Climbing conditioning
The Baron
considering myself completely out of the sport. I need some info for a
writer's research project. (thingamajig for writer's retreat... "obtain
popular and/or anecdotal research data from online or other anonymous
sources, incorporate as both plot objects and thematic
background...ARGH!!!)
Big Himalayan mountain. Man of 40 in shitty shape. (ie, 12min mile
run, wants to die after 15 storeys of stairs, you get the picture...) Man
honestly does condition well and fairly rapidly having learned this
during stint as a Paratrooper. (He has gotten into seriously good
condition in very short time without dying from it.)Has to summit to meet
spiritual/mythic objective to resolve life and death crisis. (Also has to
return, that's always struck me as a bit more significant part than just
getting to the top.)
Okay, all you high altitude gods out there, what kind of time frame
are we looking at for our illustrious hero to go from his current
condition to being able to safely join a major professional expedition
climb on Nanga Parbat, Kanchenjunga or Manaslu? (specific mountains
chosen by thoroughly annoying instructor reading from a list of REALLY
BIG MOUNTAINS(tm)and deciding they had the "names most likely to be
accepted as sources of mythical enlightenment to a broad spectrum of
readers... read, he thought the names were cool and they're not Everest
or K2)
I'm looking for a realistic time frame here assuming our hero starts
out with a program that's not going to kill him. Hiking, weight and
resistance work, local small mountain glacier climbs, etc...)
One year? Five years? Forget it, he's a 40 year old computer-spud
and will die horribly as he bounces down the Rhupal face, screaming for
his wasted life regardless of any training?
In short, I got my short and curlies in a knot when the instructor
read my bio and decided that climbing should be something I put into the
story as a central thematic component... HELP!!!
Jeff
Ryan Pfleger
Number of Himalayan peaks I've climbed to make me an authority... 0.
Good luck with your workshop!
Ryan
"The Baron" <x01...@icqmail.com> wrote in message
news:Xns9341C8663400x...@216.148.227.77...
The Baron
news:v7dd7n...@corp.supernews.com:
> Number that sounds right to me... 1-2 years.
> Number of Himalayan peaks I've climbed to make me an authority... 0.
>
> Good luck with your workshop!
>
> Ryan
Many thanks for the reply. This is the basic time period I'm looking
at, not so much from a total conditioning perspective but from being able
to schedule enough rock and ice time to not be a complete loss on the big
mountain. I'm guessing that scheduling the medium high mountains (6k+,
7500m+) is probably the most critical part of learning how to get to the
top of one of the truly big ones and back with most of the original
pieces.
Again, thanks for the reply.
Jeff
Markus Winter
Try this: http://www.mounteverest.net/guide.htm
Cheers
Markus