Muscular Endurance for Mountain Athletes

[bpitcher]

Had some similar experiences as you guys (although not as long or as many miles) on my NM trip. Muscular fatigue was near zero, except for a few sections we were on our tippy toes going up. I am happy with the results considering I started these about 5 weeks before the hunt. 30lbs felt effortless going up and down.

Our limiting factor was our lungs in most places. Likely because we came from sea level straight to 7-9k with no acclimation and we are used to moving too fast. I'm too used to racing around everywhere with my ruck on and I think that's probably not the play in steep terrain - especially on longer trips. Lessons learned for next trip...

(bonus points if you can spot the bull)

 

[mtwarden]

^ Good deal! Top of ridge, just right of center?

 

[COJoe]

I read through most of this post as it was so relevant to what we do each year on the mountain. We had seven days on the mountain with only sitting still on opening day. All other days were hiking with about 30-35 lbs or so heading up drainages, sometimes straight up, slowly but so much of the time was spent side hilling. This is something I need to start training more for as it will fatigue your ankles, shins and knees more than I realized. For me, it was my weakest point, not terrible, just fatigued at times which starts a mental issue of thinking, I don't want to go down/up there. That can ruin a hunt. How many of you train for side hilling? The mountains I hunt have no flats spots, lol. Also, they have lots of beetle kill pines and small dead aspen that you can't use for any uphill leverage. I've started back up my training for next year so, God willing, I'll be stronger and focused better for 2025. I was so glad to have my Crispi Colorados on.

Poser, we saw a few drainages like your photos show and was kinda hoping I didn't see an elk down in them, lol.