation on how alpinists and mountaineers approach their preparation. Scott coached Steve through the most successful years of his world-record climbs from 2000 to 2010, during which time Steve was described by none other than Reinhold Messner as “the best high-altitude climber in the world today.”

When Steve and Scott wrote their first book, they honestly expected they’d be lucky to sell 1,000 copies. After all, virtually no one trained to climb mountains at that point. Instead the book has sold over 60,000 copies and garnered nearly 200 5-star reviews on Amazon. The response has been overwhelming and UA scrambled to keep up with the demand.

UphillAthlete.com was launched in November 2015, and as of November 2019 UA has posted a new article each week, putting us north of 250 free articles. This doesn’t include the thousands of forum posts (to share, ask questions, and learn from), training plans, Custom Training Plans, or our popular daily coaching service. We’ve tried to make as much information accessible to as many folks as we can and offer something for every budget.

In 2015 Kilian Jornet approached us with the idea of co-writing a new book that would address the specific needs of mountain runners and skiers. Kilian, often considered the greatest mountain endurance athlete of all time, saw a need to be filled for non-climbers who might not be able to get past the “Alpinism” in the title of our first book. From this collaboration was born the even more successful Training for the Uphill Athlete, published in 2019 by Patagonia Books.

Our website is a natural extension of our books and the place where we can share all our training knowledge, even what didn’t fit in a book. Read, learn, and get training.