ASCENT RATES
OUR RECENT RANT ON EXPEDITION PREPARATION RAISED SEVERAL VERSIONS OF THE SAME QUESTION; WHAT’S THE BEST THING TO WORK ON? WE SHOULD HAVE ADDRESSED THIS IN THAT POST, BUT INSTEAD WILL GIVE THE SUBJECT ITS FULL WORTH IN ITS OWN.
FROM AN EXPEDITION POINT OF VIEW ie MATCHING UP YOUR PLAN WITH YOUR ABILITY, NOTHING TICKS MORE BOXES THAN INTIMATELY KNOWING YOUR ASCENT RATE. NOTE THE WORD ‘INTIMATELY’. THIS MEANS KNOWING THE NUMBERS, DEVELOPING THE ABILITY, USING WHAT YOU KNOW AND EXTRAPOLATING IT ALL TO YOUR OBJECTIVES. WE WILL DEAL WITH EACH ELEMENT SPECIFICALLY.
.
KNOWING THE NUMBERS
EXPEDITIONS ARE BASED ON EQUATIONS TO APPROXIMATE WHAT KNOWABLES EXIST, AND KNOWING HOW MANY METERS OF ALTITUDE IN A GIVEN TERRAIN YOU CAN GO UP AN HOUR IS FUNDAMENTAL. WITHOUT THIS YOU ARE CLIMBING BLIND. EVERY SPORT HAS A VERSION OF THIS EQUATION, RIGHT DOWN TO GAME-SPORTS LIKE FOOTBALL AND CRICKET, THEY KNOW WHAT TIME IT TAKES TO COVER GROUND AGAINST THE OBSTACLES THE GAME PRESENTS, THAT ALPINISM AND ESPECIALLY EXPEDITION ALPINISM IS NO MORE THAN THE SPORT OF OF COVERING GROUND PERIOD, MAKES THIS THE SINGLE BIGGEST PIECE OF THE EQUATION.
EXPEDITIONS ARE THEIR OWN THING IN THE DIVERSITY OF THE TYPES OF GROUND THAT NEED TO BE COVERED, OVER INCREMENTS OF ALTITUDE AND UNDER DIFFERENT LOADS. FROM THE TRAIL APPROACHES TO GLACIER, SCREE AND THE ROUTE, THERE IS A COMPLEX OF ASCENT RATES THAT NEED QUANTIFYING TO PLAN AROUND, AND THE BETTER YOU KNOW THEM THE BETTER YOUR PLAN.
EQUATIONS FOR THESE THINGS EXIST, FROM MILITARY, TRAINING PROGRAM AND HISTORICAL SOURCES. THESE GIVE YOU IDEAS ABOUT WHAT OTHERS ARE DOING, NOT TO EMULATE BUT TO COMPARE TO WHAT YOU ARE FACED WITH. THAT MESSNER OR STEVIE HASTON ONCE COVERD X METERS IN X TIME IS USEFUL TO KNOW AS A WAY TO UNDERSTAND THEIR CLIMBING, BUT WITHOUT A WHOLE HOST OF OTHER VARIABLES DOES NOT EXTRAPOLATE TO YOURS.
THE WAY TO DO THIS IS SIMPLE; GET ON A REPEATABLE OBJECTIVE WITH AN ALTIMETER WATCH AND RECORD IT, PLUS OTHER FACTORS SUCH AS LOAD CARRIED, RECOVERY STATE, CONDITIONS AND TERRAIN. REPEAT AS OFTEN AS POSSIBLE, BECAUSE THE MORE DATA THE BETTER, AND BUILD A MODEL OF VARIATION RATHER THAN AIM AT A SINGLE NUMBER.
WHEN THE TIME COMES TO USE THIS DATA IT WILL BE THE VARIATIONS THAT YOU WANT, LOOKING AT THE SPREAD UNDER VARIOUS FACTORS. WITHOUT THINGS LIKE LOAD CARRIED AND GROUND CONDITION YOUR NUMBERS ARE EMPTY, AS WE SEE TIME AGAIN WITH ULTRARUNNERS. 1000m ALT GAIN IN AN HOUR IS DECENT BELOW 3500m IN SHORTS AND TRAIL SHOES, BUT WITHOUT OTHER INPUT ISN’T REALISTIC IN THE ARENA OF HIGH ALTITUDE WITH BIG PACKS.
HALF OF KNOWING THESE NUMBERS IS TO SEE WHEN YOU ARE NOT MEETING THEM, AS A DIAGNOSTIC FOR WHAT NEEDS ADDRESSING AND WHAT YOU MIGHT HAVE WRONG. PUSHING ONWARDS WHEN THE NUMBERS DON’T ADD UP HAS BEEN SOME PEOPLES LAST MISTAKE, THEIR BODIES FOUND NEXT SPRING BECAUSE THEIR DECISIONS WERE ILL FOUNDED.
.
DEVELOPING THE ABILITY
THERE’S NOT MUCH TO SAY HERE OTHER THAN TRAIN AND PREPARE, ON TERRAIN AS CLOSE AS POSSIBLE TO THE OBJECTIVE AND TEMPORARILY ISOLATING ANY SPECIFIC WEAKNESSES. STRONGER LEGS, BETTER POSTURE, BETTER OXYGEN UPTAKE, FASTER RECOVERY ARE ALL THE STUFF OF ANY ENDURANCE SPORT, AND THERE IS MASSES OF MATERIAL FROM WHICH TO DRAW FROM, WITH A FOCUS ON CURIOSITY.
WHAT MAY NOT GET ENOUGH MENTION HERE IS DEVELOPING THINGS LIKE GEAR USE, FROM GETTING STUFF LIGHTER TO ROPE SYSTEMS AND CONFIDENCE. HERE, GEAR IS THE HUMAN-ENVIRONMENT INTERFACE, NOT DECORATION AND STYLE, AND EFFICACY AND TOOLMANSHIP BECOMES CYBERNETIC WITH DIRECT IMPACT.
SOMETHING WORTH NOTING IS THAT THE FINEST ALPINISTS CAN GO A LONG WAY UPWARDS FAST USING VERY STRIPPED DOWN GEAR, NOT LOADING ON THEIR HIGH ALT STUFF UNTIL SURPRISINGLY FAR UP AN OBJECTIVE. 6000m GEAR WILL GET YOU TO – YOU GUESSED IT – 6000m, WITH NO NEED TO DRESS LIKE AN ASTRONAUT FROM BASECAMP WHERE YOU CAN PROBABLY WALK OUT IN TRAIL SHOES.
BUT THIS MEANS DEVELOPMENT AND INTIMATELY KNOWING WHAT YOU ARE CAPABLE OF, AS BEING STUCK OUT WITH THE WRONG GEAR CAN INVITE A LONG LIE DOWN. DONE WRONG THE RESULTS RANGE FROM CARRYING TOO MUCH STUFF TO DYING, BUT DONE RIGHT MEANS ULTRA EFFICIENCY AND BETTER USE OF RESOURCES.
.
USING WHAT YOU KNOW
LOOK WHAT’S IN FRONT OF YOU AND DETERMINE THE PARAMETERS AND APPLY WHAT YOUR KNOWLEDGE OF YOURSELF ALLOWS. HOW MANY METERS ALTITUDE AND KMS DISTANCE DO YOU HAVE AHEAD, AND HOW MUCH TIME DO YOU HAVE TO DO IT IN? THAT WILL GIVE YOU A BASIC BY WHICH JUDGE YOUR PROGRESS.
NEVER GET LOST IN THE NUMBERS, INSTEAD COMPARE WHAT YOU ARE ACTUALLY GETTING DONE, AND ASSESS ON THE MOVE IN REAL TIME AND REAL CONDITIONS. DON’T BE THE IDIOT WHO DECIDES OF WHAT YOU SHOULD BE DOING OR WHAT THE EQUATION WAS WAY BACK IN BASECAMP, BUT PLOT YOUR PROGRESS AS IT HAPPENS AND PROJECT IT FORWARD.
BEWARE THE GLITCHES IN PSYCHOLOGY WITH THINGS LIKE SPEEDING UP AND NOT RESTING, AS OVER THE HOURS AND DAYS OF AN ALPINE ASCENT THESE ARE SHORT TERM MISTAKES. IF YOU ARE NOT ALREADYING MOVING AT THE FASTEST SUSTAINABLE RATE THEN YOUR PROBLEM IS A BIG-PICTURE ONE THAT WON’T BE SOLVED BY HALF AN HOUR OF FRENZY, JUST AS PUSHING INTO EXHAUSTION AND GLYCOGEN DEFICIT BEYOND A POINT CAN’T BE FIXED IN A DAY.
THE FAST ALPINIST DOESN’T ASCEND FASTER JUST BECAUSE THEY HAVE QUICKER LEG TURNOVER, BUT BECAUSE THEY SPREAD THEIR ENERGY MORE EFFICIENTLY BY HITTING A WIDE SPECTRUM OF FACTORS. LIGHT GEAR, SIMPLE SYSTEMS, SMART ROUTE FINDING – THE USUAL STUFF – ALL HAVE GREATER EFFECT WHEN ON TOP OF BEING FITTER AND MORE INFORMED.
.
EXTRAPOLATION TO OBJECTIVES
DON’T PLOT YOUR OBJECTIVES ALONG AN EASY CURVE THEN STACK YOUR PREPARATION TO FIT IT. THIS IS A BACKWARDS WAY OF LOOKING AT THINGS THAT THROWS OUT THE ENTIRE PARADIGM.
THE WAY TO PLAN OBJECTIVES IS TO SEE WHERE YOU ARE AT, SEE WHAT RESOURCES AND TIME YOU HAVE TO DEVELOP, THEN PICK OBJECTIVES THAT FIT THE SPREAD OF YOUR PROJECTIONS. THE RESULT OF THIS ARE OBJECTIVES THAT CLOSER FIT YOUR ABILITY, CHOSEN AS AN EXTENSION OF YOU, RATHER THAN A PROBABLE OVER EXTENSION THAT RESULTS IN TRIPS THAT FAST BECOME SLAVES TO GUESSWORK, CONTINGENCY AND MITGATION.
IF YOU CAN COVER 300m OF STEEP APPROACH, 100m OF ROUTE AND 1 ROPE LENGTH OF TECHNICAL STUFF EACH PER HOUR, THEN YOU CAN LAY THAT ONTO OBJECTIVES AND GLEAN AN IDEA OF THE TIME AND LOGISTICS REQUIRED. THE SAME OBJECTIVE IN DIFFERENT SEASONS OR WITH DIFFERENT TEAMS SKEWS ASCENT RATES SO CONSIDER THINGS LIKE DAY LENGTH AND TEAM SYSTEMS, JUGGLING WHAT FITS WITH THE KNOWABLES YOU HAVE. KNOW FULL WELL THAT HALF OF ALL TRIPS IS RANDOM AND COMPLICATED STUFF, SO KEEP THAT IN YOUR PLAN, AND SCAN THE GREATER RANGES FOR PEAKS THAT SUIT YOU.
MAYBE YOU MATCH UP TO THE NORTH RIDGE OF K2 OR MAYBE YOU DON’T – IT IS ALWAYS INTERESTING JUST TO SEE WHAT THE PROJECTIONS ADD UP TO. THE OBJECTIVE EXISTS FOR EVERY TYPE OF ASCENT, WE KNOW BECAUSE WE HAVE SEEN WHAT IS OUT THERE, WHAT MAKES THE DIFFERENCE WITH A SUMMIT IS YOU KNOWING WHAT YOU HAVE TO GET THERE.