Archive for the '16 Conditioning' Category

Cross Training – Part III

Published on August 16, 2008 in 16 Conditioning. 3 Comments Tags: .
continued from yesterday…

Mountain Biking

Aside from crashing, mountain bikes are a low impact way to get out, enjoy a long tour, work out your entire body and build up lung capacity.  The biking season perfectly compliments the ski season and many skiers are strong bikers in the summer.

Halfway there on the 100 mile White Rim in a Day (WRIAD) ride. Dr. Doug Brockmeyer decending off the backside of Murphy's Hogback.
Halfway there on the 100 mile White Rim in a Day (WRIAD) ride. Dr. Doug Brockmeyer decending off the backside of Murphy’s Hogback.

Mountain Unicycling

There are few sports as obscure as Mountain Unicycling (MUni), but as far as skiing goes, it is a direct hit for cross training conditioning.  Unicycling requires many of the same skills as skiing, such as perseverance, balance, focus, relaxation and leg strength.  Like rock climbing, it is filled with endless small, achievable goals that keep it fun and interesting.  To succeed at it requires a quite upper body, just like skiing and the ability to constantly readjust your balance. 

 

Hands forward, back upright, focused and balanced. Is it skiing, or Mountain Unicycle riding? Louie Dawson in Park City.
Hands forward, back straight, focused and balanced. Is it skiing, or Mountain Unicycle riding? Louie Dawson in Park City.

 Gyms

Gyms are ideal for quick, reliable workouts, especially if your outdoor options are limited. That said, they don’t seem to have much direct carry-over to ski mountaineering and I’ve never met a strong gym rat who was also a strong skier.  As a Sports Physiologist once told me “Training in a gym makes you a better athlete in the gym.” 

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Cross Training – Part II

Published on August 15, 2008 in 16 Conditioning. 0 Comments Tags: .
Before I got into Ski Mountaineering, I’d climb in the summer and ski in the winter, but it never occurred to me to combine the two activities.  Once I did, I wondered why I hadn’t thought of it sooner as they were such perfect compliments to each other.  Climbing not only gets you outdoors and into the mountains, but helps you develop a head for heights, which if you are a normal, rational human being probably doesn’t come naturally.

Many of the best ski mountaineers in the world are also avid climbers, especially in Europe where they are one in the same.  The cross-over aspect is almost 100%, especially with technical ski mountaineering. 

Rock Climbing

Aside from being an excellent workout, rock climbing is as much (if not more so) a mental game.  Learning how to relax when you are pumped out of your gourd and about to take a long whipper is a learned skill and if you do much rock climbing, you’ll get plenty of chances to practice. In terms of steep skiing, being able to relax (and thus save energy) while staring down 3,000′ of exposure goes a long ways toward your enjoyment of the sport.

Ropes, rocks and mountains. The only thing missing is snow and skis. Joe Skrivan on the Lower Exum, Grand Teton.

Alpine Climbing

Alpine climbing is a lot like Ski Mountaineering… without the skiing.  Walking down a snow covered peak is generally undesirable, but some mountains (or snowpacks) don’t lend themselves to skiing and Alpine climbing is a fun diversion.  The cross-over skills of camping, crevasse rescue and pacing are all important elements of backcountry skiing.

Climbing Mt. Shasta at first light. It's almost a crime to do this without skis...
Climbing Mt. Shasta at first light. It’s almost a crime to do this without skis…

 

Tomorrow: My current favorite (and least favorite) off-season activity…

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Cross Training – Part I

Published on August 14, 2008 in 16 Conditioning. 2 Comments Tags: .

Cross training for ski mountaineering by doing other sports has many excellent advantages as well as keeping things interesting and motivating. Any activity, from walking to skydiving, which involves outdoor exercise on a daily basis is superb. Greg Hill, the man who punched out 1,000,000 vertical feet of hiking in one season and set a 24 hour vertical record of 50,000′ plays golf in the summer. Cross training is also useful as it gives you a greater repertoire of activities that can be blended with skiing to extend its scope. Mountain biking is fun in itself, yet also a good way to approach remote skiing terrain. The rope skills and gear handling you use in summer rock climbing are the same as you use for a ski descent with a rappel. While any sport is better than none, activities that take place in the mountains have aspects that are directly applicable to ski mountaineering, such as navigation, acclimatization and reading the weather.

Trail Running

Trail running in hilly terrain, develops agility and endurance.   It requires almost no gear to do it and delivers a through workout in a short time.  Unless you are biomechanically blessed with perfect joint alignment, excessive trail running can lead to repetitive motion injuries, especially in the hips, knees and ankles.

Petra McDowell running in the Wasatch. Petra has an all-day pace which works perfectly for ski mountaineering or ultramarathons.
Petra McDowell running in the Wasatch. Petra has an all-day pace which works perfectly for ski mountaineering or winning ultramarathons.

Power Hiking

Nothing gets you fired up for ski mountaineering like spending a fall day hiking around in the hills that you will soon be skiing.  Power hiking is a good, low impact way to work out gear strategies, get a feeling for the amount of vertical you can ascend in a day, develop hourly ascension rates, experiment with different kinds of foods, see how you feel at altitude, practice camping and enjoy the outdoors. 

Dan Rector topping out on a power hike up Mt. Superior.
Dan Rector topping out on a power hike up Mt. Superior.

 

Tomorrow… rock & alpine climbing…

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