How do I get started in the mountains?

The last couple of years I’ve found myself spending more and more time in the mountains. We moved to Colorado in late 2019, and the constant view of the front range peaks is an awe-inspiring sight every time you face towards the west. Colorado has 58 peaks over 14,000 ft (known as the 14’ers), and you have your pick of mountains that range from a strenuous hike to a multi-day commitment with serious risk involved.  It’s a great way to get some time out in the mountains.

Beyond that, for years I’ve wanted to hike Kilimanjaro, the highest peak in Africa. the motivation was partly for the adventure of traveling to a continent I’d never visited, and partly to see whether the training I’ve done over the years could grant me success with high altitude hiking. After booking the trip in late 2023, I realised that I’d been thinking about this peak for almost 20 years without ever consciously putting a plan in place to make it happen. Now a year or so on, fuelled from the confidence gained on that trip, I’ve climbed many mountains higher and more technical and have plans to go further.

Beginner mountaineering advice, from a beginner

So – while I’m in the position of having a little experience in the mountains but being still very much a beginner, I thought I’d share my mental framework for people who want to consider doing some climbing / hiking / very-slowly-walking-uphill-in-crampons. While learning other pursuits, I find that an expert is usually so far removed from the memory of being a beginner that they can’t quite remember what advice is useful to a beginner, because most things they do they see as something so obvious that they don’t even think about it any more. The curse of competence. Hence, some advice from the consciously incompetent, me.

From my perspective I never want to be the person on an expedition that clearly shouldn’t be there due to lack of physical preparedness, psychological frailty, a dramatic inexperience gap for the requirements of the task, or lack of equipment or basic planning.  For almost every trip I’ve been on, there has been a person who fit one of these categories and couldn’t continue. Thankfully, so far, that person has not been me.

For most guided trips into the mountains, even the most unprepared or delusional prospective climber will be able to find a guide who is willing to take them. If you, having never climbed a hill in your back yard let alone a 6,000+m peak, want to go to Nepal and climb something tall and sketchy, there’s almost certainly someone willing to take your money. You shouldn’t. You won’t enjoy it, or you won’t return.

The way I like to think of it, there are a series of questions you should be able to answer for yourself if you want to spend time at higher altitude on an expedition. These should be considered sensible prerequisites for adventure, for both your own enjoyment and basic safety. If you can’t answer a specific question, I’m going to suggest a trip or course that maybe answers that question for you so you can proceed. Confidence is gained through repeated doing things that are slightly beyond your comfort zone – the zone of proximal development.

 

A mental framework for preparedness in the mountains

Can you answer these questions for yourself?

1 – Am I fit enough?

Do you train regularly? Do people think you’re one of the fittest people they know? Can you spend a lot of time moving at a fast pace uphill over the course of a day and repeat it the next if you need to? You don’t need to be an olympic athlete to hike mountains, but you’re going to enjoy it a lot more if you are in great shape. There’s a big difference in doing a mountain in style, versus barely surviving the trip and being wrecked for days afterwards.

Can you lug some serious weight up a hill? If you’re given a 55 to 75lb pack, can you haul it up a few thousand feet and still be functional the next day?

Do you already feel fit? Here’s a simple mountain fitness checker that might give you a hint as to whether more difficult mountains are going to be achievable for you. A good physical test is to hit a 14’er with an extra gallon or two of water (and give it away  / pour it out at the top), see how you feel.

The gold standard training plan is “Training for the new Alpinism” by Steve House and Scott Johnston. Training the types of fitness you need for tougher mountains is a specific task not typically covered in a Crossfit class or long distance run club. This book is a godsend and completely changed my training style. Both of these authors run successful fitness training companies that provide training plans and coaching programs.

• Steve House’s Uphill Athlete
• Scott Johnston’s Evoke Endurance

 

 

2 – How does my body respond to Altitude?

If you’ve never been above 14,000ft / 4,000m, the demands on your body are going to be foreign and possibly alarming. There is a genetic component to altitude acclimatisation, whereby one might experience only very slight symptoms or you might feel like you’re dying (and you actually might be). Headaches are common, but for some the symptoms might include tingling fingers and lips, dizziness, visual disturbances, or hallucinations and altered mental state. Some people just don’t acclimate well, and this sport might not be for them.

For me, altitude means my mind races when I try to sleep – I can be exhausted but my mind will run a thousand thoughts a minute and no sleep arrives. The first time it happened was alarming, but now it’s just something I recognise as being under-acclimatised and I have ways to deal with it. It’s worth getting up to a level of altitude you haven’t experienced in a safe way, just to see how your body is going to respond. Do you acclimate easily or not at all? What symptoms do you experience? Can you handle them?

A trip up a Colorado 14’er will give you an idea of how your body is going to deal with it, but testing sleep at altitude may require a backpacking trip.

 

3 – Can I handle an extended time in the wild?

There can be a difference between a night out in the backcountry, and 7 or 8 days of camping. No showers, mediocre food, repeated poor sleep and a lot of exercise stacked back to back can start to grate on you. What happens if you get a stomach upset or a cold? Can you keep going or do you lose your mind? Can I keep my shit together when things go wrong? Can I manage my equipment and hygiene?

What if you’re weathered in and have to sit in your tent for a day or two with no internet connection? It sounds trite, but people can absolutely lose their minds if stuck in a tent, left with no ability to distract themselves with electronic devices for even a couple of hours. You might need to figure out if you have the mental fortitude to hang in there rather than spend a lot of time and money only to bail out in the most inconvenient moment and regret it later. Exhaustion, boredom, and hunger combined can make cowards out of even the fittest person.

If you’ve already answered questions 1 and 2 (you’re fit enough and you can handle some altitude), a trip to Kilimanjaro might be a good test. You get access to more altitude (the summit is 19,341ft) as well as somewhere between a 6 and 8 day trip spent sleeping in tents. Generally, Kilimanjaro’s infrastructure means you’re not setting the tents up yourself, or cooking your own food so it’s a mild introduction to a longer mountain expedition. Obviously Kili involves spending a decent amount of time and money to try this out, but I highly recommend it.

 

4 – Can I handle the cold?

You can handle the altitude, you can handle being in a tent for a week… can you handle being cold for a few days? Cold brings a host of other issues that require your attention. In a warm environment, losing a glove when you’re tired might not be a problem – in a cold environment it can turn into a serious situation rapidly.

With extra layers, you also need to manage your temperature – you want to be warm, but don’t want to sweat excessively because when you stop, that freezing sweat is going to make an ice plunge feel like a tropical holiday. Can you effectively stay on task when you need to wear giant mittens that restrict your mobility? Do you have bad circulation that affects your fingers and toes to the extent that even being in mountaineering double boots or giant gloves doesn’t help? Can you warm back up when you get cold? How good is your layering system? Can you deal with the wind?

The best way to figure out if this is something you can handle combines the cold with some extended skills training. In September 2024 I went on Alpine Ascents 9-day Baker / Rainier training course, which was one of the best things I could have done. More in the next question.

5 – Do I have the skills I need?

Beyond basic hiking, mountaineering requires a different level of skills training. You need to be familiar with using crampons on snow, ice and rock, how to self-arrest using an ice axe, how to deal with roped travel with one or more people attached to you, how to build snow anchors, rescue someone out of a crevasse, and even non-obvious skills that make all the difference in the mountains like walking efficiently.

You can get a taster of what you need from a weekend at Colorado Mountain School’s basic mountaineering courses, and if you have a specific trip coming up they can tailor some of the instruction to the types of challenges you’re going to experience. It’s very worthwhile to give you a sense of what you’re going to encounter,  how much more you need to learn and an opportunity to test out your gear.

As mentioned before though, the Alpine Ascents 9-day Baker / Rainier training course is a phenomenal course. You get a really in-depth skills course, as well as ascents of Mt Baker and Mt Rainier (if the weather cooperates).

Not only is the direct instruction top quality, but you’re spending an extended amount of time around very experienced guides who indirectly teach how to handle yourselves in the mountains. If you’re paying attention and watch how they manage their equipment, food, and hygiene you’re going to get a massive amount of learning in a short space of time.

Since completing that trip, I’ve asked the instructors questions when I was considering other mountains, and they have given me honest and valuable advice each time. Being able to intermittently get expert advice like that was worth the cost of the course alone.

 

6 – What else can I offer to a team?

Beyond simple guided trips, joining an expedition is not just a matter of buying some equipment and paying for a ticket.  The people you’re travelling with want to know that the person they’re going to be spending time with have the experience to help everyone get to the summit if conditions are right, can keep each other safe, and can exhibit basic competence. Are you an addition to a team or a glorified haul bag that they need to drag up the mountain? Team leaders want to know what other skills a member can bring to the team. What have you got?

• Do you have medical skills like being an EMT or Wilderness First Responder training?
• Do you have more advanced rope rescue skills, or experience on a SAR team?
• Do you have some useful personal skills that will keep the team motivated like being an excellent cook, or being able to sing or tell stories? Ernest Shackleton deliberately picked people who could provide some sort of distraction.
• Can you stay happy when the going gets tough?
• How else can you help the team?

 

What’s next?

Good question. I’ll reiterate – I’m a beginner, so beyond these concepts there’s a series of questions I’m working on for myself. Climbing higher mountains combine all of these questions into one trip. You’re looking at greater levels of fitness required, higher altitude, the extended discomfort of tent camping, more wind, more cold, and a focus on your skills, self-reliance, and efficiency.

The best advice I’ve received  beyond these levels is to just spend more time in the mountains. Each trip typically requires slightly different gear (or more of it) and you can build up a collection of the things you need over time. You start to get a feel for the people on the mountain with you, and whether their attitudes and skills complement your own abilities, or whether you’d much rather not be roped to them. When you move beyond easier mountains to those with legitimate fall risk, a frank assessment of your own skills and those of your companions is prudent. I’d prefer to bruise someone’s ego rather than fall into a crevasse because they can’t stay on their feet. I’d much prefer to be left at camp rather than cost someone else their life due to my lack of skills.

 

If you have the ability to travel, Some experience trips might include hitting some volcanoes:

• Ecuador’s Volcanoes – Chimborazo and Cotopaxi
• Mexico’s Volcanoes – Pico de Orizaba
• Iceland’s Volcanoes – Hrútfellstindar and friends.

This can also give you a chance to test out local guides and see how they run things, and it’ll let you decide whether you like them in future or you want to stick with trips organized by larger US-based guiding companies.

Personally, I’m aiming for some higher peaks and using this type of framework allows me to pose questions that I need answers to. Can I handle really high elevation? Do I get scared with exposed sections of climbing or near vertical fixed rope work? Can I handle more complicated equipment with high-altitude cold weather gear?  Can I handle extreme physical exertion like that required for Denali? Where can I go to find the answers to these questions?

This can allow me to generate lower-stakes incremental tests that gives me the confidence I need, building on the skills I already have. I want to enjoy the mountains, not just barely endure them. Hopefully some of the ideas I’ve shared can help you determine where you need to be for your own trips. Enjoy!