Training

Everest Training Part 1: Deer Hunting and the Roofing Business

A big part of mountain climbing is mental toughness. Exposure to bitter cold, long days confined in a tent, trudging along with a heavy pack on… these conditions demand an abundance of determination, perseverance, and fortitude. You need to be tough. Not like the toughest kid on the playground tough… but rather mental toughness.

Without realizing it, my Everest training in this area actually started while growing up in northeastern Pennsylvania. My father and I would go deer hunting: the first morning you’d head out into the woods while it was still dark and mighty cold, take position at your stand, and then sit there, motionless, for hours on end. If you sneezed, itched, even ate a candy bar, your sounds and movements might scare aware a deer, thereby interfering with your primary purpose. You had to be mentally tough and suck it up. When facing the harsh conditions on the mountainside, you also need to roll with it. There’s no running back to a warm living room… you’re kind of stuck out there… and you better have the ability to find some inner strength to deal with the demanding environment.

More training took place early on via my dad’s construction business. Part of his operation involved roofing and unlike some construction crews, his team did not take the winter season off. I recall one job in particular we were doing on a January weekend. It was downtown, near our local bank. The bank had one of those early electronic thermometers… it read minus 20 F. As a teenage boy, it sure seemed cold… but the guys in my hometown area were pretty hardy… there was a job to do, there was no sense dragging it out… everyone just worked away as if it were forty degrees warmer.

These early experiences somehow make their way into your DNA, your make-up I think. Whereas I enjoy a warm November in Atlanta, I can also pretty easily switch gears, thanks to these experiences, and be ‘ok’ in some bitter, arctic like environments. I’m hopeful this ability improves my odds on Mount Everest in 2008.

Everest Training Part 2: Quikrete is Hard to Beat

In Everest training part one I shared an idea of how one’s head needs to be together. Here in part two the focus is the body. One of the best ways to train is to get out in the mountains and climb. Nothing fancy here… training climbs are good preparation for the actual climb. There’s a problem though for people living in many parts of the country… Atlanta is one such area. Basically, the area is flat. There’s plenty of rolling hills which is fine for running… in terms of meaningful elevation gain though, we have jack here. Driving north is an option, though this isn’t practical on a very frequent basis. So, people like me find the best little nearby mound they have… and go up and down a lot of times. My mound is Stone Mountain, and in fact is a pretty beautiful place. The park is right outside of Atlanta and the Mountain is actually the world's largest exposed granite monolith; the Stone Mountain team really does a super job keeping the park looking great. There’s also a good bit of cultural diversity there, so all in all, it’s a nice training ground.

The gain on Stone Mountain is about 630 vertical feet; in contrast, many expeditions will see climbers gaining 3000 vertical feet / day. This is where the up and down part comes in. Also, in the mountains, you are carrying a pack. Some mountains involve Sherpa (or porter) support, some don’t. Either case, you should be pretty comfortable carrying 40-50lbs for long periods of time at high altitude. As air is thin at altitude, the training in oxygen thick environments like Atlanta should be more demanding to compensate. With that logic in mind, I’m currently training on Stone Mountain w/ a pack weighing 102lbs. It’s heavy, particularly as I’m not a huge guy (I weigh roughly 170lbs). So, finally we get to our friend Quikrete. This fine product yields great weight per volume it takes up. I simply add a sack of this stuff to my pack, throw in some metal weights and a bunch of other odds and ends that were in the back of my Jeep, and bam… 102lbs of pure Everest training magic.