Training for the New Alpinism: A Manual for the Climber as Athlete

This is an outstanding, thorough, well done training manual for the mountaineer/alpinist. I've read it twice now, and it was even better the second time. It is not a "how to climb" book, that teaches you the knots, steps, and moves, or even a "climbing training" book, in the sense of teaching how to do on-the-rock or on-the-ice training the local rock gym or crag. There are several superb books on those subjects (Gadd's, Houston & Cosley's, Horst's, Long's, Leubben's, and more). House & Johnston is different: this book teaches you how to optimize your fitness for climbing, alpine climbing in particular, i.e., to put "more climber" behind the skills you have. The orientation is for both mountaineering and technical alpine projects - whether your goal is winter 14ers, classic alpine routes, Ruth Gorge classics, Andean or Himalayan giants, or anything within that general spectrum of casual outdoor recreation, this is your state of the art training Bible. And Lord knows, they deliver the gospel and deliver it well. House and Johnston know their stuff, from the theoretical and biological underpinnings of fitness They dispatch the tired and too-often said "just go climbing" - no athlete interested in maximizing performance "just goes climbing/running/riding." It takes more. But "more" does not just mean more often, or harder, or longer. This book tells you what "more" means - it is a thorough explanation of what the physical demands of alpine climbing actually are, what the science tells us about the best ways to train those capacities, and how to put all that together into an executable program. What, when, how much, how often, how long, how heavy, how hard . . . ALL the information you need to get in the best conditions your genes and environment allow is all there. Their treatment of aerobic capacity - why it is so crucial for what we do, and how and how NOT to organize your training to improve it - is worth the price alone. The book has many more real gems that you can put to use immediately: an "Alpine Combine," ala the famous NFL player evaluation combine,that serves as a handy means to assess and grade general fitness; a terrific, do-anywhere core sequence that lives up to its "Killer" name; weighted pullup, hill sprint, and loaded hiking cycles that are worth their weight in gold for the "bang for the buck" they deliver. Even the strength training information is stellar. I say "even," because, as a strength coach myself, I'm often disappointed or shaking my head at the mediocre, phoned-in strength prescriptions in most training-for-a-sport books. I shake it just as often at the currently popular "Crossfit" and its various knockoffs, all of which will make an unfit person much fitter, but all of which, at the same time, amount mostly to "working out to get better at our workouts," which is a far cry from working out to get better at climbing mountains. Not a deficiency here - the strength training information and advice in this book has a clear purpose (strengthen and toughen your musculoskeletal system to execute and withstand the demands of alpinism). House & Johnston lay out the stuff that works, the stuff that is relevant to our game, without cool but ultimately useless gym tricks. You don't have to do Olympic squat snatches, muscle ups on rings, or anything else that would make you ask yourself "Why am I doing this again?" You will be box stepping, leg raising, pulling on tools, etc. - if you have ever climbed anything technical and hard, you will know exactly why you are doing what you are doing. House & Johnston include a very solid menu of general strength exercises, good, clear instructions for those exercises, and some atypical movements that are highly climbing specific. Their strength programming guidance - the loads, sets, and reps that produce specific kinds of strength or strength endurance - are dead solid perfect. No lazy "three sets of 15-20 reps" drivel: they understand, provide, and explain the full complement of strength work needed (depending on the phase of training or goal), including circuits for preparatory or work capacity development, max strength sessions, and strength endurance work - all useful, all of which must be trained in very different kinds of workouts. Planning and programming information is similarly good, but has a distinct "major race" focus. House and Johnston are strong advocates for block periodization - spending sequential blocks of 2-5 months on specific components of fitness, leading to an overarching, major climb. The premise and prescribed approach is similar to, for example, the ideal training one would do for an Ironman, the Boston Marathon, or a championship meet in any similar sport - basically organizing the entire year toward one big audacious goal. That makes their specific planning prescriptions most suitable to climbers who build toward one or perhaps two major climbs or expeditions each year. If you are going to a big range for a bucket-list climb, this is exactly how to be in the best shape of your life for that trip - and why you need to begin that training about a year out. The book is less specific for one whose goal is closer to "high fitness year round." The authors point out, accurately, that it is impossible to be in your absolute best shape all the time - you have to build to that, and peak for it, and they show precisely how. But it would be a mistake to regard this book's value as limited to "training for an expedition." The concepts and workouts can easily be modified and used, in my opinion, by people who are less oriented around some huge annual or semi-annual project, and instead need to stay at a high level of fitness for various climbs and tick lists over their summer rock, shoulder alpine, and winter ice seasons. The authors' base and strength-endurance periods, for example, can be melded into an undulating periodization scheme that varies emphasis and exercise mode by the season, with transitions and 2-3 month builds toward the longer or more important climbs on the calendar. Some of us know how to do that, but I suspect others don't, and I'd like to see House & Johnston in the second edition include at least a chapter for the climber who isn't necessarily preparing for THE BIG CLIMB, but wants to stay in great shape over the course of a typical year and knock out a couple or three dozen significant alpine, ice or rock climbs during that year. Those folks, too, can be much fitter, and climb much better and more safely than if they "just go climbing" and practice random acts of exercise. Would love to see these authors comment on how they would organize the training of the avid weekend or twice-a-month alpinist across the seasons. Climbers will also appreciate their solid, no-nonsense nutrition section, which provides solid guidance on performance eating during training and on climbs. What they say works, every time, as opposed to "diets with names," which are hit or miss at best, and may work for Jill but not for Jane, and many of which border on stupid for an alpine athlete. Bottom line: Terrific book, well written, well organized, given the breadth of subject covered, and lavishly "iced" with relevant stories and sidebars from many of alpinism's leading lights and superb action photos. If you train to climb mountains, especially big challenging ones, where superb conditioning is a necessity more than a luxury, buy this book.

For me, this book was life-changing. If you think it might help you, buy it. It will. Whether neophyte or advanced. Really. Just do it. It's not just a compilation of information you could find on the internet, like some training books (including some for climbing). The authors are supremely qualified to have opinions and expertise in training for climbing and endurance. This really is a valuable resource I return to again and again to help guide my training and climbing. This book fills the void between books for conventional endurance sports (like running, for which many books are available, though few of this quality) and books for climbing. Alpine climbing and mountaineering offer unique challenges, and House and Johnston give great advice -- no, not just advice -- great guidance. This is not a "how-to" for climbing, and the authors assume you are experienced enough and know the vocabulary of climbing. But they offer an amazing, accessible introduction to important exercise and physiology concepts, particularly how they apply to alpinism. And because they're not bogged down explaining how to give a good belay, they can really get to the core of the matter. That matter is turning you into an endurance god. Continually improving month after month, season after season, year after year so you can achieve your goals... And that's another place where this book shines: it is inspiring and sparks motivation like no other training book I've read. I have major, life-altering goals I never thought I could have as a direct result of reading this book. (Let that sink in a moment.) Between the amazing photography and the stories from the authors as well as a number of other climbers/athletes, the core material of turning you into the best endurance machine you can be ... This book makes you feel like you can do things you never thought possible. Even things you still think are impossible, you might be inspired to try. This book does what a great, not just good, book can: giving you tools and concepts to change your thinking so that going forward you are an independent consumer of information and can engage in judgement-based decision making (rather than rule-based decision making). I could probably find some minute criticisms if I tried, but really there's no glaring or even minor errors of judgment or editing. The book speaks to both basic, intro mountaineers and world-class (or aspiring world-class) alpinists, so parts can be intimidating for the novice. But I find the amazing feats of the best climbers in the world to be motivating, as this book makes clear that it's not an accident that they can climb continually for 45 hours, it's a result of hard training and smart choices. And we see that they're real people (most of them, anyways). I'll never climb the Infinite Spur, much less set a speed record on it, but now I see how even impressive feats like that are more accessible through hard work and dedication. And the person who sets that record on the Spur will probably have read this book.

I will be honest that as a bit of a skeptic I was put off by the title from the start. “Training for the New Alpinism” immediately brought to me a flurry of questions such as what is the new alpinisim? Was the old way wrong? Has it changed all of sudden and who gets to redefine what is new? Surely, no one would call Messner the old alpinist since so few could repeat his works. Then when I saw who had written the book I knew immediately that both of authors where in a position of authority on the topic. Steve House, who claims not to be a genetically gifted athlete, is considered by many to be one of the greatest American alpinist of our time. House has no shortage of great climbs to his name but his marquee work is “The Central Pillar” (M5 X, 5.9 WI4) on the Rupal Face of Nagat Parbat (8,126m). For his efforts he and his partner were awarded the coveted Piolet d’Or. Scott Johnston has a well-established career as a climber and World Cup cross-country skier. With his own spectacular resume of climbs in the greater ranges Johnston now coaches many of the country’s top athletes. With authorities such as these the skepticism had to be put aside for intriguing dive into the book. Much like the process of training this book requires a fair amount of discipline and commitment. It reads more like an old college science text book rather than the overly simplified light read that you might find in the pages of Climbing or Men’s Health. With a deep push into the actual physiology of the physical fitness training it may take multiple rereading of sections to really fully understand and incorporate many of the concepts. This is not a book for the half-hearted two week New Year’s resolution crowd. It is for those who are willing to ingrain themselves with commitment towards an actual long term training regime. For those who are up to the challenge what they will find is perhaps the highest level of knowledge and expertise on the topics of training as they apply to the alpine climbing world. House and Johnson drive home what seems to be a mantra of gradually building through purposeful planned training. The book is not a system or gimmick and makes clear the importance of hard work over a great period of time to achieve the optimal results. What they are attempting to do is simply educate the reader on the tried and true methods of training world class athletes and apply them to the realm of alpine climbing. While I found it sometimes overly dense in information the authors made a considerable effort to break up the pages with poignant stories of success and failures from many of the World’s top alpinists. Supporting essays from Vince Anderson, Ines Papert, Mark Twight, Caroline George and other greats athletes bring home the importance of the concepts and yet another tier of legitimacy to the book. Everything in the book including the color photography and print quality are reflective into the high level of professionalism that these men put into their work. In the end I came to realize that the “New” was not just a change in the style in climbing as the author’s suggested but a ‘new’ approach in the way to think about your climbing. While I cannot recommend it for the ‘average’ lackadaisical climber I can say, for those committed to taking their climbing higher and further, that this book is the definitive work for alpine training. It doesn’t matter how great of climber you are, or aren’t, if you are serious in your commitment towards furthering your alpine career this is a must own book. 5 stars

I wish I had.... About 8 months ago I decided to "get healthy and fit," and embarked on my own program which simply consisted of eating better and starting to walk/hike regularly. I started of doing 1 hour per day at a moderate pace--covering about 2 miles over pretty easy ground. I started noticing the benefits--weight loss and a much better feeling of well-being almost immediately. It wasn't long before I had upped the hiking to 2 hours 5-6 times a week and a good portion of the hiking was climbing up and down hills. Feeling better, losing weight consistently. Started hiking even more difficult terrain including "timed hikes" in which I pushed myself to my limits for an hour at a time--hiking up difficult hills at the best pace I could muster. I improved at this to a certain point, then I noticed that I had plateaued, or even dropped off some. I still continued, figuring that I just needed to keep on my "program." About 6 weeks ago I started on a moderate hike with a group of friends and noticed that I really wasn't looking forward to the ordeal of climbing near the top of my ability for an hour or more. About 1/8 mile up that hike, I experienced a sudden feeling of lightheadness, which passed, but the hike "leader," who was a friend of mine, insisted that he and return to the trailhead. I walked back to the parking lot with him, carrying on a conversation that I still recall. Next thing I was aware of was being loaded into an ambulance and being transported to the emergency room. My friend and other witnesses have told me that when we reached the parking lot at the trailhead, I said I was going to go to urgent care and see if anything were wrong. Then I collapsed. After some thrashing around I apparently stopped breathing and had no pulse and started to turn blue. Luckily for me, an off-duty policeman just happened off the trail and administered CPR and revived me. A couple of days in the hospital undergoing tests were all negative--no heart attack, no stroke, no embolism--nothing they could pin down. I was also suffering from fairly intense vertigo in the aftermath. I did an echo-cardiogram/treadmill test in the hospital and passed with flying colors. They discharged me with a diagnosis of "syncope"--or "fainting" -- duh... Since then I've seen several more doctors, including another cardiologist and no one really offered any more information. Obviously it's been bothering me since, so I decided that before re-embarking on my exercise/fitness quest, I'd better get some help and more information. That led me to finding and locating a local trainer/coach and to this book. According to the trainer, and backed up by the data in this book, what happened to me is not at all surprising. I had been spending months pushing my body past its limits--feeling like I was making progress, when I was actually just depleting my fitness "reserves" to a point where something had to give. I imagine that lots and lots of people do the same thing, although hopefully without such catastrophic results. There is a SCIENCE to training/fitness and there are rules which if not followed will lead to little or no progress and sometimes to far worse consequences. The dangers increase if you are not in good shape to start with. I'm also older, which makes respect for limits even more important. This book is an amazing compilation of what's known about training. It has an emphasis on training alpinists (mountain/rock climbers) but there is a lot of basic information, especially in the beginning chapters, that explain the underlying principles of fitness in general. The authors know what they are talking about. So before you start "getting in shape" get some guidance from this book and hopefully a COMPETENT trainer and FOLLOW THE RULES. In the end you'll end up actually fit and hopefully not dead ;-). I'm looking forward to starting again and doing it right this time. Hope this helps! STP

I've been an amateur climber/mountaineer for 20 years now. I haven't been as active over the last 10 years with career and family duties, but I'm slowly getting back into it. I've found that after a decade of significantly reduced activity that its very difficult to train without hurting myself. This book doesn't really address this issue directly, but it gives a good overview of how to train in general so that you are alert and aware of the quality of your workouts so that you can make adjustments as necessary to prevent injury. It also gives you a realistic outlook on how long and gradual the training process really is. I can't do what I did in my 20's, which was basically train for a month, climb the mountain, and then let my body heal from all the damage I did in the process. I've always wondered why some mountains went better than others. After reading this book it has become very clear to me what I did right training for certain mountains and what I've done wrong on others. It's all about developing that aerobic base, but in this book it shows you how to really build that aerobic base far beyond anything I've done before by coupling the aerobic training with max strength training. I have not gotten to that part of the training program yet and I'm a little nervous about how my joints will hold up moving that type of strength training. The book definitely seems more catered to alpinists that are already in excellent shape. I bought this book a couple months ago and am on week 6 now of my tranisition period. My one complaint about this book is the starting volume one should begin with in their transition period is poorly described. For example, I estimated I trained about 5 hours per week last year, which works out to about 260 hours. This is slightly above what they estimate for working professionals. In the transition period it is suggested that we divide our training volume by 2 to get the number of hours per week that we train during transition. That works out to 2.5 hours per week, which isn't much. The strength training workouts last about 45 minutes for me and at twice a week that only leaves one hour for aerobic training, which is supposed to be where we're spending the bulk of our time. I found a post on [...] where someone asks this question. Scott Johnston answered the question and said that 2.5 hours was not very much and he was wondering why someone would need to exercise that little. He did say that if one were to exercise that little each week then you would not count your strength training sessions towards your training time each week. He did clarify that it's very subjective what your initial training volume should be. However, the subjectivity here becomes so overwhelming that it is extremely difficult to determine a starting point. It would be helpful if there was a little more direction for the non-professional climber. Overall though most of this book is excellent and will help assist the amateur climber to accomplish things that they once thought were only attainable when they were younger and missed the boat. For someone pushing 40 I find this book to be very encouraging as I now feel there is a way to train where my chances of getting injured are minimized. I would highly recommend this book to anyone I know that is serious about alpinism.

House and Johnston have written an engaging, thorough, and well-illustrated training manual for alpinists or any endurance athlete. Although written for the alpinist, this book is particularly valuable for the mountain ultramarathon trail runner. The overlap between alpine-style climbing and mountain ultramarathon trail running is substantial and the committed mountain ultramarathoner will benefit greatly from a focused read of this book. From the long "event" time duration to the importance of core strength for optimal performance and injury prevention, alpinisim and mountain ultramarathoning are nearly inseparable from a training perspective. In fact in many sections of the text one can interchange the word "climb" with the word "run" and loose no meaning or relevance. Replacement of some of the upper body strength guidelines with similarly structured run-specific guidelines and and one will find the information in this book is nearly all directly applicable to mountain ultramarathon training. Given that there currently exists no such comprehensive training manual specifically written for mountain ultramarathon training, this work is a great resource for the ultramarathon athlete. Although the importance of the mental aspects of training and competition (or expedition completion for alpinists) is well accepted, there is very little in the literature directed to the mountain ultramarathon athlete. Again, this book stands as a solid offering on the subject of mental training and development for intensely hard and long duration endeavors, whatever form they might take. House and Johnston, with publisher Patagonia Books, have produced a beautiful book from a graphic perspective as well. The illustrations, pictures, and interesting "vignettes" from many of the world's best alpinists serve, along with the excellent and thorough text, to make this book a classic tome that will be an important part of the canon for at least a generation.

An absolutely SUPERB book. At first glance, I was confused by the title, but decided to purchase anyway. Shortly after diving in, I learned what the "new alpinism" they were talking about actually was. Contrary to the popular expeditionary and large-team styles of mountain climbing that pervaded through the mid-20th century, the authors identify a powerful evolution in alpinism that has been unfolding over the past 20 years. This new style of alpinism consists of small teams, of two to four, climbing in alpine style and accomplishing the most amazing feats of mountain climbing ever seen. TFTNA addresses the necessary information for a solid understanding of exercise science, high-altitude physiology, nutrition and mental stamina and how they apply to alpine climbing. In addition to theory behind these topics, sample training regimens, case studies and diagrams are present throughout the book. Steve House and Scott Johnston make an impeccable pair for writing this book, combining two world-class careers in perhaps the most relevant topics possible. Incorporated throughout the book are essays from other professional climbers which both augment and offer new perspectives on the ideas presented in the main text. The photography provides great value to the book, even if for no reason other than inspiration. I highly recommend this piece of literature to anyone serious about taking their abilities in the mountains to new heights (pun not intended). This book, I believe, represents the future of alpine climbing and future, world-class endeavors in the mountains will occur in line with the precepts of it.

This book brings the latest sport science into alpine climbing. Such books abound in the realm of more traditional sports, such as cycling or running, but strangely enough principled training is barely the norm in mountaineering. I always felt I could get much better advice to prepare my body in a more efficient way for my climbing practice. I was waiting for such a book for years. Scott Johnson was coaching the renowned climber Steve House for many years, and they explain in great detail their experiences. I used to focus on "training spreadsheets" from other books, and eventually overtrained and injured myself, because spreadsheets completely ignore how your body reacts to the training stress and recovers. The level of detail provided in this book allows to understand much better why you train, and how to adjust training load so that the impact on climbing is maximized. The contribution of Mark Twight and other world-class climbers (e.g. Ueli Steck) adds a lot of credibility as well. In summary, there is no climbing technique per se in this book. The focus is essentially on how to physically prepare for any alpine climbing objective at a multi-year level, and integrates the climbing in the whole plan, while using proven training methodology from similar sports and the experience of some of the world's top climbers. As a bonus, the photographs are gorgeous. I have countless training book at home about multiple sports. Quite honestly, this is the most exciting and motivating book I read for years. I highly recommend it to anybody interested even remotely in alpine sports.