3000m CLIMBING FOR 8000m CLIMBING

THE PROOF IS PLAIN TO SEE – EXCELLENCE ON 8000m ALPINE ASCENTS IS MASSIVELY INFLUENCED BY VOLUME OF LOWER ALTITUDE CLIMBING, AND OF THAT ASCENTS TO AROUND 3000m TOP THE BILL. WE GET ASKED ALMOST DAILY WHAT IS THE BEST WAY TO PREPARE FOR BIG ASCENTS IN THE KARAKORAM AND TIBET, AND AS ALWAYS TIME SPENT DOING THE THING IS WHERE THE BIGGEST EFFECTS WILL BE MADE. IN THIS CASE THIS MEANS, ON TOP OF WHATEVER DAILY TRAINING IS DONE, TIME SPENT ON 3000m PEAKS IS A GOOD PREDICTOR OF ABILITY WHEN THINGS GET BIG.

A CENTURY OF CLIMBERS FROM POLAND, JAPAN, THE EUROPEAN ALPS AND AMERICA BEING RAISED AND INITIATED IN 3000m RANGES HAS SHOWN THAT LOTS OF TIME CLIMBING PEAKS WITH MINIMAL ALTITUDE CONCERNS, TRANSFERS THE SKILLSETS AND PERSPECTIVES OF BIG ROUTES IN WAYS SOLELY CLIMBING AT ALTITUDE CANNOT. OF COURSE ANOMALIES EXIST – LIKE THE BRITISH AND AUSTRALIANS – THOUGH THE BEST OF THOSE SPEND MUCH OF THEIR TIME OUTSIDE THEIR HOMELANDS ON, YOU GUESSED IT, 3000m PEAKS, SIMPLE PROVING THE POINT FROM ANOTHER ANGLE.

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3000m IS THE MAGIC NUMBER BECAUSE RANGES OF THAT HEIGHT GENERATE +2000m ROUTES, WHICH IS AKIN TO HIMALAYAN ROUTE LENGTHS. CLIMBERS IN PLACES LIKE THE TATRAS, SWISS ALPS, JAPANESE ALPS AND ALASKA CAN OFTEN GET SEASONS OF 50,000m OF ACCUMULATIVE ALTITUDE GAIN IN OVER AROUND 50 DAYS ON-MOUNTAIN CLIMBING TIME, WHICH ALMOST NOT POSSIBLE WHEN DEALING WITH ALTITUDES ANY HIGHER.

2000m ROUTES USUALLY MEAN 2-3 DAYS ON THEM, CLIMBING WITH LOADS AND SPENDING NIGHTS ON ROUTE IN BIVYS. THIS IS THE CYCLE OF CLIMBING; EATING FROM A CUP, MELTING SNOW, DIGGING IN, AND FALLING INTO THE RYTHMN OF MULTIDAY DAY CLIMBING THAT IS FUNDAMENTAL TO BIG ASCENTS. 2000m ROUTES MEANS DOZENS OF PITCHES, AND HUNDREDS OF PLACEMENTS AND THOUSANDS OF DECISIONS. ROUTES OF THIS LENGTH CAN BE EXPERIMENTED WITH, PUSHING THE CONCEPTS OF LIGHT & FAST, AS WELL AS THE LIMITS OF WEATHER AND THINGS LIKE CLIMBING NON-STOP.

3000m ALSO GENERATES REAL COLD, MEANING REAL ICE, REAL AVALANCHES, REAL GEAR AND REAL DIFFICULTY. BUT, IT IS NOT THE INTERNAL COLD THAT COMES WITH REDUCED OXYGEN UPTAKE, SO CAN BE ISOLATED AND TRAINED AROUND, AND PUSHED INTO IN WAYS THAT WOULD BE EXTREME WERE IT HIGHER.

FOR MANY, 3000m PEAKS ARE WITHIN WEEKENDS FROM HOME, WITH CLIMBERS LIVING IN CENTRAL EUROPE, TOKYO AND POLAND HAVING INCREDIBLE RESOURCES WITHIN HOURS OF THEIR DOORS. FOR THOSE THAT ARE LIMITED TO LONG HOLIDAYS THERE ARE STILL NO ISSUES WITH ACCLIMATIZATION OR PROTRACTED APPROACHES, SO TIMELINES CAN BE STREAMLINED TO GET HUGE WEEKENDS OF ASCENT.

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3000m ROUTES ARE RECOVERABLE, MEANING MULTIPLE ASCENTS CAN BE DONE IN QUICK SUCCESSION, BUILDING ‘MOUNTAIN CAPACITY’ OVER BLOCKS LIKE A SCALED UP VERSION OF DOING INTERVALS. WITH TIME QUALITY OF CLIMBING CAN BE INCREASED BY MIXING HARD AND EASY ASCENTS, THAT BLEND TECHNICAL DIFFICULTY WITH SIMPLE BASELINE CLIMBING, GETTING USED TO COVERING TERRAIN QUICKLY. THIS IS WHERE YOU GET GOOD AT HUNDREDS OF METERS OF CLASS 3 TERRAIN, II & III GRADE ICE AND M4 ALPINE ROCK, ALL IN THE CONTEXT OF LONG ROUTES UP ON PEAKS, MORE OFTEN THAN NOT HAVING WOKEN UP ON THE ROUTE.

ALL THIS IS THE ANTITHESIS OF DAY ROUTES, OR ROUTES WHERE YOU CAN STEP OFF IF THINGS GET TOO WILD. THIS IS THE EQUIVALENT OF THE RUNNERS LONG RUN, WHERE YOU FIND OUT ABOUT CALORIE, SLEEP AND GEAR DEPREVATION, AND WORK ON THE STRATEGIES AROUND FULL DAYS AND NIGHTS CLIMBING. NOT EVERY ASCENT NEEDS TO BE RAW AND SCARY, AND SIMPLE TIME SPENT LIVING VERTICALLY IS ALWAYS VALUABLE, WITH EASY ROUTES NEEDED TO EMBED AND RELISH WHAT THIS IS, AFTERALL, ALL ABOUT.

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YES, CLIMBING AROUND 6000m IS ALSO VITAL TO 8000m ABILITY, BUT IT IS A REFINEMENT STILL RESTING ON A BASE OF 3000m STUFF. YOU CAN’T LEARN YOUR HARDEST MOVES AT 6000m UNLESS YOU HAVE DEVELOPED THEM AT 3000, BECAUSE YOU CAN’T SPEND ENOUGH TIME THERE TO WORK IT ALL OUT. COMPARED TO THE +/-50 DAYS PER WINTER YOU MIGHT GET CLIMBING AT 3000m, EVEN THE FINEST CLIMBERS ARE LUCKY TO GET 20 ACTUALLY CLIMBING AT 6000.

IN THE END, TO GET BIG STUFF DONE MEANS TO SPEND THE TIME OUT THERE TO DO IT, AND DEVELOPING THE ABILITY TO LOOK AT A ROUTE OVER MULTIPLE DAY STRATEGIES IS WHAT SETS THE GOOD CLIMBERS APART. BREAKING THE CONNECTION TO THE GROUND, KNOWING YOU CAN STAY UP THERE BASED ON WHAT YOU CARRY ON YOUR BACK, IS A FUNDAMENTAL PARADIGM A LONG WAY FROM THE INDUSTRIAL 8000m ASCENTS COMMONLY SEEN. LOOKING UP AT HIMALAYAN FACES KNOWING THERE IS NOTHING UP THERE IS A UNIVERSE AWAY FROM EXPECTING FIXED ROPES AND ESTABLISHED CAMPS, AND DESPITE HAPPENING MILES AWAY IS WHERE ALPINISM VEERS AWAY FROM INDUSTRIAL CLIMBING.