Hike, hike, hike. I always figured the best training for hiking uphill with a pack was, well . . . hiking uphill with a pack. Call me crazy.

I'm fortunate in that I have a decently rugged mountain about 15 minutes from home (Kennesaw Mountain National Battlefield Park), and my wife and I try to hit it twice a week. Sometimes catpappy joins in, but since he's been recovering from a severe ankle sprain in July, not so much lately. Our typical workout is a 6-mile OAB route with 15-pound packs, getting about 1800 feet of gain. We mostly keep it under two hours, but occassionally it's over. Prior to our Sierra trip this past summer, we were hitting it in 1:35 with 15-pound packs and still less than 2 hours with 30-pound packs.

I'm 54 and my wife is 45, so this twice-a-week regimen works pretty well for us. About 8-weeks prior to our annual summer Sierra trip, we kick the pack weight up to the low thirties and try to hit it 3 times a week. I've been tracking the details of my hikes for about 5 years now (distance, elevation gain, time), and I've found that those years when I can get at least 200 miles and 50,000 feet of gain in, Whitney (and other peaks) come pretty easily. Before heading for the Sierra this past July, I had already logged 280 miles and 65,000 feet of gain for the year, and I felt pretty fresh on both Whitney and Mt. Dana, and so did my wife.

I've gotten more into technical rock climbing this year, so I also do some upper body and core work for that, in addition to the occassional trip to the climbing gym, but I'm a firm believer that if you want to hike up big mountains successfully, the primary thing to focus on in training is simulating that activity as much as possible.