How to prepare yourself to the mountains?

What kind of training is needed for climbing in the mountains?

This question is usually asked by beginners who come to our mountain climbing school to improve their mountaineering skills. Indeed, after passing the “Basic course of mountaineering”, certain ideas about their own climbing plans appear, the mountain peaks become a little closer and people want to continue to move in the desired direction. However, in order to get the more accurate answer, you need to have an idea of what plans for your nearest mountaineering future you are building. To begin with that, we should define what kind of mountaineering we do - high-altitude or technical - basically, all the climbing routes can be divided into these two classes. Do you want to climb Elbrus, Ararat or Kazbek - please, this is the initial level of difficulty in the high-altitude class. If you want to scale Belukha, Tetnuld or Monte Rosa - welcome to the technical mountain climbing class. That is still quite simple - for high-altitude routes you need more endurance and health than agility, and vice versa - for technical climbing routes agility is more important, although health cannot be canceled. To make it more clear, we consider three examples from the practice of the successful cycle of the “preparation to the mountain climb from the zero level” of our MCS AlexClimb Mountain School.

Here I have to make a remark that I will only consider options for climbing under the leadership of an experienced guide, and you are strictly not recommended to perform any independent heroic undertakings. The following is exclusively about your physical training which is not the same as technical skills and tactical experience which are vitally important as well. So, how can a person totally stranger with the mountains climb Elbrus (Kazbek, Ararat)? All these mountains have an altitude above 5000 meters, but do not present any technical difficulties on the classical routes, that means that the easiest way to go to the summit of these mountains is to just walk, moving the legs. This will require patience and the will to win, but first of all - the physical ability for the intense physical activity, which should be trained in the first place.
For this task, all ways are good - running, swimming, skiing. And especially skate style cross-country skiing – the is absolutely the best. The classic cross-county skiing is also good, but the skate style is a more intensive technique that involves all the muscle groups of your body. By the way, the ability to use the ski poles will be very useful for you on the mountain route – when you go uphill on the mountain walking poles are very useful, as they distribute the load of your upper body and help you in moving upwards. In short, if you begin to prepare six months before the time you are going to the mountains, three workouts per week with an emphasis on cardio training that means you will be in a perfect shape for climbing right in time.
For the climbing goals of this mountaineering level, at which basic and not complicated ascents become possible for you, our "Course of general physical training" has been developed - training aimed at developing the necessary physical endurance and agility.

And what to do if you have something more steep or high in the plans, the mountain where you will need to climb with ropes and ice axes? If on the route, there are sections which imply more or less continuous movement on the steep or vertical slope, when for climbing you have to use your hands? Definitely, this is a more interesting and ambitious task - moving one level up in the climbing route hierarchy. As an example of the routes of starting level in this category can be called such programs from our collection as Belukha, Matterhorn (Hörnli route), Tetnuld, Gestola - all these peaks at altitudes of more than 4000 meters require the ability to work with mountaineering equipment and confidently move on the steep slopes - on rocks, ice, snow. How to prepare to that? For a beginning, I can offer for you an introductory course of mountaineering techniques - there you can get all the basic theoretical skills necessary for the routes of the initial and secondary categories of difficulty from PD to AD.
After that we should pay intention the physical training. In the process of training for the climbing of the routes of advanced level, I would definitely include rockclimbing - without this at this stage we cannot do any progress. I can explain. If the mountain terrain becomes more complicated for climbing, it requires from the climber more ability to move effectively and safely. What does it mean? That means that you must be able to move along the mountain obstacles with good coordination and spending less power - it depends not only on the speed of the climb, but also on its safety. These body skills should be developed by overall coordination and movement trainings.
Starting from this moment, when you have already decided that you are not interested in walking along easy mountains, being guided as a child by hand of your guide, if you want to be more independent and develop the skills necessary for more interesting mountain climbing routes - for this purpose I have an excellent training module "Iceclimbing in Norway" - a week of intensive training on the real natural ice. During this Iceclimbing Course you will get all the most necessary technical climbing and protecting skills, as well as pull up your fitness for at least six months ahead.

In my deep conviction, which has already been proved in practice more than once, nothing develops coordination abilities better than rockclimbing — I can call this kind of sports an ideal way to increase your agility and body coordination. We build our training schedule with an emphasis on general body training, but we include at least one rockclimbing session per week in the program, but depending on the final goal, it may be required more than one. For six months of purposeful training and sports discipline, one can get the result - strong and healthy body, ready for serious exertion and difficult situations.

And the third example is ambition. In case if you really want something that goes beyond the banal commercial routes? Here you immediately get into our world, as the difficult mountain ascents are the main specialization of the MCS AlexClimb Mountain Climbing School. Ushba, Dykh Tau, Shkhara, Matterhorn, Mount Cook, Khan Tengri, Peak Communism, Amadablam, Alpamayo, and so on - it has been proved by practice that these fantastic peaks are reachable not only for those who have spent half of their lives in the mountains. Most of the task is in the quality training and personal commitment. Of course, the task, in this case, will not be easy. But with a serious approach, it definitely can be said - there is a good chance for success! And there are also examples of successful implementation of such projects. Not that once, people who came to mountaineering quite recently and had undergone a training course, directly sharpened for the task, went up to the summits of Ushba and Matterhorn with me. What's the secret? First, that is to avoid self-deception and not to overestimate your strength - only a person who already has sufficient physical and psychological skills can become a member of such a top grade program. That is totally in the competence of the guide to make such a decision. And ideally - the guide that takes you to the route - for him it is a matter of life.

After the decision taken – indoor trainings, sports discipline, outdoor weekend on the rockclimbing and iceclimbing. The duration of the training program can be chosen individually and can take up to 1.5 years, but as a result you will have a convenient form and clear understanding of your abilities which will be sufficient for successful and safe attempt to make a really serious thing - climbing the mountain top, which is included into the list of the most serious climbs in the world, to the top of the mountain, to stay on which was managed by a very small number of people. To complete the mountaineering ascent, which for your whole life will give you a reason to be proud of your success. But no matter how ambitious is your immediate goal, I wish you to be patient and confident in achieving it. If your desire is strong and you are not afraid to spare lots of your power to realize your goal - you can achieve an impossible. So strive and achieve! And I will help you with all my strength and experience!

Text — Alexey Trubachev, founder of the MCS AlexClimb mountaineering and climbing school.