What is it with going up hills…

When I haven’t been doing any hills for a while, it can be an unpleasant grunt.  But when I’m in shape and the weather is cool, I like pushing myself while hiking up the hills.  My more memorable experience of that was going back to school at age 30 after a few years of a desk job.  The UC Berkeley campus is hilly and engineering books weigh a lot and it was disheartening to huff and puff from lower campus up the hill in a 6-minute change period.  But after a few weeks and looking for opportunities to do more hills, it was easily doable and then fun to see how many 19-year-olds I could pass on my way.

Maybe it’s that “runner’s high” thing that people talk about? (I don’t run).

The key for me is the mental approach, which starts with not dreading hills.

I climb at a pace that I could hold all day, if necessary, which is about 65% of maximum heart rate. This approximation is not derived from wearing a heart rate monitor but rather from years of ‘perceived effort’ training for cycling (both road and mountain), although I did use a Polar HRM for about a year before realizing I really didn’t need it.

Combine this with the ‘I get there when I get there’ attitude and hills are actually not that hard, especially when carrying a light pack.

for me:

going uphill: working out muscles + thinking there might be a view from up there = lots of adrenaline

going downhill: working out all that shock absorbing ligament stuff between the muscles + more tired but gotta think harder foot placement = bigger fear of injury

The last I read, 55% to 65% of climbing deaths occur on the descent – and for lots of good reasons.

The bottom line: going up is simply “more fun” than going down.

“The bottom line: going up is simply “more fun” than going down.”

That is how I feel too. Trips or runs that are flat hold little interest for me..

I’m with Bob…it’s not a a race :)

Best advice I ever got was to choose a pace that can be maintained indefinitely and just keep plugging away. Honestly, when I’m  hiking, I usually find myself hoping that it lasts forever.

I wouldn’t be too surprised if there’s a strong correlation between fitness and liking hills.  Which is probably a good thing in your case Kat.  Sort of how I’ve never met a weak swimmer that loved to surf.

When I was young, I’d come down fast.  Like, from a distance you’d think I was skiing down the rocky slopes.  But with age comes the structural issues, and my knees and feet can’t do that anymore.  So going up is easier on the body these days.

Beyond that, going up usually means I’m going toward the views, deeper into wilderness, and will have a downhill to look forward to–all fun things.  Going down is more likely to mean the hike’s almost over or else I’ve got another steep uphill to dread when I hit bottom.  (Inconsistent, right?)

The relaxed downhill miles always seem a lot longer than uphill, especially if it’s an out-n-back.  I hate out-n-backs.

Finally, if the route is rough or (especially) loose, it’s a lot easier and takes less concentration to go up than down.

I like going up hills better than down hills, because old injuries make going down long hills tiring and painful. Uphill is just tiring. Oddly enough, my wife has the opposite preference.

Like others, I change pace as needed. For most of an uphill, I balance muscle pain versus lung pain — a habit left over from my brief bicycling days. I was taught: “if your legs hurt, downshift and pedal faster. If your lungs hurt, upshift and pedal slower. If both hurt, slow down.” Works for me.

If I know the crest of a hill is about 5 minutes away, I’ll push harder and take a brief standing break at the top to catch my breath. Beware false passes, sprinkled liberally across the Sierra Nevada and many other mountain ranges.

— Rex

The steeper the better. I’ve always backpacked more for the physical challenge than for the scenery and solitude. Sure, the outdoor experience is part of the attraction, but I have never found any physical activity, whether it be in a gym or a particular sport, that comes close to the demands of hiking up steep grades. Best workout ever IMO.

When I lived in Arizona I tended to look for hikes where I could get the most elevation gain. Ash Creek Trail in the Pinaleno (Graham) Mountains in SE AZ was the best in the state (6,000′ gain in 8 miles). You also gain 6,000′ ascending the North Rim of the Grand Canyon from the river, but that’s 14 miles instead of 8.

I believe there are probably even better elevation gains in California, maybe from the east face of the Sierras, I don’t know. If anyone has any info on that I’d appreciate a reply.

I’m living in Kentucky now and needless to say the challenges are far less than in the West, but I manage to get a fair workout hiking the Knobs region surrounding Louisville. Far more than Florida, that’s for sure (the highest point in the Sunshine State is 345′ above sea level, lol!)

Iron Mountain #1 in the CA San Gabriel Mountains is 7,200′ feet of gain and 7 miles one way.  Pretty solid work.

I don’t think it’s size,  Kat.  I’m 6’4″ and do much better up hill too. I agree with the whole motivation concept. I often leave my friends while going up and they catch back up on the way down.

Shepherd, Baxter, Sawmill, and Taboose Passes, on the East Side of the Sierra, will all get your attention.

7200′ in 7 miles?  Yeah, I’d call that solid.

The <b>Cactus to Clouds Trail</b> from Palm Springs, California, to San Jacinto Peak is a hiking trail. With a net elevation gain of 10,300 feet (3,100 m), it has the greatest elevation increase of any day-hike route in the United States. It gains it in only 14 miles (23 km), also making it one of the steeper trails of its length in the world.<sup id=”cite_ref-3″ class=”reference”>[3]</sup> Also known as the <b>Skyline Trail</b>, it climbs 7,900 feet from the desert to Long Valley where it joins with the main trail to gain another 2,400 feet to the summit. The trail is ten miles to the tram in Long Valley (coined nickname <i>Cactus to Crowds</i>) or twenty miles to San Jacinto Peak and back down to the tram

Thanks Terry. I somehow figured that area would contain the highest elevation gain in lower 48. Back in May 2010  I hiked from Snow Creek (2600′) up the PCT to where it meets the San Jacinto Peak Trail. It’s quite a gain, but as anyone who’s done that section knows, the trail switchbacks many many times in what is actually a slow gain for a long stretches. I fell like the trail could have been substantially shortened on that portion when it was built, however, not for me to question.

I can’t wait to get back out there. I see on the news where California is getting a lot of rain this Winter, and of course most of the wet season is still yet to come…hooray! Snow pack should be pretty good on the PCT by kickoff this April. More available water will be a nice change.

Like most everyone else, I’ve backpacked up 10,000 mountains in the last forty years and after a couple thousand came up with this—By climbing a mountain you are creating Potential Energy—Stored energy like a spring pressed down ready to bound out.  Or drawing back a crossbow and waiting to release the trigger.

What is the release of energy?  By using the elevation you gained and dropping off the mountain.  This in my opinion is why climbing a mountain feels so good and esp. so good when reaching the top.  You have loaded up the Spring and it’s ready to release.  You have earned the top by fighting gravity and are now ready to reap the rewards—going down!

And by standing on top—for 10 minutes or 3 days—you contain this energy ready to be sprung.  It feels good.

I agree that there is some mental-spiritual truth in this PE analogy, although of course the PE “return” going downhill isn’t 1:1 because going downhill is work as well when hiking. Up and down are also more difficult with a heavier pack vs a light pack.

And depending upon the difficulty of the descent it can be a heckuva lot of work, and depending upon how fit-and-ready one’s leg muscles are for the inevitable eccentric muscle contractions, it can be pure, unalloyed hell.

Years ago I did a Grand Canyon hike with a friend and two colleagues of his whom I hadn’t met before. Both these guys were marathoners and appeared to be in excellent shape. We descended via the Tanner Trail and dry camped about 2/3 of the way down to the river. Next morning the marathoners were practically crippled for a good while because they had zero training for the downhill part. Thanks to some stretching and the miracle of ‘Vitamin I’ they were able to get moving and finish the trip.

“The bottom line: going up is simply “more fun” than going down.”

I think that depends on the individual.  I enjoy both, especially off trail, where choosing a line is part of the challenge.  Conditioning, mental toughness and flexibility, terrain reading ability, balance, foot placement, all come into play in real time in the greatest game on earth.    What are mountains, but a series of large hills?  Up and down is an essential part of what it’s all about, something to be savored, rather than dreaded, as part of the experience.  My 2 cents.

Maybe we like hills because once we do the work we usually get a view and that has to be something humans have benefitted from for ages :  safety, perspective etc.

Plus, the higher we go the wilder the conditions, generally.   Which is great if we are seeking wilderness.

Small example:  This weekend it will be around 16F on Saturday morning in Tellico Plains TN.  25 miles away on Bob Statton Bald at 5,300 feet it’s projected to be -1F.  Plus, any precip which falls down in  the valley as rain will more than likely be snow up high.

What’s REALLY neat for me is pulling winter backpacking trips in the mountains of TN and NC and getting caught in so-called “arctic outbreaks” and “polar vortex’s” etc.  It’s when the mountains go wild with blizzards and -10F temps and tremendous winds.

Millions of years ago these mountains were around 25,000 feet tall and any winter storm would’ve been like a night out today on K2.  So when I get caught in a winter storm now I still feel the vestige beast of once was, the Baby K2 trying to remember its past.

I’ve never had a runner’s high from going downhill…

“I’ve never had a runner’s high from going downhill…”

:)

I’ve never had a runner’s high from going downhill…

Hmm. Don’t know if I ever got a literal runner’s high from it, but back when I used to fly down mountains, it was quite a thrill.

“I’ve never had a runner’s high from going downhill”

It diissipates as you descend.  ;0)