IGX

This is a review of Twight's first book, originally published in 1999. It's basically a how-to for advanced mountaineering, with an emphasis on climbing as fast as possible with minimal gear.

The first chapters are about the psychological aspects of alpinism. There's a lot of good material here that's applicable to any physical challenge. Twight emphasizes that climbing is primarily a mental game, and discusses the importance of honest self-assessment. He talks about fear -- how to control and channel it -- and avoiding panic when things get tough. Finally, he talks about will and suffering. Intentionally subjecting yourself to discomfort -- under controlled circumstances -- develops mental and physical toughness and builds the confidence you need to take on big peaks. "Relish the challenge of overcoming difficulties that would crush ordinary men."

The rest of the psychological training material is fairly straightforward: awareness of your surroundings, visualization, and a brief discussion of meditation.

The physical training chapter is very thorough. This was written before Twight became involved with CrossFit, and is more climbing oriented that the Gym Jones workouts. Basically, Twight advocates a periodized approach, as follows:

-- Foundation
-- Power
-- Cardiovascular Power Endurance
-- Cardiovascular Extensive Endurance
-- Tapering and Peaking

Each phase is 4 to 6 weeks long, except for extensive endurance, which is 3 to 4 weeks, and tapering for 1 or 2 weeks.

The foundation stage is about getting into the basic condition required to climb mountains. Twight suggests mixing long aerobic sessions with lifting for muscular endurance. Example: run or bike for one or two hours uphill, then come down, and hit the gym. Do your lifting with 50% of 1RM for 6-8 sets of 15.

The power stage is for increasing raw strength. Twight's workouts are very climbing specific. His main exercise groupings:

-- Warm-Up (pressing and shoulder exercises)
-- Back and Abs (SLDL and good morning variations)
-- Pulling (chins/pulldowns and rows)
-- Grip (finger curls)
-- Legs (squats, lunges, leg press)
-- Explosive Power (cleans)

He tells you to pick two or three exercises per session and perform multiple sets of two with a heavy weight. The emphasis is on gaining strength without size. He advocates using several machines, particularly leg press and lat pulldown.

"Cardiovascular power endurance" is Twight's term for interval work that raises anaerobic threshold. He outlines some different workouts, which all involve using a heart rate monitor to train right above or below your anaerobic threshold. This training improves your ability to repeatedly perform tough climbing movements while carrying weight, and enhances recovery so you don't crash. The stereotypical Gym Jones/CrossFit workouts would fall into this category, though Twight doesn't discuss that specifc type of interval training.

"Cardiovascular extensive endurance" is any aerobic training done for several hours at a relatively low percentage of anaerobic threshold. This improves fat metabolism and builds the mental and physical toughness required to endure very long duration repetitive exercise. You also perform weight workouts with light weights and high volume to increase climbing-specific muscular endurance. Twight also talks about doing "depletion workouts," where you train for 6+ hours and consume minimal food and water. This teaches how your body reacts to deprivation and prepares you to deal with it.

The rest of the book discusses a wide variety of topics related to alpinism: gear, clothing, bivouacs, "staying alive", rappelling, and includes a lot of stories from Twight and other climbers. Right now, my mountaineering experience is purely academic, so I won't review this section in detail. The overall theme is staying light and traveling fast, with minimal gear. Twight emphasizes that his style can often be safer than traditional tactics -- simply by reducing the time you spend on the mountain -- but emposes greater responsibility on the climber.

Overall, the book is definitely worth owning if you're into mountains, though it's intentionally written for advanced climbers. The physical stuff is notable for its emphasis on multi-day endurance events. It's the only book I've read that seriously discusses activities that can require literally days of continuous effort, with minimal sleep and food. For this reason, it might be of interest to outdoorsmen, adventure racers, soldiers, and anyone interested in wilderness survival.

Read it many years ago. I'd like to see him put out an updated version since he started up with xfit and Gym Jones. He's noted in public that the approach he advocated for fitness in Extreme Alpinism is now OBE.