Sport Training

This section is focused for young 10 – 30 year old, sporty boys and girls, who want to become a professional Himalaya or Alpine mountaineer.

If you want to become an Alpinist

If you are young, sporty boy or girl, and you want to learn mountaineering and become to a professional Himalaya or Alpine climber, try to learn a comprehensive understanding, what I am doing. Read the Sport Training section of the mountaineering website, pick your climbing and running shoes, pack both of them, bananas and protein shakes, in your training bag, and go to training, twice in every day, 15 – 20 years. Learn different skills for mountains, develop a remote business, and move to the Alps. That’s the concept.

The best background for Himalaya climbing is cross-country skiing or rando skiing and living in the arctic area. If you have a some other endurance sport background like running, cycling, football or special forces, it’s okay. When you are 20 years old, you should develop your winter survival skills in your own adventures and treks, get a good power level and climbing skills. In Himalayas you have to carry 20 kg climbing gears along uphills and downhills, 10 hours every second day or night. In Alps you should get a lot of uphill training and three vertical kilometres per week around year by foot or skies. And you should get experiences in Winter Storms and ice climbing with 20 kg backpack.

If you want to start Alpine climbing, the best background is climbing. Rather many kind of bouldering and sport climbing than trad. You should get first climbing technique, and then trad and rope skills. When you climb sport, always lead. Sometimes climb up and down 500 – 1000 m in four hours. If you have some other sport backround it’s not too late. If you have done gym, or what ever sport, start to climb boulders and run, 10 – 12 times per week. When you are 20 years old, you should move to the Alps, and start to learn how mountains works. Glaciers are like rivers, snow slopes sleeps in nights and move in days. Weather can change in 15 minutes. In the mountains you learn how to move fast and safe in steep terrain. You learn rope skills and rope strategy on multipitch. You learn how to climb different kind of rock, trad, crack, dry tooling, ice and mix. Be carefully with avalanches. Skiing is more dangerous than climbing.

And young boys (20 – 30 years), you have to learn, mountains are like women and mountaineering is like a complex game. You have to learn when it’s time to go, and when is time to wait. Remember to keep a touch. If you live at home, visit at gym, play video games and eat pizza, and once in year you go to in the mountains, you don’t have a touch. If you have only one week in a year, and you have to go, and it’s game over.

Training for the Highest Summit without oxygen

If you want to climb one of the highest mountains (over 8500 m), you need an excellent endurance (70 ml/kg/min), good power level (10x 120 % of your body weigth), excellent arctic survival skills, and basic climbing skills (6a, WI 5).

70 % of training should be endurance training, 15 % power training and 15 % climbing training, rock and ice.

(I continue this section later.)

Winter Survival Skills

Survival skills training is more experience what to do in different situations, quickly. The just right decisions in the middle of the storm and freezing mountain weather. Knowledge to pick the right gears and clothes before mountain adventure. Less gears is more speed, but in cold weather you should keep yourself warm. One of the most important arctic skill is learn your boundaries. Where is your survival edge. How long you can ski until you have to turn back. When you are training your survival limit, you can push it time after time forward. And you learn, how much you need energy, warm water, clothes and time before dark. If you have a good shape, you can move faster, and it warms your body. You notice, you don’t need so much clothes. And if you move faster, you can push your survival limit. If you have understanding about environment, you know what to pick with you, and you can push your survival limit. Always remember keep some safe marginal. If you become better, your safe marginal is smaller.

Training for the North Faces

In Alps the terrain is usually steeper than in Himalayas. The biggest challenge of climbing in Alps is to climb difficult routes. You need excellent rock and ice climbing skills, you have to move fast in mountains in steep terrain, you need basic winter survival skills and good power level.

70 % of training should be climbing, 10 % power training and 20 % endurance training.

(I continue this section later.)