Mt. Whitney Portal Store & Hostel Forums General Mt. Whitney Portal Store Message Board Staying in shape in the winter

I was wondering how many of you continue to hike in the winter? I confess I stop hiking when the snow flies because I don't like hiking with crampons or in snow-shoes. I start up again in April or May when the snow pack starts to recede.

What do you all do in the winter to stay in reasonable hiker shape? Does anyone just atrophy and let yourself go to seed, gain weight, coach potato type of stuff? Do many of you run, lift weights, stair-climber, hit the gym expressly because you want to stay in reasonable shape for hiking again?

Perhaps many of you just continue to hike in the winter, snow, freezing weather and all? I admire that resolve.

While many I know personally desist with any exercise during the winter, a lot of us continue to hike, peak climb, and ski tour or snowshoe. For myself, I do lower peaks, and climb with skis. There is no great reason to give up the outdoors, aside from maybe the worse weather, and fun ops to recreate are all over about here. Plenty of bike trails and other places to hike or bike seem to pop up in many communities. My big problem is the lack of partners, as with fewer people on trails, it is an increased hazard to solo climb or hike, with help often not available. But, I consider summiting in winter sometimes a far more enjoyable activity.

If you are a snow adverse SoCal there are plenty of lower elevation hikes around, Icehouse Canyon clear of snow to the saddle yesterday, one 20' patch of avoidable ice or you can turn this one around and visit fire scarred canyon or the Middle Fork of Lytle Creek.

I used to be in the same boat as you but now I enjoy the winter more than the summer. Being the only group on trails which are overused in the summer is blast. There is something to be said being the only ones on the top of Mt. Badden-Powell on a blustry fall day.

Bill

Sorry for this question, which might stupid, but if I bought some snow-shoes at REI, could I do a peak like Baden-Powell in the winter, assuming it was a clear day? Do snow shoes allow you to grip the snow perfectly and then easily traverse the trail? I assume the trail would be obliterated by the snow though? Sigh... I am not one for winter, but I would love to do some hikes in the snow, but I hate crampons. Are snow-shoes the way to go?

You can rent snowshoes and see if you like them before you buy. Back-country ones, like the ones we have, have a built in crampon type thing which allows you to grip really well and ascend/descend steep inclines.

We do more hiking in the winter than the summer, because we don't like the heat, love to camp in the snow, and there are no crowds. You don't have to think just about peak bagging, being back-country in fresh snow on a beautiful day is awesome, and a great workout to boot!

In Southern California, there are countless peaks below, say, 5000', which means that they are accessible most of the time with either no snow or just a bit near the top. That represents plenty of challenging hikes.

I recommend snowshoes or skis, though. A lot of the high country is then accessible all year round. I like places like Mt. Baldy a lot more in the winter. The crowds may be large near the trailheads (lots of sleds and snowballs) but they thin out long before you reach any summits.

Skyline Trail, Palm Springs:
I did this hike last weekend, beginning at the Palm Springs Desert Museum (466 feet elevation). About one mile up the trail there are some picknick tables and a sign on a rock that says "8 Miles, 10 Hours, No Water." I started at 5AM and reached the tram stop by noon. The trail finished at upper Palm Springs tram stop (8,516 feet elevation). I continued the hike to the top of Mt. San Jacinto (10,804 feet elevation), then returned to the tram at 3PM for a ride down. The sign is not kidding about the water. There is not a drop on the trail, so take at least a gallon and a half. The altitude gain on this hike is greater than Whitney by several thousand feet, but there are not the difficulties of Whitney's higher altitude, and you get to save your knees by taking the tram down. The hike is roughly equivalent to Whitney.

The upper tram stop can have a lot of snow, so check the tram cam first at http://www.pstramway.com/:

Cactus to Clouds (Palm Springs to Mt. San Jacinto) is one of my favorite hikes. I did it in close proximity to Whitney this summer and thought the Whitney trail was considerably easier. But such opinions are rather subjective. Cactus to Clouds was a lot easier a month ago than in late June, when the temperature in Palm Springs was in the 80s at 5 AM.

One caution: Mt. San Jacinto gets its share of snow in the winter. Sometimes one needs snowshoes or crampons, at least above the tram station.

The trick is to set up a regular exercise program that keeps you in shape, so you never have to get back into shape.

My "background" conditiong regimen consists of five days/week of primarily cardio exercise, about a half-hour each day. Three days, I walk. One, I spend 30 minutes on my Nordic Trak X-C ski machine and the other, I spend 30 minutes swimming laps.

I'm no speed demon, either exercising or on the trail, but a couple of miles of walking or Nordic Trak, or about 3/4 mile of swimming, keeps me ready to hike or backpack just about anywhere I want to go. (I'm on the far side of 50, have a repaired Achilles tendon that prevents me from running, so I try to keep to the lower-impact stuff. My 15-year-old son can outwalk me until we get above 12,000'. Then experience takes over and I catch up with him.)

I'm near St. Louis, MO, and I only lose a handful of walking days to weather each winter...my comfort limits for that are 20 degrees still air or sub-zero wind chill. You didn't specify where you live, but in any reasonably temperate climate, there's no reason (other than injury) to ever get out of shape in the first place. It's a lot less work to stay there than to drop back and have to regain conditioning.

For me, early mornings work best...I can get up an extra 30-45 minutes early and exercise at 05:30 but if I try to find time after work, it never happens.

Palm Springs Tram Live Images:

Looking from Tram Stop to Palm Springs:


Looking from Tram Stop Towards San Jacinto Summit:

snow skiing offers all the right stuff......

I am in school during the winter hiking season so I can't get away often. I can work my butt off in the gym. I usually do 20 minutes on the stairmaster, then run for 20 minutes and then another 20 minutes on the stairmaster. I do those at as high a level as I can without causing death. Then for a nice cool down I will swim a few laps in the pool followed by the hot tub. When I get into the hiking season I usually do not have any problem with endurance. As for the sore feet and back from hours of hiking on end, I have no idea how to simulate that without hours of hiking. Hope this helps.