How to Train to Climb Mount Everest

Mountain Trip has been working with Uphill Athlete for over a decade to provide our climbers and guides with mountaineering and mountaineering goal training. Steve House and the Uphill Athlete staff do an amazing job breaking down the physical demands of major expedition climbs and helping climbers succeed in difficult environments. I personally used Uphill Athlete’s coaching and training philosophies to help me prepare for summits of Denali and Everest.

this Uphill Athlete Program Provides a ton of information about training and coaches and training groups. They also share articles like this one about training for Everest, which we wanted to share here.

— Bill Allen, Mountain Journey

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Training for an Everest expedition requires a careful combination of physical, mental, and technical preparation. Although our book, New mountaineering training, This guide dives deep into these topics, providing concise, actionable advice that builds on basic theory to help you understand the “why” behind an effective mountain training program. Let's embark on a journey to prepare you to conquer Earth's highest peaks.

Sports training for climbing Mount Everest

Mount Everest places great physical and mental stress on climbers. Unlike other sports, climbing Mount Everest cannot be done halfway. Success and safety in climbing Mount Everest depends on rigorous training and preparation, not only on the ascent, but also on the descent.

When to start training for Everest

To ensure you are fully prepared for the physical and mental demands of an Everest expedition, it is important to start training At least 6 months before the expedition. Ideally, starting 8-9 months in advance will provide a better opportunity to gradually build the necessary endurance, strength and technical skills. This extended training period allows for a more gradual increase in training intensity and volume, reducing the risk of injury and ensuring peak fitness when you begin your climb.

This is a longer article that will help you understand this topic in more depth.

Endurance physiology is universal

The right combination of aerobic training and climbing-specific strength training is essential. Our decades of experience in mountaineering allow us to devise the best approach to prepare you for the unique challenges of Everest.

“Fatigue makes everyone timid.”

In mountaineering, especially on Everest, fatigue is the greatest controllable limitation. Speed ​​is safety; the faster you ascend and descend the mountain, the lower your risk of encountering storms and extreme temperatures, and the less time you spend in the “death zone” at extreme altitudes. Technical ability and endurance are essential. Improve your climbing skills by practicing on increasingly challenging routes and mountains, preferably under the guidance of an experienced instructor.

read: What can make people last?

I want to climb Mount Everest, where should I start?

To prepare for your climb to Everest, focus on these key fitness elements:

1. Aerobic capacity: Essential for climbing for long periods of time without excessive fatigue. Don't call it “aerobic exercise”; it's about endurance training. Whether on the trail or on the treadmill, developing the ability to climb for long periods of time is by far the most decisive factor in helping you prepare for climbing Everest.
2. Strength training: In mountaineering, speed is power. From core stability to leg strength, everything is important.
3. Muscular endurance: The ability of your legs to complete thousands of repetitions is critical.
4. Form/Skill: Efficient movement over rough terrain conserves energy and reduces fatigue. This skill can only be honed on similar terrain.
5. Acclimatization: You will be spending many hours at high/extreme altitudes. Everest Base Camp, at 5300 meters, is one of the highest base camps in the greater mountain range. It is relatively comfortable, but this altitude does not allow your body to recover well between climbs. How your body responds to lack of oxygen will be critical and determine your safety and success.
6. Hypoxia acclimatization. Science and practice have converged in favor of the use of normobaric hypoxia via mask and/or sleeping tent. While such acclimatizations are not exactly equivalent to “true” hypoxia, they do shorten expedition times, speed up and improve logistics, and increase resistance to illness and infection that would normally hamper your performance on Everest. You need to consider 8-12 weeks of HC for Everest. In the last 6-8 weeks, you will be sleeping at such a high altitude that your physical training will be affected. This means, you have to start physical training as soon as possible.

Uphill Athlete coaches have prepared more climbers for Everest than all other coaching services combined. Their training programs progress from simple general training to complex specific training and hypoxia training as your expedition date approaches.

CTA: Training Group

The Basics of Endurance Training

1. Consistency: Train regularly and don't take long breaks. This is the most important thing. You have to be fit enough to train six days a week.
2. Take it slow: Continue to build fitness by gradually increasing your training. You must start training early. It takes at least six months, preferably 12 months, to prepare specifically for Everest. Three years is ideal. Building fitness takes time. We have heard from long-time Everest equipment suppliers that climbers' fitness has declined significantly over the past decade. Don't leave it to chance.
3. Conditioning: Balance hard and easy training weeks to allow for recovery and growth. Best monitored by a professional coach who will monitor your workouts and recovery using modern training tracking tools and software.
4. Personalization: A personalized approach is necessary to assess and address your physical weaknesses and strengths; we all have them. Metabolic health precedes musculoskeletal (structural) adaptations. Therefore, it is critical to continually assess the athlete’s status and set realistic expectations of how much training you can do and how much endurance you can build in a limited time. And the golden question is always: Is this enough to climb Everest?! The sooner you start training, the better!

Aerobic Conditioning

Climbing Everest is primarily an aerobic sport that relies on the body's ability to use oxygen efficiently for extended periods of time. Have a professional trainer assess your aerobic fitness level and customize your training intensity zones using methods such as heart rate monitoring. It's a small investment compared to the time and cost of an Everest expedition, but it will have a huge impact on your success.

Strength training

Strength training is essential for carrying weight for long periods of time. Focus on functional, climbing-specific strength training and don't add unnecessary weight. A good strength training program is usually 8-12 weeks, then switch to low-rep and high-load maximal strength training, and then transition to at least eight weeks of hard but very effective muscle endurance training. The periodization of strength training is effective, and you need to have a professional to guide your training.

Read more Strength training for mountain climbers.

Exercise allocation and timing

Perform aerobic exercise at least four times per week, supplemented with strength training. As you progress, gradually increase duration and intensity. Our coaches measure training load and progress using weekly training volume (intensity time) or weekly cumulative training stress.

Backpack

Start training without weights and gradually introduce weighted backpacks Only after Build a base fitness level. Increase weight gradually, never exceeding 20-25% of body weight for aerobic base training. The two most common mistakes people make are 1) starting training too late and 2) increasing weight too quickly and causing injury.

Rest Days and Relaxed Weeks

Schedule rest days and regular easy weeks to allow your body to recover and adapt. Typically, every three or four weeks should be an easier training week. A professional coach will monitor and plan your training and recovery using advanced software such as TrainingPeaks.com.

Muscle endurance training

You can think of the training as preparation for muscular endurance training. This type of training is sometimes called strength endurance and is a fun type of training. The training is challenging but doable and you get stronger each week. This is the fun part of training. However, if you don't work on the fitness to gain muscular endurance training, then doing steep climbs with heavy weights will instead cause injury and could completely derail your expedition. You need to start early. As far as we know, the shortest amount of time it takes an athlete to be functionally ready for this type of training is 16 weeks. You need to do this training for no less than 8 weeks. These workouts focus on vertical gains (treadmill, stairs, or real hills) with weights that cause localized muscle fatigue in the legs without taxing the cardiovascular system.

Do you think you are physically fit enough to climb Mount Everest now? You should be able to complete the first step in this exercise progression with ease. If this is hard, start training.

Hypoxia regulation

Current best practice is that you need to spend at least 400 hours in a normobaric hypoxic environment via mask and/or sleeping tent, sleeping at altitudes up to 6,000 meters/18,000 feet. For Everest, you need at least 12 weeks. In the last eight weeks, you will be sleeping at such high altitudes that your conditioning, sleep, and recovery will be affected – which means you will start your taper earlier than the usual 10-14 days before departure.

This means you must start physical training as soon as possible.

Tapering

In the final weeks before a climb, taper off to eliminate fatigue and consolidate fitness gains. Avoid last-minute cramming, which can lead to fatigue and decreased performance. Traditionally, a taper is two weeks. But for Everest, you need to account for hypoxic conditioning, which takes 8-12 weeks. The coaches at Uphill Athlete developed a system for acclimating to the taper period so that you maintain fitness while sleeping at increasingly simulated altitudes.

We make sure you reach the peak of a specific training phase (high volume) as early as possible and keep your body healthy during the pre-adaptation phase.

Mental training

Consistent physical training is the first way to develop mental toughness. Confidence in one's own physical fitness and skills is essential to dealing with the stress of an Everest expedition.

Technical skills

It is vital to master climbing technique. Practice using crampons, ice axes, and moving up and down fixed ropes until it becomes second nature. Efficient technique saves energy and increases safety.

Training Summary

1. Aerobic Self-Assessment: Determine your heart rate training zone.
2. Aerobic training: Four to five days per week, primarily zone 2 training.
3. Strength Training: Perform progressive, periodized strength training twice a week.
4. Retest: Reassess your training zones every eight weeks.

in conclusion

Training is the most controllable aspect of your preparation for Everest. Accept the challenge as part of your journey because the point of climbing a mountain like Everest is to Become someone who can climb Mount Everest. Consistent, progressive training will be the cornerstone of your transformation into a person of rare physical and mental toughness. Structured training and a well-developed training plan for Everest are undoubtedly your best tools for success.