It seems like just getting "in shape" before a trip is all you need to do. But what is "in shape?" What do we want out of a trip? Many of us are just going on vacation and want to do some climbing, as I have done in Font—we were in Paris and wanted to check it out. Vastly different from flying there to do my hardest boulders!
One of the most stressful parts of my job is helping professional climbers and alpinists be physically fit for trips across the ocean. The average climber doesn't usually travel great distances to do limit-level efforts. Most of us fly to Europe or Asia and kind of get a feel for the climbing, maybe do a hard route or two. Maybe not.
When it comes time to go on a grant or sponsor-funded trip with media coverage, the stakes feel higher. So what does a professional do to prepare to step off the plane and have a great shot at sending? What lessons can we all learn in order to do our best with the limited time we have in another country or far-away crag?
Train for Capacity
Traveling is tiring, and a part of that is not having the basic fitness for moving all day. Yes, the time zones mess with us, the food and beds are different, but the daily habit of just moving is the factor we're dealing with here. At home, you might go to the gym for a couple of hours, walk the dog for 30 minutes each day, but then spend the rest of the day at a desk. Looking at the reality of being in another country is big.
On a sport climbing trip, we tend to be at the crag all day, standing around or climbing or moving along the cliff. We tend to explore the local area on rest days. It's hours of light activity, and although light, can tax your body's ability to adapt.
In the mountains it is much the same. There is a lot of hiking, but there is also a lot of time at camp, doing small tasks and standing around in the cold for hours on end. 45 minutes on the stairmaster doesn't prepare us for that.
Before any specific training for the type of stone, altitude, or length of climb, we simply need to try and get better at being active for appropriate durations. We obsess over whether to bring one or two kneepads and the sun/shade aspect of the cliffs, but lack of capacity will curtail more trips than any other issues.
Months out, you should start exercising for longer and longer durations, regardless of the intensity. If you are typically climbing 3-4 pitches a day at a roadside crag, opt for a longer approach and start adding a second lap to routes. These measures take only minimal amounts of time, and really can add up.
In the gym, do a simple weight circuit or bodyweight series after bouldering. Don't worry a lot about intensity or number of reps, just get the time in. Over the weeks, you'll want to just add more exercises or sets, and until you can get up to 60-90 minutes of training, don't worry about the specifics. Sure, you can keep bouldering hard or trying to send at the crag, but the extra stuff needs to just keep adding up, and the best way to guarantee more is to do easier.
Eat and Sleep
One thing that way too many of us do is obsess over the trip too far in advance. Part of this might involve poor sleep and trying to “make weight” way ahead of time. It is essential that climbers eat enough, even "too much," in the months leading up to a major trip. The training is so hard and the hours so long that we cannot afford to slow recovery by limiting resources. The goal of the run-up is to put in as many productive training days as possible. Holding back on calories can curtail this goal, sometimes by up to 1/3 of possible training hours!
Athletes I've seen who eat plenty of food through a big training block tend to gain little weight, which has a minimal impact on climbing. In nearly 30 years of coaching, I’ve never had an athlete who had a personal best season at the same time that they were at their lowest-ever weight. Ever. Don’t sacrifice a fun trip for a number on the scale.
Sleep is also a key. Knowing all the things we do about how to create a good sleep environment—dark, cool, quiet, and screen-free—we also need to make sure we control our state at bed time. Cutting back on late night sugars, dropping levels of caffeine intake, and avoiding late night alcohol can all help us get to sleep more quickly and more deeply. Additionally, I find that keeping a notebook by the bed and putting down thoughts and concerns about training and the trip can be helpful. If you can clear your mind of the stress of the future, you can sleep better.
The notebook also serves you if you wake in the night. If something occurs to you, wake up, write it down, and then get right back to sleeping. Lying half-awake and ruminating on potential problems or concerns rarely helps solve them. The next day, I’m usually still stressed…but more tired!
Get Specific
Once your capacity is heading the right direction and you can get several days per week of exercise for big durations, start to think of what the trip is truly going to involve. In the mountains, how much upper body power will you really need? What kind of days will you have? A turn toward more hiking with a pack, time in gloves and layers, and leg endurance becomes paramount. Up and down hills, lots of pitches of rock or ice, and plenty of rest between sessions becomes the norm.
For a sport climbing or bouldering trip, you should start considering hold types, climb lengths, angles, temperatures, approach durations and more. I've heard of more than a couple boulderers that arrived for a summer of climbing in Rocky Mountain National Park that were so unprepared for the approach that their bouldering performance was nonexistent. If you are headed to a crag with 40-meter pitches, you should get ready to climb 40 meters at a time long before you're standing at the base!
Once we are on the trip, we should have covered all the basics, and should be looking at how to apply our training rather than how to continue it. Sure, things will come up. They might not be exactly as you'd thought. The basics, though, are clear and should be considered way ahead of time.
Remember You’re Ready!
One of the hardest things my athletes deal with is accepting that they have prepared “enough.” Clearly, there is always a bit more we could have done, but the improvement curve really flattens out, and an obsession over details and one more session and even packing can be more detrimental than useful.
Your training, your preparation, is about getting yourself ready to go on the trip, not about guaranteeing how the trip will go. What you need to remember is to switch into performance mode. Go on the trip, use great tactics, be smart about avoiding illness and injury, and do what you love.
Far too often, our drive to perform kills the spirit of why we got into this sport in the first place. Almost every climbing trip is a “get-to” rather than a “have-to.” The best trips feature a lot of the things we first loved about climbing. Maybe it’s exploration. The feeling of wonder at the climbing features. Having to try very hard to do moves. Whatever it is, it’s time to seek that out instead of dragging your preparation mindset onto the plane with you.
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The dreams of iconic mountains, beautiful crags, and high performance drive many to perform through mundane day after mundane day at the gym. By thinking in terms of strategy and the reality of what we’re going to face once “on the ground,” we can enhance our time away from home.