Just looking for opinions here. I am looking for a test/workout to establish my baseline fitness level, which I can then test intermittently as I progress through a training period (i.e. once a month or something for 6 months).

This used to be simple when I was running--you either ran a time trial or a race, or you ran an identical track workout and compared split times. However, there are several problems I'm running into:

1. I want it to be very specific to mountaineering. The technical climbing aspect is simple, and can be measured by the ability to onsight or redpoint harder routes or whatever. I want to test my cardio/aerobic ability to move in the mountains, preferably with a pack. This rules out road biking, running, elliptical trainers or rowing machines as a suitable test.

2. The conditions need to be fairly consistent. Temperature isn't as big of a deal, but the mountains here are covered in snow. I could choose a trail and just hike up it as fast as possible with a pack, and then repeat that each time I want to test myself. But right now there's snow, in a few months it will be muddy as hell and after that it will be dry and I'll obviously be able to go faster with less effort.

3. I haven't been able to find any roads with hills long enough or nearly steep enough to do this someplace that is not covered by snow.

The only feasible option I'm seeing (bear in mind I want this test to be somewhere around an hour long...i.e. how much ground can one cover in an hour or something similar) is to use a stair machine with a pack. I had shied away from this because it's possible to cheat a bit by propping yourself up with the rails, and because the repetitive movement is not identical to hiking/climbing. Also, the machine has set speeds, so it's a bit harder to adjust pace and allow for differentiation between tests. However, it seems to be the best option.

Any thoughts or suggestions?

I do the stairmaster with a 50# pack on. To gauge my fitness level I set my average heart rate over the hour and then track how much I can lower that average over time.

I also run intervals getting the heart rate to a peak (195 or so) and time how long it takes me to get it back down to 120-125 or so. The faster recovery is the better shape I feel I am in. Intervals is also a great way to increase the number of red blood cells that carry oxygen . (so they say)

Dingus, I have access to a stair machine similar to the second one posted (the nicer kind, at our community center). I don't wear a pack on it usually (and thus cover a LOT of ground), but for purposes of testing my fitness I would wear a 30 lb pack perhaps (simulating a daypack with climbing gear). My gym doesn't have a versaclimber.

Scotty: tracking recovery times after intervals is an interesting idea, but I have found that my recovery speed is really impacted by how much sleep I've had lately, hydration levels, etc, whereas my ability to hike quickly is somewhat less impacted by those factors (impacted, but to a lesser extent). I also don't want to rely on intervals for testing fitness, since I am looking to test fitness over 1-2 hour long stretches.

By the way....50 lbs is a lot of weight. I can't imagine moving too fast on a stair machine with that much in my pack. I'm a wuss when it comes to pack weight.

I am stuck at level 6 on the stairmaster with weight on. It is over 4000' of climbing in the hour.

You may check out this guys blog. He knows a bit about climbing!
http://www.stevehouse.net/Site/Home.html

[quote="ScottyP"]I do the stairmaster with a 50# pack on. To gauge my fitness level I set my average heart rate over the hour and then track how much I can lower that average over time./quote]

This is exactly what I do. As one of the other posts said, try not to use the handrails as a crutch. I also do intervals using 2 steps at a time because it works the glutes and quads. You should also purchase a Polar Heart Monitor. The better watches come with the ability to calculate your resting metabolic rate. No matter what you do for exercises, you will be able to measure your RMR gains (or losses) over time.

Yep, have a polar. Since I started my training for Denali resting HR is down over 7 bpm.. Scott

You could try some of the Gym Jones workouts for time. The Jones Crawl, so-named because most people crawl away when done, is always fun. You start by deadlifting 115% of your body weight 10 times, then jump up onto a thigh-high box 25 times -- repeat twice, without a rest, for time. When I was there a 20-something Army ranger finished first in 4:34 minutes. Some writer guy finished five seconds later. Rob MacDonald, Mark's right hand man, beat both by almost a minute.

I've looked at a lot of those workouts and wondered, how much help on the summit ridge of XXX would a 4 minute workout help me ? I am not trying to start a debate, but I still think we need some LSD (long Slow Distance) workouts to our regime. I believe that is what the OP was asking about.

I do have a heart rate monitor and used to use it religiously. Now I've got a good feeling for my LSD pace (or whatever you want to call it), but I still use it sometimes.

I like to read about the Gym Jones workouts (and Crossfit and others) and have used some of them before. I think they're great workouts, though they don't make up the entirety of what I do by any means, or even the bulk of it. But I'm not sure they'll be a great test of my fitness.....they're a useful method of building my fitness, but not testing it necessarily. I could be wrong though.

Well, if you want a baseline fitness measure, go climb something and see how fast you can do it. Other than that, all I can say is if it's good enough for Mark Twight and Steve House... Actually, I worked a lot harder in an hour at Gym Jones than I have on most of the 6k meters peaks I've done. I can't imagine anyone really needing to train for slogging (or what you might call LSD) unless you don't really climb much, in which case you need to do less training and more climbing.

MichaelJ wrote:Well, if you want a baseline fitness measure, go climb something and see how fast you can do it. Other than that, all I can say is if it's good enough for Mark Twight and Steve House... Actually, I worked a lot harder in an hour at Gym Jones than I have on most of the 6k meters peaks I've done. I can't imagine anyone really needing to train for slogging (or what you might call LSD) unless you don't really climb much, in which case you need to do less training and more climbing.

MichaelJ wrote: Well, if you want a baseline fitness measure, go climb something and see how fast you can do it. Other than that, all I can say is if it's good enough for Mark Twight and Steve House... Actually, I worked a lot harder in an hour at Gym Jones than I have on most of the 6k meters peaks I've done. I can't imagine anyone really needing to train for slogging (or what you might call LSD) unless you don't really climb much, in which case you need to do less training and more climbing.

MichaelJ, That is why I liked House' blog site. He is a firm believer in the lsd as a major component to his workouts. I have done some crossfit and I was WIPED after 40 minutes or so. Yes, it works. I was only saying that I feel I need a lot of longer workouts to build endurance for the type of climbing I enjoy. And truthfully, do any of us get out as much as we would like ? I know I don't. If we did there would be 2/3rds less posts here!

p.s. MichaelJ, after reading your TR on Liberty, it is OBVIOUSLY working for you. What a trip you had!

ScottyP wrote:MichaelJ, That is why I liked House' blog site. He is a firm believer in the lsd as a major component to his workouts. I have done some crossfit and I was WIPED after 40 minutes or so. Yes, it works. I was only saying that I feel I need a lot of longer workouts to build endurance for the type of climbing I enjoy. And truthfully, do any of us get out as much as we would like ? I know I don't. If we did there would be 2/3rds less posts here!

Interesting point. Mark Twight found that switching to a cross-fit style workout benefited his climbing and sports activities, but while still keeping an endurance base (no surprise the House ascribes to this same philosophy).

There are many fitness benchmarks. Personally, I believe that you should keep a certain amount of strength and power as well as cardiovascular endurance. If you are looking for the latter, then take up some of the suggestions that people have already given.

If you want to see how your strength and muscular fitness measure up you should really try something like MichaelJ's suggestion.

Personally, I don't see the difference (or separation) between the two, but everyone has their methods.

Main thing to keep in mind? Nothing competes with outdoor training for mountain climbing condition. I would keep it outdoors as much as possible, even if I had to suck in bad air or it was -40f/c. Keep the excuses at bay.

ok, looking back...I am not sure any of these dudes were straight! But we won races. (in all fairness, those were my wife's glasses)