In alpine climbing, speed is often equivalent to safety. Many climbers take drastic measures to reduce weight allowing them to climb long and fast. However before you par down your first aid kit to duct tape wrapped around your water bottle consider a few tips to increase your efficiency no matter how much your pack weighs. Most of my tips apply mainly to the approach, but can be applied in some ways to the whole climb. These are techniques that I’ve found work well for me. Everyone has their own opinion and set of habits. Experiment and find what works best for you, after all climbing wouldn’t be any fun if there were hard and fast rules!
Food
1. Eat a bunch before you climb
When your heading out to the trail head bring a sandwich and a tupperware full of pasta or another calorie dense food. Eat on the way to the trail and arrive early enough to take half an hour to eat a full meal before you head out. As you start the approach you may feel too full to move fast, but you’ll digest and soon you can get back up to your full pace, starting your climb fueled-up. Starting with a full tank will makes it easier to maintain energy, even if you epic.
2. Stash bars in your pocket
To many people take a break every hour to eat. This requires finding a place to sit, taking off your pack, digging out the food and a layer to keep warm as you sit etc. In the end all these little tasks eat up minutes you could be traveling. What starts as a planned five minute break stretches easily to 10 or 15 minutes and by the time you take a few of these breaks you’ve added an hour to your overall climb.
Instead stash four or five cliff bars and a few GU packets into your pockets and either eat them while your hiking or while taking a micro break without removing your pack. On the climb itself cram some in your mouth at a belay transition, it takes 30 seconds and keeps you energized and warm. During your very few packs off rests, restock your pockets and keep moving.
Water
3. Best storage device is your stomach
This falls under the same logic as tip #1. Have a few extra water bottles dedicated to stay in your car. Drink one or two before you head out and have one full for when you get back. Starting the approach with a belly full water keeps you going for longer before you have to start digging into the water your carrying on with you.
4. Hydration packs with insulated hoses
Unless your climbing in fairly cold conditions an insulated hydration pack keeps your water readily accessible. Sipping on your hydration pack along the way lets you keep going for hours without getting dehydrated or taking breaks. Careful that you don’t freeze your hose! Its shitty to be super thirsty and go for your water, only to find it no longer wants to flow into your mouth. One technique is to blow the water back into the reservoir between drinks to keep it out of the hose, and I usually take a small empty water bottle in my pack, if my hose freezes I can just fill it up.
Pace
5. Quick and steady wins the race
Breaks eat up time. Some are necessary, like adjusting layers for changing weather or looking at a map to navigate properly. But breaking often so you can rest and stop sweating for a moment is terribly inefficient. Find a pace that you can keep up for hours, two or three at least. Definitely work on pushing for speed, but burning out every hour forces you to take breaks and lowers your reserves. You’re looking for a pace that allows you to have a conversation, but barely. Keep sweating to a minimum and just keep going. If in the course of a 12 hour day of climbing you can break 4 times instead of 8 or 9 you’ve just saved yourself nearly an hour.
6. Shorter breaks
As pointed out above, breaks are necessary. You have to stop at some point to adjust to your surroundings and climb efficiently. Roping up, swinging leads, layering up or down, figuring out where the hell you are… all of these breaks are part of the game. Try incorporating other little tasks, like eating, into each of them. You can still tie a knot once you’ve crammed half a snickers into your mouth. Learn a sequence that works for you to unpack and pack your bag at each break, keep it consistent so everything goes smoothly. All the little ‘ah shit my rain jacket is at the bottom of my pack’ moments eat into time. Alone they’re not a big deal, but if they keep occurring, or you have a storm racing in on you, they add up.
7. Start early, go late
This tip mainly has to do with weight, though there are a few other benefits as well. If you willing to start at 11 PM the night before and keep moving for 18 or 24 hours, then the vast majority of climbs can be done without a tent. Of course if your heading to Denali it wont work, but for a weekend trip it could let you climb and still be back for a sunday sports match. Removing your tent, sleeping bag and pad from your gear list immediately saves a hell of a lot of weight. It does take careful planning though, if you epic you could be up shit creek without a shelter. Another benefit is reduced permitting. Usually land management agencies only require a permit if your actually camping. If you just keep moving, places where reservations fill up months in advance are still fair game for a last minute outing.
Training
8. Develop a base
Each type of climbing requires a different type of training. However every single climbing discipline will benefit from excellent overall fitness. Running, stair climbing, rowing and the like, prime your muscles to be trained into efficient and strong assets. Train year round and get a solid base, when climbing season comes you’ll be ready to go fast from day one.
9. Train for the long haul
Its awesome to be able to boulder V9 and red point 5.13, it gives you bragging rights I certainly haven’t earned. However in the mountains pulling through a few hard moves, at whatever level you’re climbing, is only the beginning. Focus on training for endurance, that way when you climb you can keep moving solidly the whole way through and still have reserves at the end.
10. Do your research
I am terrible at this, I love the adventure of not really knowing where I am and figuring it out as I go. However, the number of times I have bailed off a climb because I took too long figuring out which way to turn on the approach has started to annoy me. Take your time before you leave home. Check as many trip reports as you can, scope the climb out using Google Earth, spend hours pouring over maps, talk to everyone you can find thats been in the area before. Ask detailed questions about where common problems are as well as what difficulties surprised them. Also, focus on the descent. This is when you’re the most tired and likely to mess up route-finding or cut corners so getting it right is important. Hopefully the whole thing goes so smoothly it almost seemed too easy, but if you epic, every bit of information could help you get down safe.
These tips are in no way a bible for efficient movement in the mountains. You may even find that they don’t work for you at all! Start looking critically at your trips and finding the little bits of time that get used up doing tasks that could be done better. Use what works for you and keep experimenting. Of course there is a point where leaving behind commonly carried gear or reducing weight by trimming to bare essentials becomes useful. But before you compromise safety by leaving something behind, try and get time management and self care down to a science.
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