Step Training? Affirmative

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Three Months Until Your EBC Trek? Get Training

Do I need to include steps in my training ? You bet. By the end of your training you should be able to do 1 hour of steps with a ten minute break in the middle.

Main Everest Base Camp Trail between Namche Bazaar and Tengboche treacherous steps but a great view.

There’s the man with the vision and the all the plans. Trek to Everest Base Camp, Nepal. He had been to trek the Annapurna circuit in the 80s and he knew there is a lot of uneven ground so he insisted on finding uneven hills to train on and lots of stairs too.

And stairs were in abundance …..

Between Lukla and Phakding
Eveerest Base CAmp trek trail
Aproach to bridge at Jorsale
trekking Phakding to Monjo Everest Base Camp Trek September 2015
Between Phakding and Monjo
IMG_1434

Donkeys making their way down these stairs – wait for them to pass.

Everest Base Camp trek

Kids an their way home from school running down the stairs. October 2015

Outside Monjo towards Namche Bazaar

An eighty plus year old woman with 40 kilos plus of cabbages, beating me down these stairs. November 2013

Everest Base Bamp Trek
Everest Base Camp Marathon day 2015

Base Camp Marathon runners after Tengboche heading to Namche Bazaar. October 2015

If you are planning a trek on the Annapurna Circuit or to Everest Base Camp and you’ ll be there in three or four months you need to start your incline training, or hill training now. Find some good hills close to home to start walking them twice a week with a more intense session on the weekend.  All you need is one good hill with some uneven ground. Go up the hill, turn around and go back down. Turn around and do it again and again. Ad nauseum.

Find Some Stairs to Train on

We did stair training for the last two and half months once a week and twice a week for the last six weeks. We started off at ten or twenty minutes building up to 45 minutes to an hour. Up four flights , down four flights. You get the picture.

EBC Trek
There’s the river between the trees…
Namche to Tengboche
Approaching some tricky steps …
Everest Base Camp Trek
Almost there! The infamous climb to Namche Bazaar almost finished.

November 2013

Oh course you will be rewarded by fabulous views at the top … before you go down hill to go up again…

Everest Base Camp Trek Tips

  1. Practice with your boots and all your gear.
  2. Buy trekking poles to protect your knees, especially going down hill. Train with them before you leave for Nepal. I mean for a few months at least. If you not used to them you will really feel the pain.
  3. We recommend taking a porter and or porter guide. The photos of me with the orange pack are our 2013 trek without a porter. The shots with the small purple pack were taken on the 2015 trek when we took a porter guide.
  4. Remember your step training and then you will enjoy your trek.
  5. Go slow. Slowly, slowly. Bistari, bistari. It is not a race.
  6. And remember another reason you train and do all of the above – the elevation see Everest Base Camp Trek Elevation profiles and my comments.

35 thoughts on “Step Training? Affirmative”

  4. This reminds me that I need much more training for our upcoming 30+day Camino Hike. Yikes – only two weeks to go. Thanks for the inspiration!

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  10. Great advice Louise! The steps were unrelenting on our trip and we came up with a very simple motto – up up, down down!
    The people carrying those huge baskets were amazing and I have the utmost respect for them. Great pics too!

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  11. It looks like two of my cousins want to do Nepal with me. Yay! But of course it won’t be in the near future. Hopefully in within two years. Boy I hope I’ll have the strength to do all of these up and down you’ve done!

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  13. I don’t have that part figured out yet. I will only have my iphone with me (no computer or ipad) so I’ll see what I can come up with. Right now its on my list as ‘insert miracle here’!

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  14. Yay! That’s great news that your cousins want to go too. You just have to make sure you are all at the same fitness level and you should be right. if I could do so will you… Happy 4 July, Boots! Louise x

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  16. Yes my other cousin and I hike together. Her brother is probably a little better than us but I think we should almost all the same.

    Thanks Louise! 4th of July means a lot of BBQ! Yum! 😊

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  19. Oh my God…I can’t belief that old woman on the steps with that giant load. I feel like such a wimp with all my high-tec gear. I couldn’t agree with you more Louise on the need for specific training for such a trek. That last photo of you on the steps is particularly nice. At least there are lots of “excuses” to stop and catch your breath with those glorious views. Cheers, Caroline

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  24. I’m always amazed on any trek how locals race up and down stairs or hills as if they’re walking on a flat terrain. Just goes to show how unfit we are but guess they’ve done it all their lives (my excuse). 😉

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  25. Yes Nilla they have done it all their lives and they are acclimatised to the altitude. The porters were the only ones to go slowly. We saw guys with 120 kilos loads of building materials on their backs. Thanks for stopping by. Louise

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