Training for Rainier

[nunns]

Read a previous thread from a few days ago about Ranier. I asked a question about what was necessary to climb it, and someone (Monster?) gave a great informational response, not so much about fitness as it was skill set. Great information.

Sean Nunn

[davebks]

Thanks for all the advice. It sounds like I will probably be fine if I just keep up with my training. Ive done peaks in Nepal, Peru, Colorado, etc so being in crampons, etc isn't foreign for me. I can ski all season, winter hike up some stuff, spring climb, etc and I should be fine, especially since I am really starting my training now.

[davebks]

is the hike up to Camp Muir from Paradise similar to the hike to Chasm Lake on Longs?
Trying to gauge what that portion will be like overall. Seems like that might be the hardest part! 5000 gain.

[zackrobinson2]

I did the Emmons rather than DC route, but the elevation gains for each day are similar. i thought summit day was slightly harder than the climb to high camp (Schurman for me, Muir for you). Granted, we descended the nearly 11,000' all the way back to the car on summit day, so that could be clouding my judgment. Summit day is higher, but you have less stuff on your back.

I personally didn't think Rainier was that physically difficult. You see articles saying you need to devote six months to training, but that depends on your base level of fitness. I probably did three weeks of dedicated Rainier training, but I was in pretty decent shape beforehand. I did a lot of vertical climber and Stairmaster work, including some pretty grueling two-hour vertical climber sessions where I was already wanting to murder someone after fifteen minutes. Hiking uphill with a pack at altitude and snow climbs in couloirs are probably the best training. A lot of Colorado couloirs mimic the steepness of the standard Rainier routes pretty well.

A few tips:
- Don't skimp on boots, especially if you are going in June. Even late June can have very hit-or-miss weather. I didn't take or need doubles, but I do think true four-season mountaineering boots are needed. Something like the La Sportiva Trango (three season boot) is not enough boot, IMO.
- Take more chocolate and Fritos than you think you need
- Use every piece of gear in the wild before you take it
- Have a solid calorie count for each day. Don't just eyeball food. Know how many calories you need and how many you are taking. 3500 or so per day is a good goal for most moderately sized men. I dehydrated my own pasta meals before leaving, and I also had some instant mashed potatoes that were my absolute jam. During activity, I ate one stroopwafel every hour. Eating something with ~150 calories an hour is a good target while moving. Food can make the difference between warmth and cold, energy and fatigue, summits and failure.

Good luck!

[davebks]

Great info, thanks.
I am in decent shape and have already started doing the stair stepper 4ish times a week, plus pilates, etc.
Soon I will get back out on the trails so by spring I will be pack ready. then I can do some spring peaks, snow climbs, etc.

I love the idea of the food count. thats a big one. need to be on that for sure.

fingers crossed ill be ready!!

[RhodoRose]

Thanks for the good info, everybody. I'm going up Rainier this year, too.

[TheRealRooster]

is the hike up to Camp Muir from Paradise similar to the hike to Chasm Lake on Longs?
Trying to gauge what that portion will be like overall. Seems like that might be the hardest part! 5000 gain.

I've done the DC route twice. The hike to Muir is longer and more strenuous than the hike to Chasm Lake. Summit day is a long day. The uphill portion is tougher than the hike to high camp, and descending 9,000' is interminable. Both days, as others have mentioned, are completely doable, but it's certainly not trivial. I've watched it humble some really fit people who didn't think they needed much or any training specificity. Sounds like you'll be fine, but just don't take it lightly. At worst, you're in better shape than you need to be for the mountain... and trust me when I say that it's more fun that way than the opposite!

[davebks]

sure, that makes sense. I had a feeling that it might be harder then I imagine.

[Dad Jokes]

Reviving this post for a Rainier summit attempt summer of 2025. I'm sure we're lacking some specificity, but my 12yr old and 2 teens and I are putting in a few days a week indoor climbing and 20-30 miles of running per week, currently. We'll start hitting some local 14ers as we get later in the spring (Bierstadt, Torreys, Grays, Pike's Peak, Elbert, Quandary). Anything people can recommend, especially to mix in some fun activities that will help us train either endurance or skills? Thanks.

[gonefishing05]

if by indoor climbing you mean the stair machine, then thatll help a lot.

indoor rock climbing really wont represent anything youll be doing on rainier.

If stuck inside stair machine, working your way up to having a weighted pack on has made a huge difference for me in the mountains. strength training (squats, general overall strength) helps.

Honestly though just doing 14ers with heavy packs is about as ideal as it gets

[ekalina]

On avy safe days in the spring/early summer, recommend some snow climbs. I haven't done Rainier, but some climbs I think would apply would be:

Whale's Tail (Whale Peak)
Cristo (Quandary)
Boudoir (Horseshoe)
Box Creek (Elbert)
Lost Rat (Grays)
Dead Dog (Torreys)
Snow Lion (Jasper)

These will get you on moderate to steep snow. If you're doing Disappointment Cleaver, Dead Dog and Snow Lion may be a bit harder, since those get close to 50 deg and summitpost reports that DC is only 35 deg.

And caution, a fall on these routes would be high consequence, and you should have avy training/gear. Rockfall is a risk...helmets.

There's also the glacier travel aspect, which you can only simulate in Colorado. St. Marys "glacier" could be a good place to demo that.

Are you doing Rainier guided or unguided? If guided, check with your guiding company about what training climbs they'd recommend in Colorado.

[susanjoypaul]

For physical preparation, there's a lot of great advice in this thread. I trained hard for three months and got up there no problem. Basically just stuck to my usual five days a week of weight training at the gym, focusing extra time on core, back, and legs; cardio; stairstepper with a pack stuffed with four 10-pound plates, and getting up above 13,000 feet every week. Then take a break for a week before the climb to let my legs fully recover.

Oh, I also quit smoking. After 35 years of smoking a pack to two packs a day - no kidding. It was easy 'cause I figured I only had to do it for three months.

But you should also work on your technical skills *with* your team. I did Rainier unguided, but with a CMC group via the Emmons-Winthrop Glacier, so one of the instructors had already been up there. This was the final "grad climb" to finish off HAMS (High Altitude Mountaineering School). I think a lot of folks in here have taken that same course. To pass it, we were tested on a lot of skills that you can practice here in Colorado:

Basic ice axe and crampon use: How to pack them, hold them, and use them. You can do this on St Marys Glacier and lots of other places. Anywhere there's steep snow.

Self-arrest: All four ways and with a heavy pack on (head down, head up, on your stomach, on your back, etc.). We practiced at Glen Cove on Pikes Peak. I remember Little Italy being pretty exciting, but don't recommend it for your first time or if it's icy. If you don't navigate the turn at the bottom or stop, you're going to hit rocks.

Rope and harness skills: Putting on an alpine harness; chest harness; fixed-line travel; running belays; prusiking up a rope with prusiks and with ascenders; snow and ice anchors like pickets, V-threads, dead men; boot/axe belays; crevasse rescue, including C-pulleys and Z-pulleys (we had to be able to set up a Z-pulley within five minutes to pass); glacier travel communication; knots - whatever you need to do all of the above.

I cover some of this stuff in a chapter in my book Woman in the Wild, and there's much more in the classic Freedom of the Hills (I believe the Mountaineers just came out with a new edition last year). But you really need on-the-ground, real-world training to prepare properly. Also, do the mundane stuff - but in bad conditions. You might be setting up a tent in 35-mph winds (we did). Practice cooking meals in a tent with a vestibule that's designed for that (not a regular tent, which could kill you). Figure out how you're going to pee without getting out of your harness. 

If you're going guided, your guides might take care of all of this for you or give you a crash course in the basics. But you'll enjoy it more and get more from the experience if you understand what's going on and how you can participate. You'll also be more prepared for accidents. I remember clearly the first time I saw a crevasse big enough to drop a bus into on Rainier and thinking, "Wow, this is not Colorado..." and "I'm sure glad I learned all this stuff with other people who learned it too. And that we're all on the same rope."