Training For Your Mountain

Training is performance enhancing….Or rather, it can be, if you get enough rest, stay healthy, remain motivated, don’t get injured and generally manage to keep the (always changing) show on the (winding) road. So, like many things in the mountains, training for them is not rocket science but it’s also easy to get derailed along the way.

Many of our guests rightly ask us for advice on preparing effectively for their forthcoming inspiring mountain adventures.  It’s a great question, especially if asked with plenty of time in advance, eg at least several months, and here is our attempt to give a helpful reply with some of the lessons we have learned from training to climb mountains over the last few decades.

This information will evolve and, hopefully, will always be a work in progress, like training itself!  We’d love to hear some of your own thoughts & experiences and we are also proud to share some of the lessons and advice from both our guests and guides at the base of this article.

Andy enjoying the benefits of several years of mountain training coming together – climbing well on the physical and technical South Ridge of the Eiger, Swiss Alps.

So what follows is our 4 general principles of training followed by some more specific advice about climbing some of our most popular objectives like climbing Mont Blanc, The Matterhorn, harder & longer alpine mountaineering ascents, technical rock climbing routes as well as preparing for ski touring and ski mountaineering trips like the ski Haute Route.  We also offer some ideas for further reading and forming your own personal training plan.  Finally we then hand over to our guests and guides for some of their own reflections from training over both recent trips and the last few decades in the mountains.  Let’s warm up and get started…

Mountain Guide Lou, big boot scrambling and climbing…Matterhorn training in a stunning location above the Chamonix Valley.

Our 4 Principles Of Training…

1. Get Inspired & Informed
2. Consistency & Staying Motivated
3. Patience & Incremental Progression
4. Stay Healthy & Rest Well

1. Get Inspired & Informed

There’s nothing like having an inspiring goal to motivate your training.  

Climbing mountains is inspiring, and, you know how it works, once you’ve climbed one, you want to climb another…and maybe a slightly bigger one next time!  Choosing a good goal is important.  Make it ambitious but achievable, with lots of training!

Most people overestimate what its possible to achieve with training in a month – and underestimate what is possible in a year. 

This is a fundamental part of your training journey.  Choosing which direction you want it to take.  Spend plenty of time enjoying researching your goal and finding out more about what the challenge involves.  Will this inspiration keep you going out the door on cold, dark, wet days?  As, in the famous words of Paula Radcliffe:

A marathon is not won on race day; it’s won in the everyday training, the early morning runs, and the commitment to a healthy lifestyle.

This research will not only provide the inspiration to fuel your training it’s also crucial in making sure that journey is going in the right direction.  The famous Team Sky mantra of understanding the physical and technical requirements of your goal versus your own current attributes and deficiencies creates a blue print for the training journey required to get there.

Your mountaineering skills play a highly significant role in the ascent, as well as your fitness and stamina. With technical training you become so much more efficient moving over steep and exposed terrain which means you move with greater levels of safety and efficiency as well as enjoying the journey at the time!

If we wanted to climb Mont Blanc for example, we could find out that the summit day involved around 1800m of ascent, and descent, and train accordingly.  If we found the ascent of Snowdon from Llanberis challenging, with 1000m of ascent, we would want to slowly build strength and stamina so that we would be happy to climb it twice, to give some reserve and allow for the extra challenge of high altitude.  If we left it at that and became very fit hill walkers, we would be in for a surprise when Mont Blanc reared up in to sustained and exposed scrambling ground.  A technical challenge that we have not prepared for is likely to see us losing nervous energy & excess adrenaline like the glowing heat shields around the kids in the Ready Brek advert!

Enjoyable scrambling on the ascent of Mont Blanc, for those that have prepared accordingly…

So this includes the crucial idea of making your training specific to your goals.  This does not mean it needs to mimic the activity exactly.  In the same way 100m runners don’t spend much of their time running 100m at top speed, we can break down the many, varied, and exciting components, of mountaineering and work on them separately.

If we are doing an urban ‘park run‘ we are building cardiovascular fitness and leg strength.  But the latter would be much more relevant and thus effective for our mountainous goals if it included some steep ascent, and if we can’t find that then step ups on to a box and squats may help build some of the relevant leg muscles.

Our guests are often better at preparing for the physical demands of a trip which leaves low hanging fruit in terms of the highly significant performance gains that come from relevant technical training.  To continue the theme from our Mont Blanc example above, and as a blatant, but genuine, plug for our UK Mont Blanc & Matterhorn training weekends, taking that hill walking training on to more technical scrambling terrain will aid movement skills development, which builds confidence, which makes us more efficient, and this is where the training magic really starts to happen.

Lucy and Anna scrambling high on another classic Snowdonia Ridge as part of our Mont Blanc training weekend.

Clearly it’s not always easy for city based guests to get in to the mountains for this ‘bullseye’ training but if we have gathered the information well regarding the requirements of our training journey, we may be able to enjoyably tick some of these movement skills & confidence requirements off in an urban climbing wall, modern bouldering facility as well as, ideally, organising our lifestyles so we can get to the mountains more often :-)

A pre-dawn start in the mountains…what lies ahead?  What are the technical and physical demands of the ascent? Have I prepared sufficiently accordingly?

2. Consistency & Staying Motivated

Consistency is king & ‘just turning up’ is a good start.

If we had to choose just 1 word that would characterise an effective training journey, it would be consistency.  This encapsulates the idea that we don’t expect, or even want, records every time we turn up to train.  We might not feel great, the weather might be bad, we don’t really have time, nothing spectacular is going to happen…Turn up anyway, and train.  Just do something.

Poor weather?  Turn up anyway and train.  A wet but & cold but productive scrambling and training day In Snowdonia.

Embrace the inevitable tough moments that will arise along your training journey as a welcome anti-style to a modern Instagram culture of perfection.  Nobody said it was going to be easy.  As rock climbers sometimes say:

If it’s not hard, it wouldn’t be hard.

The images of soaring summit ridges and the satisfaction of a big climb, done in style, fuel our inspiration to train, but it’s the appreciation of the less glamorous routine of day to day training, that keeps the show on the road.  The rider here though is, don’t overdo it either.  To stay motivated for long periods, we need to look after ourselves and adapt our training according to how we are feeling at the time.  Training hard with a virus could see you lose months of future consistent training, so a balance needs to be struck and see below for our thoughts on staying healthy and resting well along the way.

Training for the Alps, in the hills of the UK. Chris and Mallory enjoy dusk light in Lakeland, and great training for their next trip to the higher mountains.

Consistency requires sustainable motivation.  For a progressive and well planned training journey hopefully rewards will come in the form of noticeable progress.  But actual gains can be hard won so cultivating an appreciation of the work itself helps future proof against potential lapses in motivation.  However, sometimes, we can all do with a few points of aid to start the ball rolling and see us putting the trainers on and starting to warm up…

For a good start, watch the inspiring 3 minute film MOVE by Will Gadd and feel the camaraderie of others trying to keep up a similar training journey whilst navigating (overly?) busy modern lives…

Washing up and working out if you have time to train. You do. Thanks to Will Gad.  MOVE!

Despite the snappy editing, cool climbing footage and banging soundtrack, the moment that resonates most is the image of checking your watch whilst washing up.  Can I squeeze that training session in to an already busy day?  Yes, you can.  Because it’s important.

Try to remove any potential barriers that might tip the balance away from turning up.  If you’re lying in bed contemplating getting up early for a training session, don’t focus on how tough the session will be, just focus on the next step of getting up, starting to move around, having a cup of tea, and warming body and brain up.  The next steps will start to seem a bit more manageable after that!

If you have the chance, put your sports kit on right way.  This gives a strong statement of intent!  Chip away at any packing or preparation that needs doing before you can start your session. Better still, make an arrangement to train with someone else, then you are committed!   A regular group class or sessions with a personal trainer often work well for not having to even think about the process.  Just turn up!

Early morning light show as a reward for an early start and a training run in the French Aravis.  A brilliant area to have as the back garden and with the Mont Blanc Massif just beyond…

Maintaining consistency is also greatly facilitated if our training facilities are easily accessed.  The biggest example of improving this is to move close to the mountains or crags and, in his latest book ‘Moving The Needle‘ (highly recommended), Dave Macleod cites this as his number 1. most important bit of training advice.

Another classic bit of Dave Macleod training wisdoms comes from asking guests at his climbing talks about their training habits.  With regard to using a fingerboard as training for climbing a common response to the question ‘How many times have you used it in total?’ was….2!

Regardless of what branch of training we are discussing, with regard to frequency and number of sessions, for consistency we are really looking for an answer of several sessions a week leading up to hundreds of sessions over the months and years.

So, if you can’t move to the mountains, make access to your training facilities as quick and easy as possible.  In the example of the fingerboard above, maybe put it where the action is, eg in the kitchen rather than the cellar and get those weights, yoga matt and therabands squirrelled away under the sofa!

Callum Muskett on steep, delicate ice over Aravis limestone on the mixed classic ‘Rolling & Scratching’ North Face of La Mamule.  A climb requiring a mix of skills with a long ski approach and hard ice and mixed climbing. this level of complexity is only achieved with a long term & consistent approach to your training.

3. Patience & Incremental Progression

Winter miles equal summer smiles. 

This famous quote from cycling went out of fashion in some circles in recent years with a greater emphasis being placed on higher intensity strength training.  But it’s rightly back ‘in’ for pretty much all sports and climbing, mountaineering and skiing are no different.

The best rate of improvement from your training is the slowest possible rate that maintains sustainable increases in your training & performance gains.

Near perfect autumn conditions on the North Face of the Eiger.  Big journeys are made with lots of small steps and, especially when the stakes are high, patience is often required to get the hard won experience gained along the way.

There are a couple of lessons for us as mountaineers here.  Firstly, training for the mountains is predominately endurance based and there is thus a lot to be said for the classic idea of 80% high volume low intensity and 20% high intensity, low volume.  So get your big aerobic base miles in with lots of zone 2, conversational pace, training which builds a strong physiological foundation for the future.  Training to train.

Secondly a base of experience, ‘milage’ builds not only technical skills but improved judgement and decision making which further helps leverage your good fitness.  Climbers talk about a pyramid of experience where your stand out ascents are sitting on the shoulders of the giants of all your previous hard earned experiences, on easier routes.  Fast track the foundations, and things get shaky.

The great news here is that this means the advice is to get in to the mountains, as much as possible. The best training for climbing is indeed, climbing, but with positive reinforcement encouraging a steady & sustainable improvement in both your physical and technical skills.  So, have fun and keep the training steady and consistent.

Climbing the Perroux goulotte on Mont Blanc du Tacul. How did we get from winter hill walking to hard technical winter climbing (in ski boots!?). With lots of small, patient and progressive incremental steps.

If we want big results, and fast, then we are rolling the dice and walking a fine line between training stresses and their benefits traded against overtraining injuries, burnout and, in the case of mountain sports, accidents through being underprepared for the terrain we are on.  For rock climbing in particular, where connective tissues in the fingers for example play a large role, prepare for a marathon, not a sprint!  In navigating this fine line we can err on the side of under rather than over doing it to keep the ship sailing in the right direction.  This leads on to our final principle of looking after yourself so that you not only keep trucking, but that you enjoy the ride, and remain curious about where it may take you.

Enjoy the ride, and it will take you further.

Sarah Rowell (star British marathon runner) in training for the Matterhorn with a tough ascent of the steep, technical and physical Dent du Geant.  The Matterhorn went pretty smooth after training like this!  Photo Ben Bradford

4. Stay Healthy & Rest Well

The first rule of training is…don’t get injured.

An additional benefit of being patient with your training progression is that even minute incremental gains are motivating, whereas plateaus, illness and injury knock us back and getting the ball rolling again can be harder than keeping it in motion.

So, whilst training, sleep and nutrition are the 3 pillars of progression, they are all underpinned by staying healthy.  Feeling well helps to retain motivation but many of us, on occasion, can be so motivated that we run ourselves in to the ground!

You get fitter when you are resting, so make the rest count as much as the training itself.

So whilst in the motivation section we talked about hacks to get us to out training, here we stress the counter balance.  That adequate rest is required to both ensure you can maximise the gains from your training sessions and that your immune system is not completely overloaded with constant training stress on top of all the other pressures of busy modern lives.

High on the Grand Pilier d’Angle on the massive wild Italian side of Mont Blanc.  Big red letter days take a lot out of you, so it’s good to be well rested before, and after to ensure a strong recovery and get back out for more.

So, to state the bleeding obvious (but sometimes it’s easier said than done) look after yourself!

Train hard, eat well, rest hard, sleep well.  Repeat.  It’s not hard.

Except, it is.

Busy modern life is full of distractions, and temptations and other important stresses on your time and energy.  Understanding that these non training stresses add up in addition to your accumulated fatigue from actual training is important in managing your own training load.  It’s important to be disciplined and motivated, but don’t break yourself trying.  As the great Kenyan marathon runner, Eliud Kipchoge, said ‘Take some vitamin N’, but, unless your a professional athlete, keep it proportional with the rest of your life and the reality of what a non professional athletes body can sustainably tolerate.

Try hard.  Have fun.

Chris enjoying the beautiful solid Mont Blanc granite.  Lots of UK rock training prior to climbing in the Alps means the journey can be enjoyed – at the time.  Being comfortable in the mountain environment means less stress & more efficiency.  Meaning your recovery time is quicker and you can get back out there sooner, and get more climbing done!

So how do we know when it’s too much training?  Your body will soon tell you.  Look out early for the signs of overtraining and respond accordingly, with more rest.  What if it’s not enough?  Rarely a problem for the motivated!  But indeed, if you are feeling fresh and fully motivated all the time, you could probably try a bit harder.  You can build training stress in 3 ways by incrementally increasing the volume, intensity or frequency of your sessions.  But only increase 1 thing at a time.  Modulate your training so that it builds over 2-3 weeks before having a de-load week where you heavily reduce the volume of training whilst retaining some intensity and promoting recovery.

Staying on track with your training journey is not always easy.  Try hard, have fun is a good mantra to bear in mind in navigating the various course decisions encountered en route.

Rest can, and should, be active.  Walks, easy jogs, yoga, stretching etc will all improve the quality of your rest.  Factor in at least 1-2 full days a week of this, stay tuned in to how your body is responding to the training stresses you are placing on it, and auto-regulate accordingly.

Once all that hard training is ‘in the bank’, and your trip to the mountains is approaching, properly ease off.  Give yourself a bit more rest than you think you need.  Start tapering from a couple of weeks out for example for a big week of alpine mountaineering.  Cut the volume right back but maintain a bit of intensity and a little ‘ticking over’.  Try to ease back on those other life stresses too, so whilst going away can create a whirlwind of admin jobs, it’s ideal if you can arrive early, go for a walk, breath some mountain air, relax.

Have a great trip.  Good climbing and good training in the meantime, Rob. 

At dawn, we were asking if we had prepared sufficiently for the challenges ahead.  At dusk, we have the satisfaction of knowing we had.  Get down safely. Enjoy that summit glow, for a bit, before asking the inevitable question.  So, what’s next?

Building Your Own Training Plan & Further Reading

The content of our training article above has been deliberately generic to cater for lots of different mountains with varied physical & technical training requirements.  Plus we don’t know what your current fitness and technical levels are and thus where specifically your own personal training journey should go.  We don’t do personal training programmes, but see below for some people that do.

Below is some more specific information about some of our guests popular training goals.  Some statistics describing what the challenges involve and thus an idea of relevant training metrics accordingly.  It’s a work in progress so most of these are just training photo inspiration for the moment!  Please get in touch if you have your own training info and experiences to share.

Remote Physical Training 

Euan Whittaker Mountain Guide

Personal Mountaineering Training Plans

Uphill Athlete

Personal Rock Climbing Training Plans & Coaching

Lattice Training

Neil Gresham

David Mason

Further Reading 

Of particular interest to the older athletes:

The Race Against Time – Richard Askwith

Sheena Climbs Cho Oyu 8188m after some good tough physical and technical mountaineering training with us in Chamonix the previous year and she went on to climb Everest in style the following year. Congratulations. Training. Is. Performance Enhancing!

Training for your specific alpine mountain below and for training for Himalayan and other great ranges, check out our expedition training pages where we have helped people train for Everest, Ama Dablam and all kinds of other mountaineering objectives.

Mollie on the summit of Everest in having completed some alpine mountaineering training in Chamonix with us the previous summer season.

Training for Climbing Mont Blanc

Description Of The Physical Challenge

• Summit day involves around 1800m of ascent, and potentially descent too although we often stop at the Gouter Hut on the way down giving 1800m up and about 1000m down.  In that style, it’s usually around an 8-10 hour day up to the maximum altitude of 4810m.

Description Of The Technical Challenge

• Steep snow and ice slopes with significant exposure high on the mountain. In ascent and descent.
• Sustained moderate scrambling, either rocky or mixed, often with crampons, in ascent and descent.

Suggested Physical Training

• High volumes of endurance activities involving low intensity cardio and leg muscles like running and, ideally, walking in the hills and mountains.
• General strength, legs, core and conditioning work

Suggested Technical Training

• Rough mountain walking and scrambling, up and down
• Developing skills and confidence with ice axe and crampons

Crampon and movement skills training for Mont Blanc on the Mer de Glace in Chamonix

Mountaineering training on the Aiguilles d’Entreves on our Mont Blanc training weekend from Rifugio Torino

We recommend you watch this detailed video on training for Mont Blanc with our friend and fellow mountain guide John Taylor at Mont Blanc Guides.

In the white room! A short journey around to the Col de Toule from Rifugio Torino on our Mont Blanc training course.

Training For The Matterhorn

Description Of The Physical Challenge

• Two-day route, the approach to the Hornli hut is 700m ascent taking approximately 2 hours on non-technical terrain

The walk to the Hornli Hut…and Matterhorn ascent from Schwarzsee above Zermatt. The Hornli Ridge is between the North Face on the right and East Face on the left..

• The summit day is 1200m ascent at high altitude between 3300m and 4500m
• Due to the technical nature of the terrain and challenge both in ascent and descent it is necessary to get to the summit in approximately 4 hours giving enough time and energy to reverse this back down, which often takes longer. We aim to spend around 7.5-10 hours hut to hut and then 1.30-2hours back to the Schwarzsee lift station.

James on the new section of fixed rope at the base of the Hornli Ridge on the Matterhorn, Monte Rosa beyond.

• You need to be able to maintain a speed of around 300m ascent per hour which requires the ability to maintain a speed of around 400-500m ascent per hour at low altitudes.
• The upper section has some thick fixed ropes used to pull through the steeper walls. These require upper body strength to hold on and pull up.

Fistfulls of rope on the fixed sections up the West Ridge of the Riffelhorn. Great training for the Matterhorn fixed rope sections.

Description Of The Technical Challenge

• Continuous grade 2/3 scrambling with increasing difficulty as you get further up the mountain.
• Sections of graded climbing at 4a French sport grade and steep sections where the use of thick fixed ropes are used to hold onto and pull up whilst moving the feet on rock or metal staples.
• Steep exposed snow and ice slopes at 40 degrees in the upper section of the mountain in ascent and descent.
• Use of crampons on rock whilst ascending the steep fixed ropes in the upper section of the mountain, in ascent and descent.

This section of the main line of fixed ropes is on the North Face and has good snowy conditions here in September

• In snowy seasons it may be necessary to wear crampons on the rocky scrambling and climbing sections lower down as well.

Suggested physical training

• High volumes of endurance activities involving low intensity cardio and leg muscles like running and, ideally, walking in the hills and mountains for 8 hours or more within your aerobic capacity
• General strength, legs, core and conditioning work. Specific focus on leg and glute strength with power for regular high step-ups.
• Upper body strength training of biceps, shoulders and forearms either in the gym or climbing wall spending time on easy overhanging terrain.
• Shorter interval training and weight training to increase power and anaerobic threshold for power on the steeper terrain at high altitude

Suggested technical training

• Full days of mountain scrambling and climbing in ascent and descent. Grade 3 scrambles or easy rock climbs in mountain boots, that requires precise hand and footwork on rock and the use of a rope.

Corvus! The brilliant Borrowdale Diff…one of the best around and this is the classic traverse pitch. A great route and bulls eye big boot Matterhorn training…

• Mountaineering skills with Ice Axe and crampons in ascent and descent, ideally undertaking some Scottish grade 2 and 3 winter mountaineering routes on bigger peaks

Topping Out On Tower Ridge, Ben Nevis, On Our Matterhorn Training Weekend In Fort William

• Experience and comfort being lowered on a rope down steep terrain as well as abseiling

This is where the training really starts to pay off! The Solvay Hut at 4000m is visible just above these lower Mosely Slabs, one of the crux rock pitches of the Hornli Ridge. Good technical & physical training is required to be ready for these climbing specific challenges.

Training For The Eiger

The training has paid off – Chris enjoying the scrambling across the red gneiss of the Eigerjoch with the Eiger beyond. Mittellegi Ridge on the right of the summit.

Training For Technical Mountaineering Routes

Andy Houseman climbing Pinochio on the east face of Mont Blanc du Tacul

Bram on the Triangle du Tacul as part of a mountain ice – mixed & north face training day from the Midi.

Training For Rock Climbing

High altitude rock climbing on the Aiguille Purtscheller South Ridge, Chamonix.

Trad, sport, slabs, cracks, short multi pitch, abseils, great place – great training crag at the Gotthard Pass…but not great weather today!

Adam lead climbing training at Les Gaillands in Chamonix

Training For The Ski Haute Route

Ollie & Richard, Haute Route Training around the superb Grand St Bernard Pass on the Swiss Italian Alpine border.

Description Of The Physical Challenge

• 6- or 7-Day continuous ski touring up and downhill with an average of 1000m ascent and descent per day between altitudes of 2500m and 3800m depending on the route taken.
• 180km from Chamonix valley to Zermatt in total.
• High mountain crossing with many days crossing passes at 3000m altitude and with a high
  summit of 3800m.
• Most days will be between 6 – 8 hours duration.
• Maintaining a speed of around 300m ascent per hour at these altitudes will make for good
  progress.

Dawn departure for another physical day – on the high mountain ski adventure that is – THE Haute Route!

Description Of The Technical Challenge

• This is one of the more challenging and technical ski mountaineering crossings in the alps. Much of the route crosses glaciers, therefore a good ski level is required to safely negotiate the terrain in ascent and descent.

On the mixed ground to the Col des Ecandies to access the descent down the Val d’Arpette to Champex

• Ski level, able to maintain control of speed and line on all off-piste terrain up to 35 degrees steepness whilst carrying a multiday rucksack with heavier equipment such as crampons, ice axe, harness etc.
• Long ascents through technical terrain requiring robust turning techniques whilst skinning, such as kick turns.
• Ice axe and crampons skills required mostly in ascent of 40–50-degree terrain and some rocky grade 2 mountaineering terrain with fixed ropes and skis attached to the back of the rucksack.

Boot packing to the Col with skis on packs and crampons on boots

Suggested Physical Training

• High volumes of endurance activities involving low intensity cardio and leg muscles like
  running and, ideally, walking in the hills and mountains for 8 hours or more.
• Ideally can maintain speeds of 400 -500m ascent per hour at lower altitude mountain days.
• Build up to multi-day ski tours or multiple days ski touring with ascent of 1000m per day.
• General strength, legs, core and conditioning work. Would recommend a ski specific training program such as SKI FIT for specific agility, power and strength in the legs and core which will help maintain good ski technique in descent after long uphill stints.

En route to the Dix Hut in the second half of the Haute Route. North Face of Mont Blanc de Cheilon beyond. Photo Lou Reynolds.

Suggested Technical Training

• Ski performance training: ski technique for ski mountaineers looking at dealing with all
  snow types, terrain up to 35 degrees steepness, skiing with a heavier rucksack and
  always maintaining control of speed and line.
• Some crampon and ice axe skills training on Scottish Grade 1 and 2 terrain, ideally in ascent and descent, though more important in ascent.
• Use of boot crampons on ski boots and mountaineering with ski’s on the rucksack at the
  same time.
• Uphill ski touring techniques such as kick turns in exposed locations and practise transition safely from skis to ice axe and crampons.
• Experience of mountaineering on a rope.

Ski Haute Route Training & Warm Up Day

Richard Bradley, UK

The other thing I liked as training last year was the ski fit videos. https://befitapps.com/skifit/  (I think I’ve seen it on your site too). For me it was great for some strength / balance / mobility, and it’s inside & no kit required so no excuses either!  Your email has just prompted me to sign up again.

Ollie & Richard, Haute Route Training around the superb Grand St Bernard Pass on the Swiss Italian Alpine border.

Training Advice From Our Guides & Guests

We are really proud of the great efforts of our guests to prepare and train so effectively and have some wonderful experiences in the mountains accordingly.  We really appreciate their commitment to these training journeys, coming to climb and ski with us, refining skills, finding inspiring new goals, and coming back for more.   Many thanks to them all and additional thanks to those who share some of the experiences of their own personal training stories below….

Sarah Rowell, West Yorkshire, UK

For many long-distance runners, Sarah Rowell needs no introduction. A star of British and world marathon running in the 1980s, she clocked an incredible 2 hours 28 minutes to take second place in the 1985 London Marathon, just behind the legendary Norwegian Ingrid Kristiansen.

Sarah on the podium at the 1985 London Marathon with Ingrid Kristiansen and Sally-Ann Hales.  Photo Sarah Rowell collection.

So, it’s a real privilege to share some of Sarah’s insights on preparing for alpine mountaineering. (Health warning: Sarah brings with her an extraordinary base of endurance and cardiovascular fitness!)

2 hours 28 minutes for the marathon. Just so fast!  Photo Mark Shearman.

Here, she reflects on her journey into the mountains and the lessons learned along the way.

From Marathons to Mountains….

“As a kid I always loved scrambling and climbing. By my late teens and through university, I was spending time on ropes and skis. Then running took over, and anything that might jeopardize my racing career got pushed aside.

Sarah in training for the Matterhorn with a tough ascent of the Dent du Geant. Photo Ben Bradford

That changed when the late Chris Brasher encouraged me back onto skis, and not long after, with friends, I climbed Mont Blanc. What was supposed to be the start of more adventurous activities didn’t quite materialize—until 2017, when the plan to climb the Matterhorn became part of my now-regular ski trips.

The preparation process wasn’t so different from marathon training:

• Understand the challenge and its requirements.

• Be honest about how you currently measure up.

• Adapt training and preparation accordingly.

Sarah running in the mountains. A tough but brilliant training ground for higher altitide mountaineering – but as Sarah says – don’t neglect the upper body training too for more technical ascents.  Photo Pete Hartley

Training Focus

Here’s what I worked through as a 55-year-old preparing for the Matterhorn:

• Endurance – My weekly exercise averaged 7–10 hours, mainly cardiovascular, with some strength and conditioning. Long days in the hills gave me confidence in handling 10–12 hour mountain days.

• Strength – I trained weekly with strength sessions. That said, I struggled on the rope section of the Dent du Géant, though I managed fine on the Matterhorn.

• Moving over technical terrain – Years of scrambling and via ferrata in the UK and Europe meant I was used to moving fast on technical ground, usually well under guidebook times. Still, the Matterhorn was going to be tougher and longer. Rob’s two-day training course in Snowdonia, plus practice in the Lakes, gave me confidence, as did training climbs in the week before the ascent.

• Big boots – I’d always preferred trainers for lightness, but training in boots was invaluable. Once in France, further practice made a big difference.

• Crampons – Previous Mont Blanc experience (15 years earlier!) gave me a baseline, and acclimatisation sessions in the lead-up refreshed my skills.

• Altitude – I arrived in Chamonix a week early, hiking in big boots above 2,500m. Combined with pre-climb training, this helped enormously.

• Exposure – My head for heights is decent (for a non-guide!). To prepare, I even practiced balancing on a beam in a children’s playground to mimic moving on narrow ledges.

• Gear handling – Knots and kit handling always benefit from refreshers. A work in progress.

• Food & fluids – Snacks, and plenty of them—just like on long hill days. (Tip: chocolate melts in the heat and freezes in the cold, both of which you’ll likely face.)

• Kit – I feel the cold, especially in my hands. I didn’t bring the right gloves, but luckily Rob lent me some of his wife’s. Late August in Chamonix coincided with UTMB, so local shops were full of running gear rather than alpine kit!

The Ascent

Adapting to the weather window meant starting from the Schwarzsee Hotel, which added about 90 minutes but spared us the morning scramble out of the Hörnli Hut. From there, it was:

• 2 hours to the Solvay Hut

• Another 2 hours to the summit

• A swift descent for a total of 10 hours on the move

The day ended with a much-deserved beer at the Hörnli Hut.

Reflections & Takeaways

Looking back, my three biggest lessons were:

1. Upper body strength – I should have trained this more (playground pull-ups included!).

2. Gloves – Always bring several good pairs.

3. Climbing well, not just fast – Focusing on footwork and holds, rather than pulling myself up too quickly, made a huge difference.

These adjustments helped me successfully climb the Eiger the following year and continue enjoying alpine challenges—even now, as a woman whose age starts with a “6.”

Sarah on the summit of the Eiger. Photo Ben Bradford.

Chris Wright, Penrith, UK

I reckon at 62, I’m in better shape than I have ever been….

 

Read on! 

Chris on the Summit Of The Matterhorn, With the Monte Rosa Massif Beyond. This was for his 50th birthday. We also climbed the Aiguille Verte and the Matterhorn.  For his 60th we climbed the Eiger. What are we doing for you 70th Chris?

Training back then was rather rudimentary and a throwback from my days in the Paras: ‘flog yourself until you drop’ type training.  I entered the CCC a couple of years after that which entailed a great deal more vert: 6000m to be precise, over 100k. I just hit the hills without any real plan, but this was enough to get me over the line in 23 hours. Next up was the big one, the UTMB. Training for this essentially consisted of prepping for a UK Bob Graham round, lots and lots of vert as quick as possible. I’m not a naturally fast hill climber, so this was hard work, often operating in zone 3-5 for prolonged sessions. I attempted the BG in 2018 and got spat out after16 hours. However, the 6 months of flogging up and down Lakeland Fells was sufficient to get me through the iconic UTMB.

Chris enjoying the finish of the UTMB in Chamonix in 2018

As a biologist with a good understanding of human physiology, I thought that I knew enough about training. The next 5 years saw me extend my distance, pushing the extremes of endurance, to complete the Full Winter Spine Race in January 2023, 268 miles in 158 gruelling hours.

Chris high on the summit ridge of the Aiguille Vert, with Mont Blanc beyond. An amazing place to celebrate your 50th birthday!

Chris on Crossfell on the enormous winter spine journey…

Chris on the superb limestone Mittellegi Ridge on the Eiger with the Shreckhorn and Finsteraarhorn beyond.

Chris & Rob – fuelling! Whilst enjoying the granite mountain ambiance and pic-nic site above the letter box and 2nd crux pitch on the Papillons Arete.

Wintery conditions on the Cheviot. Still smiling. Keep trucking!

Chris enjoying the golden sun kissed slabs on Cacao Girls, 6b / 6a on the French Swiss border to the east of the Chamonix Valley

Chris on the Arete du Doigt, Pointe Percée

Dave Owen, Sheffield, UK

Dave on the thin upper slabs of Miles Devisse, Pissevache, Swiss Valais

Brilliant Granite Crack Climbing (Chamonix Style) in the ‘Diedre Magnifique’

Dave getting stuck in to the meant of the famous ‘Le Diedre Terray’ 6a on the right side of the main crag at Les Gaillands. A long easy approach brings you to a strenuous layback up the corner crack. Brilliant! And we were also practicing sack hauling and belay stance management at the valley crags before taking these skills to the mountains…

Dave and team on the dawn departure on the high mountain ski adventure that is – The Haute Route.  Well worth training and preparing for, both technically and physically.

Days in the Cairngorms worked wonders for my fitness, kit preparation and overall mountain readiness.   The combination of a long drive, challenging walk-ins or mountain bike approach, every type of snow (even the famed Scottish powder), and the challenges of winter weather really helped in my preparation for the long ways we then experienced on the Haute Route.   The choice of sun protection is still maybe best done in the Alps though!

Sign posted ski touring track at Combloux, Aravis

Simon Everett, Otley, UK

I guess as I get into my late 50s I’m keener on variety and with time short with work I do more high impact efforts. I think strength work is more important as you get older. When I was younger, the strength came from doing the activity, whereas now I feel I have to do the strength work before doing it!

Simon on a wintery Chere Couloir, 20 May 2024

Will keep you posted with progress. Am working through a book called 77 drills to help you climb better, which gives you drills to do on easier routes rather than always working on harder stuff so essentially means I work harder! It keeps things fresh and is quite fun.

Simon topping out on the North Face of the Aiguille du Chardonnet, A tough November ascent where the all the training needed to come together!

August 2025 Update – Simon Climbs One Of The 6 Classic North Faces Of The Alps

Well done and congratulations to Simon climbing the famous Cassin Route on the North Face of the Piz Badile.  Check out the article on that ascent via the link below and Simon’s advice about training for this big inspiring rock climbing challenge here….

Simon enjoying the upper chimneys high on the Cassin Route, North Face of the Piz Badile

In terms of advice it depends where you start from – it’s important to think about that before training for this…

Climbing grade and physical endurance (both climbing and all round) are key.

It’s not high cardio effort but a very long day. The top pitches in the chimneys are the most physically demanding both in climbing style and elevation so need to retain strength for these.

I have good baseline fitness and cardio endurance but less rock experience. So for me the priorities were to up my technical climbing grade, build strength but maintain/not lose fitness.

Given a busy job and limited time I allocated 1-2 hours 5-6 days per week to indoor climbing for strength, technique and endurance, along with general strength/conditioning at the gym and high intensity impact training on the bike to maintain fitness. Grabbing an hour at the bouldering gym before work 2-3 days a week really helped.

To that I added outdoor climbing (sport and trad) when time/weather allowed to up skill and maintain enjoyment (it’s essential to enjoy the training) and the odd long day hiking or bike riding. Long runs would be ideal but as you know not possible for me so have to adapt.