Welcome to Uphill Athlete. Our website serves as a platform for us to share our training knowledge and insight in the sports of alpinism, mountaineering, climbing, mountain running, ski mountaineering, skimo racing, and more. If this is your first time to the site, you may benefit from this quick breakdown on navigating Uphill Athlete (UA) and getting the most out of your subsequent training.
What’s on Our Website?
We have all the resources to help you achieve your goals. Whether you are looking for free training advice, searching for a specific question, or want to take your training to the next level, we have you covered. Here’s a breakdown of our site content categories and quick links to get you started.
Homepage
A roundup of our latest and most popular articles broken down by category and sport. Always a great place to start, especially if you haven’t visited the site in some time.
Resources
This is a collection of all our training articles. Resources includes everything you could ever need to get started and continue your training. We break the articles down by sport, training practice, training theory, athlete stories, videos, and FAQs.
- Climbing (Rock, Ice, and Alpinism)
- Mountain Running
- Mountaineering
- Skiing (Ski touring, Ski Mountaineering, and SkiMo Racing)
- Tactical Athletes (Currently under development)
- Athlete Stories: Stories, success, and insights from mountains
- Videos: How-to, seminars, principles, free workouts, and more
- Frequently Asked Questions
Forums
Moderated by our coaching team, our public forums give you the opportunity to network with other athletes (pro and recreational) and ask specific questions. Head to our general forums page to browse, or click on one of the following narrowed-in topics to get started.
- Your Athlete Stories
- Alpinism
- Climbing
- General Training Discussion
- The Female Uphill Athlete
- Injury
- Mountaineering
- Mountain Running
- Nutrition
- Skimo Racing
- Ski Mountaineering
- Login – create an account and start posting your own questions.
Training Plans
Our training plans are written and developed by the professional coaches at Uphill Athlete to maximize training potential and allow the user to succeed in the mountain sport they love. Purchase once, use forever!
- Alpinism
- Mountaineering
- Rock Climbing
- Ice & Mixed Climbing
- Skiing / Freeride
- Skimo Racing
- Mountain Running
- Tactical
- Custom 8-Week Training Plan
Custom Coaching, Nutrition Plan, and Phone Consultations
Our custom coaching options range from 30-minute consultations to intensive daily coaching with feedback on every workout. No matter your goals, we have the perfect coaching solution just for you.
About Us
We have the best team in place at Uphill Athlete, from co-founders Scott Johnston and Steve House to all our coaches, dietitians, and writers.
Shop
From Uphill Athlete merchandise to the book that started it all. Uphill Athletes the world over are passionate about the proven training knowledge our books and website share and are eager to be a part of the brand.
Search
Still can’t find what you are looking for on our website? In the upper right-hand corner is a search box. Simply type in your keywords to browse our relevant articles.
A Bit of Uphill Athlete History
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.