Strength Training for the Backcountry Athlete

Throughout my athletic career, I’ve heard the “weights or no weights” debate too many times to count. I’ve heard many comments from fellow athletes along the lines of:

“You don’t need to do strength exercises if you’re a runner.” The best way to train for climbing is to climb.” “I’m already strong enough.”

Having experimented with lots of different exercises and weight training programs for a variety of activities, I’ve come to a few conclusions:

1. Core strength (abs, lower-mid back) is important for almost any athletic activity. Whether you’re trying to keep your form intact at the end of a long race, perform a powerful heel hook or swing a bat, you will benefit from solid core strength.

2. Flexibility is underrated and underutilized. It’s important for injury prevention and it allows you to build muscle without getting muscle-bound, a condition that limits range of motion and can lead to injury. Flexibility also improves performance and energy efficiency. If you’re a runner, an extra inch on your stride multiplied by thousands of steps equals a materially faster time. If you’re a climber, being able to raise your leg higher means reaching that foothold that was previously out of reach (without pulling your hammy).

3. For athletic activities that require lots of strength, you will reach a natural “plateau” without strength training. Your body will get used to performing the same movements over and over, and you won’t get any stronger. At some point, you need to mix up your training with strength specific exercises to reach the next level.

4. Context and balance are key. Everyone has seen the local gym rats that only lift upper body. It’s a wonder that their chicken legs can support their teetering massive upper bodies. It’s nonsensical and nontransferable to athletic activities. Match your training to your activity. If you’re a runner, focus on core strength, not your biceps. During my junior year in college, I started lifting too much upper body (I was an XC runner). I was 6’2, 160lbs and I could bench press 230 lbs. I got slow. As soon as I started doing only core strength exercises, I lost 10 lbs and dropped a minute off of my 8k time. Now that I’m a mountaineer, I would love to get back to 160lbs and 230lbs on the bench press.

5. Focus on building strength (not “getting ripped”) and keeping opposite muscles in balance. If you train your quads, be sure to train your hamstrings as well. Imbalances among opposite muscle groups can lead to injury. Good climbers, mountaineers and backcountry skiers should aim for solid overall strength and cardio conditioning.

While I realize that the debate is still open, I’m personally convinced (based on my own experiences) that supplementary strength training is very helpful for sports like climbing, mountaineering and backcountry skiing. Alex Lowe agreed and his climbing partners said that he was a “level above everyone else.” Perhaps he was on to something. In Jackson, WY and Boulder, CO, there is a gym called Mountain Athlete that subscribes to a training philosophy for climbers and mountaineers that is similar to mine. On their website, they have links to a variety of videos (36 to date) that feature strength exercises that are geared toward climbers. Below, you can see an exercise called “Alligator Pushups.” It’s not hard to see how this one would be useful for climbers.

Going Light(er)

Proper ultralight travel is part art (backcountry experience) and part science. It walks a fine line between “being prepared” and “light is right.” As gear technologies advance to create better designs, lighter materials and smaller/cheaper/more capable gadgets, what was once impossible suddenly becomes possible. After several years of constant gear testing, I recently sorted through all of my backcountry gear and scaled down to the “essentials.” The result of my efforts was a noticeably lighter pack and a huge gear sale that funded a few ultralight gear purchases. A few of the items that I picked up include the following:

CAMP Corsa Axe (Aluminum, 70cm, 205g)

CAMP XLC 390 Crampons (Aluminum, 390g)

GoLite Pursuit Pack (51L, 3lbs)

GoLite Shangri-La 2 4-Season Shelter (830g) + Floor (570g)

Black Diamond Whippet (400g)

Overall, I’m quite satisfied with the weight savings that I’ve achieved with a few strategic gear purchases. However, there are two material glitches in my setup that I’m working on solving:

1. Between my avy beacon, GPS, heImet cam, SPOT tracker, camera, headlamp, GMRS radio… I burn through lots of AA and AAA batteries (alkaline) on a regular basis and batteries are expensive and heavy for their size. Stay tuned for a solution that is cheaper, greener and lighter.

2. My DSLR camera and accompanying lenses (Canon 5D MkII full-frame body + 28-135 IS lens + occasional Canon 15mm fisheye lens) are obnoxiously heavy and hang like a loose millstone around my neck. If stashed in my pack, they are not accessible when I need them. If kept directly on my body, I run the risk of accidental damage from impact, dust and moisture (both precip and sweat). If kept in a chest holster, they are bulky, sweat inducing and obscure my vision. Given the excessively bulky and somewhat heavy “small SLR” chest holsters currently available on the market, it’s looking like I may have to build or mod my own solution. I have a few ideas up my sleeve that I think may work.

The seemingly obvious solution to my problem is to find the “ultimate” compact camera that has the portability of a point-and-shoot camera with the quality, RAW format and manual settings of a DSLR. Sadly, no such solution currently exists. The Canon PowerShot G10 (350g) comes close in terms of functionality and RAW format, but the ridiculous amount of noise (even at low ISO levels) produced by its overhyped “15MP” (lots of really small pixels on a small sensor) sub-DSLR quality sensor is a real deal killer for what I need. I have decided that my quasi-temporary solution for adventure photography will be the Olympus E-420 micoDSLR body (385g) + the high quality and moderately compact Olympus Zuiko Digital f/2.8-3.5 14-54mm lens (435g). With its 2x magnification factor, it will behave like a 28-108mm lens on a full-frame, which is similar to my Canon 28-135mm lens. It does not have image stabilization, but it does have f/2.8+ compared to the f/3.5+ of my Canon zoom lens. I’m also looking forward to the squarer 4:3 aspect ratio of the images.

Skiing Buffalo Mountain

Buffalo Mountain has been climbed, skied and helmet cammed. Eric Lee and I enjoyed a fantastic bluebird day and an excellent ski line down the Silver Couloir. The Arizona red dust was present, but not nearly as bad as in the San Juans. Despite our relatively early start, the snow was starting to get a bit soft toward the end of the couloir. Here are a few pictures and a video to tell the story...

Ultimate Touring Skis?

Sometime last winter, I decided that it would be ideal to have a lightweight ski touring setup that utilized a cable tele binding (for use with Garmont Excursion touring boots) and had a heel lock-down mechanism for more control on the downs. I also decided that if I could accomplish this for under $100, it would be a feat. Since there is nothing like this currently available on the market (at least to my knowledge), I knew that I would have to fabricate some custom parts.

Breakdown of Costs:
Karhu 10th Mountain XCD waxless skis (with "fishscale" bases): $69 at REI Garage Sale
Bucket 'o old school generic (?) AT binding parts: $10.99 on ebay (including shipping)
Riva cable tele bindings: Came free with a pair of $25 skis that I recently sold for $25.

Total Cost: about $80 + tax 

Fabrication and Mounting:

I began the project with a pair of skis, a pair of  cable tele bindings and an assortment of old AT binding parts. 

Next, I removed the toe bails (with baseplates) from a broken pair of AT bindings and cut off the toe bail with a hacksaw. The result was a pair of aluminum baseplates. 

After the baseplates were free of the toe bails, I figured out that I needed to remove the lip in order to mount the televators on top. The small weight savings was a nice bonus.

Once the lip was removed (with a hacksaw), I filed the edges of the baseplates.

After finishing the initial mods on the baseplates, I removed the heel bails from the broken AT bindings and stuck them into the holes on the baseplates that were left behind by the toe bails. 

At this point, I mounted the cable tele bindings and took some measurements for the baseplates/heel bails.

Since I would be mounting the televators on top of the baseplates, I needed to cut some small holes into the baseplates to accomodate the movement of the televators. I used one of the televator mounting plates as a guide.

The holes in the baseplates have been cut (using a rotary tool and a file)

Next, I mounted the baseplates and televators onto the skis. I'm done!

Tele touring mode.

Tele touring mode with televators up.

Alpine mode.

Finally, I had to weigh the skis. 3,199 grams, not too shabby.