Training Update #3: Mountain Athlete

Today we started the 9-week "ice/mixed alpine" training program we purchased from Mountain Athlete.  We've been doing the program for the past few weeks at reduced weight just so we can start it again (today) at full weight. That means we leave for Alaska in 9 weeks.

Mountain Athlete is a gym is Jackson Hole, WY, that has built on the writing of Mark Twight and a few other alpinists who pioneered the idea that gym training is necessary to truly push the sport to the next level.  The owner, Rob Shaul, designed a really cool program that incorporates stretching with strength, durability and endurance training. He has also been enormously helpful with our questions.

We also built a pretty sweet workout space in my dad's lower shop, with a system board (a climbing wall for ice tools), a removable pull-up bar, a box, free weights and a bar.  The motto "Train Hard, Climb Fast" is Mountain Athlete's.

I'll be posting some videos at a later date, but for now suffice to say it's really f*$^ing hard.  Which is the whole point.  Rob says his workouts makes you "harder to kill," and after a few weeks of it at reduced weight, we're convinced it's true.

More updates to come.