Training Regime - The first steps

Elbrus was booked, I was terrified, and the training had to begin...

Up till now I had spent 2-3 hours in the gym a week, mostly dawdling around the running machines and eventually committing to a 20 minute cardio workout and 20 minutes in the weights section. I soon discovered this wasn't quite the training my father had in mind.

I later found out I had been booked for a two day trip to Scotland, and no, not to eat fish and admire the countryside, but to ice climb my way through the unmerciful terrains of never ending mountains. During this trip I discovered the wonders of crampons and ice axes when it comes to "scrambling" down an 80 degree ice wall..

Although at the time I felt my mountaineering career coming to an end very quickly, I did throughly enjoy the experience and learnt many fundamental skills needed for my survival on a mountain, including self arrests with the ice axe.

This was harder then it seems...