028: It’s All Uphill From Here

Today on The First 40 Miles, The Top 5 Tips that will help you make it through the tough uphill climbs. On the SUMMIT Gear Review, we’ll show you a vast improvement to the humble hiking stick. For the Backpack Hack of the Week, noodles noodle everywhere. And we’ll wrap up the show with a little trail wisdom from Mr. Emerson.

Show Notes: Episode 028

Opening

Girls Camp prep

Survival Skills the youth leaders will be teaching:



* Know when to use these knots: Square Knot, 2 Half hitches, Bowline

* 2 methods of purifying water

* How to signal for help (and contact local authorities)

* How to identify and prevent camp pollution at water sources

* 3 types of emergency shelters

* Sever Weather: Lightning, tornado, avalanche, flood

* Bedroll or emergency ground bed made of natural materials



What will the real survival skills at Girls Camp be? Surviving with under 4 hours of sleep a night…

Top 5 Tips for Backpacking Uphill

Keep your pace, but shorten your stride



* Don’t be tempted to stop on the uphill

* Keep steady pace

* REMEMBER: Stopped is zero miles per hour.



Exertion breath



* Breathing is an important part of pain management—or uphill management.

* A forceful breath out



Try the Rest step



* Stand up completely with the leg that you stepped forward with, and let your knee lock briefly

* That gives your quadriceps and glutes a chance to rest on each step

* Even that split second rest, really helps as you climb the trail



Try Trekking Poles



* Heather recently tried trekking poles

* Study on trekking poles: Muscular and metabolic costs of uphill backpacking: are hiking poles beneficial?

* The study says “By redistributing some of the backpack effort, pole use alleviated some stress from the lower extremities and allowed a partial reversal of typical load-bearing strategies.”

* http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11128857



M&Ms= Mantra & Music



* Mantras: Man versus mountain, one step at a time, I am strong, Whatever doesn’t kill you…

* Music: High energy, since your steps will be shorter, you can keep tempo with a faster song



SUMMIT Gear Review™: LEKI Micro Vario Carbon Trekking Poles

Structure



* Carbon Shaft

* Foam Grips which are edgeless, and comfortable, so no matter how many miles you go, they’ll feel great

* Wrist strap (security strap) made of wicking material and dries quickly

* Baskets on bottom are standard trekking baskets (you can remove them and the poles can compress down even more compact.

* Purpose of baskets (snowshoe concept)



Utility



* Super compact, so you won’t be poking people if you put them away in your pack

* The push-button release mechanism that slides part of the pole into itself, and the rest pulls apart and folds

* Very easy to adjust, using their “Speed Lock”. Flip latch out, adjust to desired length, and flip latch back. Holds securely



Mass



* Sold as a pair

* 14.6 oz for the pair

* 110-130cm

* (Micro Vario Carbo Lady goes down to 105 cm)

* Fold down to just 15.5″



Maintenance



* Wipe clean before collapsing so grit doesn’t get inside



Investment



* $200



Trial



* Trekking poles made me think more strategically

* Felt like jet packs on the trail

* Incredibly invaluable on uphill

* Not as noticeable on downhill

* Put my weight on wrist straps (aka security straps)

* Gave me crazy amounts of speed

* Any time you are doing a significant amount of elevation gain,