United States Ski Mountaineering Association

Training Question

I will be in my first race next year at Mad River Glen in VT. I have Alpined skied for 30 years and now have switched over to AT. Any pointer on training for a race?

General Discussion

Training Question

I'm not a pro, but what I hear from people is that you should do a few things: Ski, ski, and ski are most important. Get in a lot of vert on your skins. Do some intervals. Hit the weights. Run. Practice transitions. Have fun! If you're not having fun, you won't train, if you don't train, you won't have fun in the race either.

if you don't have snow

pat is right. everything he suggests is good preperation. if you don't have snow yet, focus on running. try to make about half of your running uphill. if you'd rather avoid the pounding of running you can always ski walk. grab some nordic poles and essentially power hike uphill. for serious nordic folks there is technique involved in ski walking, but for ski mountaineering it's not essential. have fun!