Fitness For Mountain Sports

It goes without saying that arriving fit and well is important if you want to get the most out of your holiday - and is essential for succeeding on many of our objectives. So to help you choose an appropriate course and prepare well for it, we give neccesary fitness and experience levels for all of our trips and courses.

The 5 fitness levels described below are designed to give you an idea of how fit you need to be in order to enjoy each course - and how best to prepare if you are not quite at that level already! You don't need to be an athlete, but you do need to be active and healthy (for our harder trips, some regular training will be neccesary).

Please note that we are talking about cardiovascular exercise here - that gets your heart and lungs working hard for extended periods, in order to help you keep going for several hours at a time. This is very different from strength or power training such as weights/rowing etc, which do little to improve your mountain stamina. On technical climbing courses, we also recommend regular visits to the wall or crag as the best way to develop your specific climbing fitness.

Mountain Fitness Levels:

Please try and be realistic when assessing your fitness for mountain sports here - as we find that men are more likely to overestimate their fitness, whilst women more often do the opposite! (We've taken an average sports session to be about one hour long, so if you go jogging for 20-30 mins 4 times a week - that's equivalent to about 2 one hour sessions.) For equivalent ski fitness levels - click here.

Level 1 - You do regular cardiovascular exercise 1-2 times per week (ie visit the gym, jog, walk, cycle, play sport etc). (Eg. Should be able to climb Snowdon from Pen Y Pas in around 2 hrs carrying a day sack, or Bow Fell starting from from Langdale in the Lake District in about 2 1/2 hrs.)

Level 2 - You run/cycle (or equivalent) 2-3 sessions per week. ie you climb/bike/walk or run regularly at the weekends, plus once or twice during the week. At this level you should be happy doing either a 4-5 hr hillwalk, cycling 30 miles or mountain biking 2-3 hours without being exhausted. (Eg. Should be able to walk from Ogwen Cottage in N Wales up Glyder Fach - Glyder Fawr - Y Garn & back to Ogwen in ~5hrs or Langdale - Bowfell - Esk Pike - Angle Tarn - Langdale in ~ 6hrs.)

Level 3 - You do cardiovascular sport 3-4 sessions a week. ie you get out every weekend, plus 2-3 times midweek. At this level you are happy doing a 6-8 hr hillwalk, 50ml cycle or 5hr mountain bike ride without being totally cream crackered. If you are into challenges - then the thought of training to do a 1/2 (or maybe even a full) marathon, wouldn't seem too ridiculous. (Should be able to do the full Langdale Horseshoe: Langdale - Pike of Stickle - Angle Tarn - Bow Fell - Crinkle Crags - Pike of Blisco - Langdale in a day without finishing up exhausted.)

Level 4 - You train for sport 4+ sessons per week. ie you are a keen sports person, who trains regularly. A 70 ml cycle ride, or 20+ mile hillwalk on a weekend would hold no fears. If so inclined, you might be the kind of person who has done a ~3.30hr marathon or similar challenges. Keen hillwalkers who happily knock off 3-4+ munros in a day also have this kind of fitness.

Level 5 - You train 5-6 sessions a week for competitive sport, have a background in the same, or you are annoyingly talented. Either way, doing a 100 ml bike ride or about a 3hr marathon wouldn't be unreasonable.

(Above this, we are into the realm of talented and hard training sports people. If you are in this category, you probably already know what you are physically capable of - but please don't overlook the importance of appropriate experience and mountain skills eg good footwork, climbing or skiing ability - which are just as critical as fitness for your success in the mountains.)

Important: You need both the required fitness level and mountain experience level in order to enjoy any given holiday, as our guides will assess your fitness and ability levels before embarking on any serious objective (current weather and mountain conditions are also taken into account). If they decide that a particular objective should not be attempted, then an alternative will always be offered. If your fitness or skills are in doubt however, there is a risk you could be excluded from an activity if your participation could risk the safety, success or enjoyment of the rest of the party. It is very unusual for us to have to do this, but it can occur if you are not realistic about your current experience or fitness levels, or you do not prepare sufficiently for the trip.

How Do I Get Mountain Fit?

The best preparation for mountain sports always involves good amounts of cardiovascular exercise outdoors (running, cycling, mountain biking etc) and getting out for long days in the hills whenever possible. One of our guides favourite sayings is: "...no mountaineer ever got fit down the gym!" ie we've noticed that people who always train indoors are never as mountain fit as those who regularly get their boots or trainers muddy. Unfortunately it seems that running on a treadmill just isn't as good for you as doing the real thing - so to get hill fit, get outdoors as much as you can!

If you do the amounts of regular weekly cardiovascular exercise indicated on the fitness level for your course during the 2-3 months leading up to your trip, then you should be reasonably well prepared. Don't forget to read the trip descriptions carefully to find out what else is involved too, so you can tailor your preparation accordingly - eg you are off on an expedition or a week of alpine climbing, then a few days spent walking or climbing in the mountains with your rucsac on wouldn't go amiss, whereas for a rock or ice trip then some regular visits to the local crag or climbing wall are advised.

To check out how mountain fit you are, we suggest you get away for a weekend early in this period and do a couple of long mountain days to see how you get on. Apart from being the ideal excuse to go and have some fun, it should help with your preparation and give you a good idea how much work you may still need to do.