Training For The Most Difficult High Mountain in The World | Traverse

I'm training for Pakistan because I'm about to start this big expedition in less than three weeks. We are going to Ogre in Pakistan. It's going to be François Cazzanelli, Sylvain Chupac and Simone Weffringer, an international team of four climbers. Today we are going to train on Mont Blanc. We're going to climb a route on Picadolf Re. Here we are in a very easy and protected environment. Pakistan you can't compare at all. So much harder, bigger, but still you don't have to push yourself to your limit to get too tired. You just do some good activity and then you take some good rest. Today we are going to climb a route opened by Giusto Gervasutti in the 30s. His routes have the characteristic of being always very logical, following cracks. Okay, we're good. So today the plan is to climb the route with the Ribelle Tech 3, just because I want to see how they perform on a real climb. I think this route can be good for that. And then, well, Gervasutti was climbing with boots, so I should be able to climb it with boots as well. So the route is quite a physical style of climbing, pretty steep for the grade, 6a+, 6b max, but pretty physical. The first pitch already starts vertical with good holds. Wow, beautiful, wonderful climbing, very classic, but really nice. It's fun to move on this athletic climbing pretty fast. It's a good training, I think. Climbing in mountain boots for sure is different than a climbing shoe. Even if you have the best mountain boots, the Ribelle Tech 3, it's still not the same. You have less feeling on the foot, especially in smearing, the boot is stiffer. But I think it's very important to trust your boot, to be able to move with that. You never know when you are in the mountains, the situation you have to face. Okay, on belay! Training for an expedition involves a lot of things. It's not just coming here and climbing one route every day. Other things I'm doing, for sure some aerobic training, running, mountaineering. For me the most important is the technical climbing training. If you're above the difficulty that you will find, that will help a lot. So that involves sport climbing, track climbing, training also in gym, on hangboard and stuff. But then sometimes you have to break this routine of more specific training and just go and climb a route. Pretty cool! Nice route, physical style of climbing. Yeah, we had fun with boots. It's always nice, you pull a bit more with your arms, so it's good training. Nice day. Libera! Drop is free! The mountains in Patagonia are not pyramids, they are spires, they are vertical. It's really a lot of climbing and it's crazy how big these mountains are.