Fun With Rocks: Endurance for the Durrance

by Steven Davis on Thursday, March 17, 2011 at 6:39pm

Training for (En)Durrance: A Guide's Guide

If you want to climb routes like the Durrance, let alone guide them, you need to be in excellent

physical condition, meaning that you always have enough left over to meet any contingency. Leading

clients up the Durrance will take you 7-12 hours of intense physical and mental exertion, so the focus is

on endurance. I've broken this guide into three parts: endurance, route-specific training, and general

physical conditioning.

Check with your doctor to make sure you don't have any conditions that would prevent you from doing

these work-outs safely. And see a doctor if you notice any unusual symptoms afterwards.. And start

tapering your work-out 7-10 days before you set foot on the Tower.

1. Endurance.

Durrance is known for crack climbing and off-width, though you will find some face holds on every

pitch. Off-width is notorious for being a full-body work-out. It's hard to think of any upper body and

core muscle group that you won't be working. The following exercises can be done every day, with low

weight and high reps. Repeat every exercise to exhaustion. Intensity of effort is critical. If at the end,

you feel like puking, you've done well. Be sure that you are hydrating during and after. If you aren't

familiar with any of these exercises, look them up on-line.

Forearms. Do forearm curls using a bar to which is attached a seven-pound weight with a waistto-

floor length of cord. Roll the weight up to you, then roll it back down.

Bicep curls. EZ bar curls. Two-arm dumbbell curls. Alternating hammer curls.

Pecs. Flat bench dumbbell flyes.

Back. One-arm dumbbell rows.

Triceps, pecs, back. Push-ups.

Calves. Calf raises. Essential for the stemming you'll be doing on the Second Pitch.

Belay Muscles. That's right. There are belay-specific exercises. Imagine you'll be belaying three clients

up the Durrance route, which is 500 feet of climbing. You will be pulling 1500 feet of rope through

your Reverso or Grigri, against resistance. This doesn't include the short-rope belaying you will be

doing on the approach. On top of that, you will flake the three ropes at least 24 times, and coil a rope at

least 21 times! So yes, you will work your trapezius, deltoid, and rhomboid muscles big time!

Exercises:

1. Hang a reverse in autoblock mode from the loop next to the pull-up things in the B-Cave. Drop

in a couple of fat gym ropes, tie the ends of each rope together to form a continuous loop. Pull

through the full 60 meters of rope, re-feed the reverso past the knot. Experiment with creating

resistance, for instance, taking the rope also through an ATC at your feet.

2. Coil a 60 m. rope over your shoulders. Drop it to the ground, and flake it into a 60 m. rope into

a stack.

2. Route-Specific Training

We don't have off-widths in our gym, but we do have cracks and chimneys. Work them!

Crack Climbing. Run laps, on lead, on the big hand crack. Rack some pro, and place it in the crack as

you go up, and clean it on the way down (of course, clipping the rope into the hangars!) Run laps on

the art wall crack on top rope, also placing pro. Experiment with an arm bar up top.

Chimney Climbing. Get into the wide chimney by the A-Buttress. Run laps up and down without using

the holds. Then face the opposite direction and repeat. The chimney will work core muscles, triceps,

and quads. Make sure you do some laps with the left leg outside, keeping your right leg underneath

you. This will mimic the 'death crack' on Durrance.

3. General Conditioning.

Combine the above two types of workouts with aerobic activity. (Note: if you are doing the above

exercises with enough intensity, they should also be aerobic). With a full summit pack and rack, spend

thirty minutes on the Stepmaster (use only your toes). Then an endurance workout to exhaustion. Then

climbing laps to exhaustion. Finish it off with a challenging sport lead climb that forces you to keep

your head while exhausted, while maintaining a confident smile and reciting the history of climbing on

Devil's Tower. This will give you a little taste of the guide's life.

Be careful to give yourself some rest days. The day after a workout like the one above, take a rest day.

4. Sample Workout Schedule

Day One.

Bike to the gym.

Rope Work. 10 sets of: 2 rope flakes, 2 rope coil. Do for time.

Climbing. 4 crack laps (hand crack), 4 chimney laps. Pack and Rack.

Biceps Curls. High reps, low weight, 30 minutes.

Forearm curls. 3 sets of maximum reps.

Day Two.

Stepmaster. 30 minutes, moderate pace (keep it aerobic), summit pack.

Rope Work. 1/4-mile belay. 5 reps. Pull 2 rope-lengths through your belay device.

Climbing. ARC training. 30 minute continuous boulder traverse. (work up to 1 hour).

Dumbbell Flies alternating with One-arm dumbbell rows. Total 30 minutes.

Day Three

Stepmaster. Intervals, 1 minute max and 2 minutes aerobic. Maximum reps.

Rope Work.

Climbing. Bouldering laps. Find a problem you can climb and down climb. Max laps, 5 reps.

Calf Raises. 5 sets, max reps.

Day Four: Rest Day

Don't work a muscle group if it is tired or sore. Substitute. Keep your work-out intense.

5. “The Durrance”

Stepmaster. 45 minutes, 2 steps at a time, aerobic, on toes. With pack and rack.

Dumbbell Flies, 20 reps.

Crack. 4 laps, lead, place and remove pro. With rack and pack.

Rope Pull. 2 x 60 m, 2 ropes at a time.