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Friday, February 16, 2023 | 5:38 PT

This morning everyone reported having slept soundly. As it turns out, even climbing half of Antisana is still hard. We're recovering and now looking forward to Chimborazo, which has been giving us quite the show this evening. We're staying at the Chimborazo Lodge, an historic mountain lodge run by Marco Cruz, a climbing legend in Ecuador. It sits at about 13000' right at the base of the southwest flank of the mountain. There is no cell reception and no wifi, giving us a chance to unplug and hone our focus towards the task at hand, climbing another massive volcano. With any luck and a lot of trying hard we may have a chance to visit a truly majestic summit. Stay tuned!

-- RMI Guide Dustin Wittmier

High Intensity Interval Training, often referred to popularly as HIIT training, have been featured in a few recent studies that concluded that a short HIIT workout was as or more effective at promoting cardiovascular health than steady state activity. The first paragraph of a recent New York Times article reads:

Think you’re too busy to work out? We have the workout for you. In minutes, high-intensity interval training (HIIT) will have you sweating, breathing hard and maximizing the health benefits of exercise without the time commitment. Best of all, it’s scientifically proven to work.

Despite the recent attention, interval training is not anything new to seasoned athletes and coaches who have understood the benefits of repetitive high intensity workouts for a long time. Many of the recent studies have focused on previously sedentary people trying to improve basic cardiovascular health, rather than on elite athletes striving towards a performance goal. With that said, we have and continue to encourage climbers to utilize interval training (by it’s nature high intensity) as part of a well-designed training program.

Interval training can accomplish a wide array of tasks and works best when the focus of a workout is clear:

Longer intervals, from 5 to 8 minutes, at 70 – 85% of max heart rate work to improve the lactate threshold, the body’s ability to metabolize and clear lactate build up from muscle cells, increasing the amount of work that the body can perform sustainably. A good example is an elite level marathon runner, who is able to sub six-minute miles for over two hours during a race. The intensity that they are working at is very high, yet the body is able to sustain it over a very prolonged period of time.

Shorter intervals, from 20 seconds to a few minutes, performed at 85 – 95% of max heart rate (very intense!) increase the body’s anaerobic threshold, it’s ability to perform work while in oxygen deficit. Think Olympic swimmer in the 50-meter butterfly: the intensity that they race at surpasses the body’s ability to clear lactic acid and to provide enough oxygen to the muscle cells for them to continue that pace for a long period of time. The race is very short, however, and for that 20-something seconds, their muscles are able to put out an immense amount of power in oxygen deficit.

It may seem as though interval training isn’t as applicable to our sport of mountaineering. We tend not to sustain the very high levels of output, but instead operate for far longer periods at moderate intensity. It is the very definition of an endurance sport. Interval training provides other physiological adaptations however that go beyond the abilities of the skeletal muscles. Interval training is shown to increase cardiac output, by increasing the size of the left ventricle, the stroke volume and the overall contractility of the heart. Increased cardiac output supplies more blood to muscle cells, delivering more oxygen and removing more waste. Additionally, interval training has been shown to increase the size and density of mitochondria in the muscle cells. Mitochondria use oxygen to convert glucose to ATP (the cells’ energy source). Both of these adaptations help endurance athletes go longer, faster and with less effort, and ultimately help us in the mountains.

Interval training is harder on your body than traditional steady state workouts and requires longer to recover from as well. Therefore, too heavy of a focus on interval training can lead to overtraining and injury. More of a good thing isn’t necessarily better. It’s important to realize that a good training plan maintains a balance of high intensity workouts and lower intensity steady state workouts.

As part of the recent HIIT hype, people have championed the fact that HIIT gets more done in less time, even as little as 10 minutes. This may be true for an average person whose goal is to improve overall cardiac health, but for athletes working towards goals in the mountains, remember that there are no short cuts. Time invested in your training will lead to a more enjoyable and successful climb.

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Questions? Comments? Share your thoughts here!

This morning came as both a blessing and a curse.  Most of our previous evenings have transitioned nicely from our enjoyable group dinner into bed time which we naturally gravitate towards around 8:30 or 9.  On paper this trip offers yak loads of down time and should, if played right, give each of us a solid 9 hours of shuteye.   

But we all know plans, as perfect as they may seem, play out far differently than the spreadsheet says they should.  Just ask Vladimir Putin about that.   

But thankfully none of us are crazy, demented humans and simply get a bit sidetracked with issues such as stomach funkiness, altitude weirdness and in the case of last night, a pack barking dogs.  There were only four of them, I know because I chased them around the village of Lobuche at 2 am with rocks and a ski pole, but nothing would make them stop.  We were sleeping at an altitude of 16,000 feet so it wasn’t the easiest anyway but never had I heard nonstop dog shouting for 8 hours straight.   So this morning was a blessing because they finally shut up when the sun hit but a curse because I was tired and cold and just wanted to stay in bed.  But we had miles to cover!

After our standard breakfast, complete with dog stories, admissions of no sleep and an eagerness to get on the trail, we slung our packs and followed our Sherpa leader Dawa.  The path started easy but soon steepened and became a lot more rugged when we began to cross a small glacier.   Our objective was the last village of Gorak Shep, before getting to Everest Base Camp tomorrow.   A steady three hour stroll landed us on target with views of Nuptse and Everest dominating the views up ahead.   The day was perfect and we knew our hike up a ridge line to a small summit called Kala Patar was going to be stunning.   

We powered down some lunch and headed out.  The trail head was conveniently located two minutes from our lodge so before we could say yak cheese we were head up.  The summit sits at 18,500 feet which we achieved an hour and a half after leaving.  The vistas were as good as advertised and no matter how man times you see it, one can’t help but to be blown away by the size and power of the Everest cirque.  We could also see Base Camp far below and got excited to go there tomorrow.   

By 3 the clouds began to move up the valley, like they do every day at that time so it motivated us to descend and go get some tea.  

Now we are resting before dinner and our schedule horizontal time.  This isn’t planned, it’s a product of challenging days and a demanding environment.   Plus it keeps us healthy.   

Stay tuned for our journey to EBC tomorrow.   

RMI Guide Adam Knoff

Today was a special day. If you listen to enough Tony Robbins you will learn that every day is a special day but for us, me in particular, this day was one I have looked forward to for fourteen years. 

Before we get to why that is, I will say the team is doing great going from point A to point B and enjoying every bit this place has to offer along the way.  

Today we did our standard packing, breakfast and launch with the starting point being Namche Bazaar and the ending point being Phortse village. The trail was a bit more difficult today with many ups and downs but in the end, we only gained 1000 feet. Our weather was cloudy so no mind-blowing views but the temps were good for walking, and we could see a long way up the valley so everyone was still in awe of the complete magic of this place.  After a solid seven-mile jaunt, we landed at the Phortse Guest House which is owned by an old friend of mine and the reason this day is meant a lot.  

18 years ago, Conrad Anker asked me to be an instructor for a school in Nepal he had planned in the Khumbu region of Nepal during the month of January.  Back then I knew very little about this place but couldn’t pass up an opportunity to join Conrad Anker, John Krakuer and three other world class climbers to help create a vocational school at the base of Mt. Everest teaching local Sherpa and Nepali climbers more formal skills helping them peruse a career in expedition work.  

Three years later I became the program director of that school but unfortunately passed the torch on when my son was born in 2009.  It has been 14 years since my last visit which seems like an eternity.  But reconnecting with old friends, seeming the new KCC building and sitting around a table eating bahl bot and drinking tea with all the Sherpas makes for an emotional reunion. I could not have asked for a better day.  

Tomorrow we unfortunately leave Phortse and walk a solid 5 hours to Pheriche, our next village.   

Thanks for following.   

RMI Guide Adam Knoff & Team

Today's Mt. Rainier Summit Climb teams, led by RMI Guides Pete Van Deventer and Walter Hailes, turned due to hazardous route conditions.  The teams ascended to Ingraham Flats to watch the sunrise before descending back to Camp Muir where they had breakfast.  They left Camp Muir around 9:45 a.m. and are working their way back to Paradise.

After four days of living it up at basecamp, we packed up our gear and moved up hill to Camp 1 at 16,400 feet. We were lucky enough to have clear skies and calm winds the whole way to camp as we meandered through the glacial moraine above basecamp. Shortly after arriving at Camp 1, the weather turned, the temperature dropped, and snow began to fall. After a very dry winter in the Andes, Aconcagua is in desperate need of snowfall and we welcome the fluffy white precipitation as we hunker down in our tents for some rest before dinner. Tomorrow, we load up again and carry half of our food and gear to Camp 2 at 18,000 feet. The trail to higher camps gets easier from here, but the air gets thinner with every step we take uphill. Everyone is still doing well and we can’t wait to see what the upper mountain has in store.

RMI Guide Nick Scott

On The Map

It was a wee bit chilly overnight as the clear skies allowed all the heat to escape into outer space. So, we did what any responsible mountaineer would and we waited until the sun was directly upon us before leaving our tents. After a tasty breakfast of bagels, cream cheese, and salmon lox, we ourselves got locked and loaded, ready for glacier travel! After 6ish hours of a slightly less heinous trail breaking through deep snow we arrived at our new campsite.

Our camp is in the middle of two mountain saddles, perfectly situated to catch maximum early morning and late evening sunshine. The rest of the day was consumed by building camp and consuming burritos. We got to bed under overcast skies and were excited to see what tomorrow will bring!

Cheerio,

RMI Guides Jack, Mike and the Ruth Team