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Other/Mixed Mountain Strong

Other strength modalities (e.g., Clubs), mixed strength modalities (e.g., combined kettlebell and barbell), other goals (flexibility)
Alaska80 said:
In my experience it has been advantageous to train mental toughness and mountaineers/combat arms folks will specifically understand what I am talking about. When I was in the infantry, they intentionally caused numerous types of discomfort (mental and physical) to increase your survivability and adaptability in difficult circumstances.
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Some of this post comes down to different mental models and differences in individual psychology, so fair enough, but w/r/t this point in particular I suggest that 1) deliberate suck in the context of military training (and many other fields, this is also very common in HS/college sports) is mostly about selection or filtering rather than eliciting any particular adaptation in any individual, 1a) that the actual important adaptations are mostly elicited through months and years of boring easy training and going to bed on time when they're not just genetic/epigenetic gifts, and 2) that lots of people misinterpret this and try to copy the deliberate suck in contexts where washing out some fraction of candidates is an actively counterproductive outcome or, if you're just training yourself, meaningless.
 
On the subject of mental toughness/training, I highly suggest reading the book The African Kaiser by Robert Gaudi. It describes the life of General Paul Von Lettow-Voerbeck, a German officer who led German East Africa's (modern day Tanzania) seemingly paltry internal security forces against the combined might of the United Kingdom, South Africa, Portugal, Rhodesia, and India from 1914 to several days following the Armistice of 1918.

The rough terrain, great privations, and the toll that the terrain of East Africa presented was a man breaking ordeal.

In regards to 'Mountain Strength/conditioning, in the months from late 1913-1914 von Lettow-Voerbeck spent that time criss-crossing the colony on foot and via bicycle, conducting leader's reconnaissance throughout the colony, anticipating the outbreak of war. Recalling that made me think of mountain strength given that the war in East Africa started around Mt. Kilimanjaro.
 
offwidth said:
The standard route being a hike, however... The Breech (Wall) Icicle was at one time a pretty difficult route on the mountain. It might not even exist anymore due to climate change...
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The book contains a lot of references to the battle of Kilimanjaro, as well as a lot of smaller (company and below) sized fights around high terrain in that vicinity, particularly the 1915 railway campaign where German squad/platoon strength elements infiltrated into British East Africa (Kenya) and blew up railways (with long and arduous movements on foot or on horseback across the unforgiving savannah with few waterholes in order to do so) until forced to retreat later in the year.

Per this website, the Breech still is extant: Kilimanjaro Western Breach.
 
Since this thread is about being Mountain Strong, I thought it would be interesting to see people's favorite training mountain, if you have one.

Here is mine:
It's about 20 min from my house and is located at my work, the nature of my work has me climb it about 6-10 times are year, but mostly I climb it on my own time.
Summertime usually 1x a week, sometimes more.
Winter it depends, try to get on it 2x a month, but the weather can get quite nasty. Fun little hill.

~2,000 ft vertical gain over 1.6 miles, if you start at the base. There are multiple approaches that can extend that though.
~4,000 ft for a double traverse

We have far bigger mountains around it, but those take more time and energy to get to. Total turnaround from house-mountain-house is about 2.5 hours. In the summer I often just have my wife and kids meet me after work, as it's on my way home, and we climb it together.
 

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Alaska80 said:
Since this thread is about being Mountain Strong, I thought it would be interesting to see people's favorite training mountain, if you have one.

Here is mine:
It's about 20 min from my house and is located at my work, the nature of my work has me climb it about 6-10 times are year, but mostly I climb it on my own time.
Summertime usually 1x a week, sometimes more.
Winter it depends, try to get on it 2x a month, but the weather can get quite nasty. Fun little hill.

~2,000 ft vertical gain over 1.6 miles, if you start at the base. There are multiple approaches that can extend that though.
~4,000 ft for a double traverse

We have far bigger mountains around it, but those take more time and energy to get to. Total turnaround from house-mountain-house is about 2.5 hours. In the summer I often just have my wife and kids meet me after work, as it's on my way home, and we climb it together.
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Nice!!!
 
When I was younger we had this peak that had about 1,500m elevation gain in about 7km (starting at sea level) Combination of logging rd and steep rocky trail. We would do it year round. In the winter the summit could be quite treacherous with deep costal snow and cornices or ice. This was usually a once a week session (unless we we really climbing) My best time was 3hrs up and 1.5 down.

Around here I have a nice rocky trail to a summit. 5.9km in length and 800m elevation. It’s less than 10min from my front door. Catch is that in the winter the trail is closed due to Bighorn Sheep lambing. Summer it’s 45deg C. So you have to pick your windows.

On the riding front I have a great route: 40km, 1,800m elevation, topping out at 2,700m altitude.
 
Well, on a MTB things are a bit different. Silver Star Mt. is about a 40 min drive away. I’ve ridden near it, and my niece ran it, but I don’t know feasible the trail is for a bike. Not set up for MTB due to wilderness regs, but Mt Hood, Mt Adams, and Mt St. Helens are all about 1/12-2 hrs away. When this pandemic thing subsides . . .
 
vegpedlr said:
Well, on a MTB things are a bit different. Silver Star Mt. is about a 40 min drive away. I’ve ridden near it, and my niece ran it, but I don’t know feasible the trail is for a bike. Not set up for MTB due to wilderness regs, but Mt Hood, Mt Adams, and Mt St. Helens are all about 1/12-2 hrs away. When this pandemic thing subsides . . .
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I was fortunate enough to summit St. Helens prior to it’s eruption. Speaking of which... my buddy and I were on an obscure Aid climb at Squamish (over 400 air km away) when were sort of heard /felt a ‘thud’. It was only when we got back to town and saw the news that we put two and two together....
 
Alaska80 said:
Since this thread is about being Mountain Strong, I thought it would be interesting to see people's favorite training mountain, if you have one.
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I’m in the mid-Atlantic US now and a bit of a drive from real mountains but we have a local bump that most of us train on for bigger peaks. The hilliest route up is 1300’ so it’s multiple weighted loops to get in any elevation and effort. Closer to home there are 50km of rolling single track that is perfect for trail running and single speed biking. Would love to have a peak like yours for multi-season adventures!
 
TrailNRG said:
I’m in the mid-Atlantic US now and a bit of a drive from real mountains but we have a local bump that most of us train on for bigger peaks. The hilliest route up is 1300’ so it’s multiple weighted loops to get in any elevation and effort. Closer to home there are 50km of rolling single track that is perfect for trail running and single speed biking. Would love to have a peak like yours for multi-season adventures!
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What’s your location, I’m in Norfolk, VA.
 
@Benjamin Renaud was sort of inquiring about the meaning of my SF Handle...

offwidth is a kind of crack climbing where the crack is too wide for toe/foot or finger/hand jams, yet not wide enough to use chimney technique. It typically involves a great deal of thuggery and insecurity as one grovels and contorts themselves up the crack in question. Often only in increments of inches at a time. And to add to the excitement, they are usually hard to protect and require big, heavy, expensive gear to do so. There really is no way to train to get better, other than just doing them. Strength training is unlikely to assist in any way. (Although I’m open to suggestions...)

DAD1D8C1-4980-4A23-A4BE-339875A2103F.jpeg
photo: renee
Yours truly belaying my buddy AwesomeD as he starts up an easy offwidth crack on a cold day in Kentucky
 
Great photo and explanation @offwidth
I was spoiled on front range finger and hand cracks (e.g. The Bastille in Eldo canyon) before I was exposed to a true off-width multi-pitch climb. It equates to going from a fencing match into a street fight. Any and all techniques apply based on your body type, along with a heavy does of brute force and sheer will. You know it’s a good one when head/face smearing are a viable option. ?
 
offwidth said:
@Benjamin Renaud was sort of inquiring about the meaning of my SF Handle...

offwidth is a kind of crack climbing where the crack is too wide for toe/foot or finger/hand jams, yet not wide enough to use chimney technique. It typically involves a great deal of thuggery and insecurity as one grovels and contorts themselves up the crack in question. Often only in increments of inches at a time. And to add to the excitement, they are usually hard to protect and require big, heavy, expensive gear to do so. There really is no way to train to get better, other than just doing them. Strength training is unlikely to assist in any way. (Although I’m open to suggestions...)

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photo: renee
Yours truly belaying my buddy AwesomeD as he starts up an easy offwidth crack on a cold day in Kentucky
Click to expand...
Thanks for the precisions. I found this thread a couple of days ago and was slowly going through it. I hope to contribute to it someday!
 
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