My first winter trip to Scotland is just around the corner so I’ve been training hard in order to get some good routes done on the first trip.
I’ve been concentrating on endurance in the last couple of sessions and I thought I’d write a quick few lines about my tactics, although I’m still thinking about it!
I still think that the physical limiting factor for Scottish mixed or ice climbing is the forearm muscles, much the same as rock climbing really. I’m much more likely to fail on a winter route because I’m too pumped rather than my lack of pull-up ability.
So my endurance training focuses on the forearm pump. I’ve been using the “fig four” dry tooling axes still, and they are providing a massive pump on the local climbing wall where I tend to boulder circuits, rather than use them on the routes.
Here’s my routine for the last couple of sessions:
A normal rock climbing warm up: easy traversing, stretching, and progressively harder boulder problems with short rests in-between. This takes about 45mins or so and keeps the rock climbing ability topped up without getting too tired.
Then the dry tooling:
Nick Arding endurance training for the Scottish Winter
I have a circuit on the bouldering wall that uses a variety of angles and corners although it is mostly traversing with just a few moves up or down. One lap is about 20-25 hand movements (including matching on the tools) I do one lap, rest on a vertical wall, shaking out, and then complete another lap making one circuit.
By the end of the complete circuit I am pretty pumped, and getting pretty hot and sweaty! One circuit is taking me around 3 to 4 minutes.
The stopwatch then comes out, rest length is two minutes before the next circuit begins. I aim to do three circuits, building up to five as I get fitter. If I can do more than five it’s time to make the circuit harder.
Yesterday my new weighted belt arrived, so I’m training with the equivalent of a winter rack of gear around my waist, more for psychological training more than anything else.
Over the next couple of weeks I will change circuits, length style etc in an effort to “mix it up” and keep the training load fairly high. The main points are to make sure the circuits are fairly hard, and the last circuit of the session should be a bit of a fight.
I’m slowly getting used to the funny looks from the climbers at the wall. When you live in Devon it’s quite unusual to see people training or even thinking about ice or mixed climbing!
Back at home there’s a spot of running, calf raises and a few free weights to round off the winter fitness. I can’t wait to get up there and put it to good use…
Lochnagar - Scotland, a big cliff in the southern Cairngorms, fantastic gullys and mixed climbs.
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