Avoid These 5 Common Mistakes on Your Next 14er
Written by: Alyssa Leib & Katharine Moustakes
Summer is here and for many Coloradoans, summer means 14ers! Whether you’re heading up to 14,000 ft for the first time or have all 58 peaks under your belt, I want to make sure you’re prepared to have the best day possible. I teamed up with my friend and Denver-based personal trainer Katharine Moustakes to help you feel strong and fueled this 14er season. Read on to learn about 5 common mistakes hikers make on 14ers - and what you can do to avoid them!
1. Underestimating the Difficulty
Although 14ers are measured in difficulty based on classes from 1-5, even the easiest of the 14ers, like Mt Bierstadt or Mt Blue Sky, are still extremely challenging. Hiking at 14,000’ is no easy feat. Here are some of the most common complaints heard as a personal trainer who works with adventure athletes and how to overcome them:
Ankle instability
Regardless of the class of 14er, you can encounter loose rock, steep terrain, and unstable ground while hiking each fourteener. Let’s make this 14er season a non-ankle rolling season, shall we? You can build ankle stability by incorporating regular strength training that addresses strength, endurance, plyometric, and balance. Your feet and ankles have a strong connection to your hips, so you will notice that some of the exercise recommendations involve the muscles surrounding both joints.
Here are four exercises to consider:
Single-Leg RDL (Romanian Deadlifts)
Single-leg RDLs are great for single leg stability involving your feet, ankles, hips, and even your core. If you are new to this exercise, try holding onto support until you feel more comfortable to go hands free. Think about keeping all three points of your foot on the ground (under your big toe, little toe, and heel) to improve balance and stability through your foot and ankle.
Calf raises are severely underrated as a hiker. Consider adding variations of calf raises throughout your strength training sessions to encourage calf strength, endurance, and ankle stability. A big note on single-leg calf raises is to keep equal pressure through your forefoot from under your big toe to your little toe.
Skaters or single-leg lateral hops provide the plyometric or power component to the ankles and hips. Both of these exercises get the tendons more involved so you can stabilize better and recover more quickly from funky ankle positions on uneven terrain. If plyometrics are new to you, consider starting with support from a long resistance band or a more gentle hop before making big strides.
Star taps is an excellent exercise to incorporate at the beginning of your strength training sessions as a warm up or before your hikes to not only encourage stability in your ankle, but also to get your hip and glute working alongside your foot/ankle. You could also add a mini resistance band at your mid-shin for additional resistance for your glute.
Knee Discomfort on the Descent
Have you ever said, “I have bad knees” or “my knees hurt due to my old age”? I get it. Whether you were a high school or collegiate athlete who put a lot of wear and tear into your knees, you have had one or more knee surgeries, or you are ‘just aging’, your knees might be more aware on the trail descent. Now strength training might not be able to change your bone structure, but it can improve your muscles and tendons ability to respond to force. Better fitness, better strength, and better endurance will lead to better abilities to descend.
You will want to consider strengthening your quads, glutes, hamstrings, and calves to better support your knees. Aside from compound movements like squats, deadlifts, and hip thrusts, here are three exercises to consider adding to your training program:
Lunges
Lunges or split squats can be a great way to gain strength and endurance in both your quads and glutes. In the lunge, you will want to progress in more ways than just adding weight or adding reps. Consider adding more range of motion over time by elevating your front and/or back foot to get a deeper stretch followed by contraction in the quad and glute.
Step Ups
Step ups can be great for gearing up your muscles for long adventure days on 14ers. Step ups offer several variations from regular step ups, side step ups, cross over step ups, step overs, and more. Each variation could have a place in your program throughout the year to better prepare you for steep ascents, uneven terrain, and hours of uphill and downhill hiking.
Deficit Calf Raises
Single leg deficit calf raises were mentioned earlier, but it’s worth mentioning them again in their bilateral version to really drive it home that you will want to strengthen your calves. Programming calf exercises is often overlooked since the calves are a smaller muscle group and are used “enough” for hiking and cross training. This is all the more reason to strengthen them and prepare them for long mountain days. Additionally, by strengthening the calves, you are also involving and working your feet and ankles, which can impact how your knees absorb in force. In short: do your calf raises.
2. Starting Out Too Quickly and Burning Out Before the Summit
When you start your climb at 2, 3, or 4am, it’s understandable that you would want to get the ball rolling and take advantage of the “easier” part of the trek under the treeline. While it might feel more doable to move quickly at 10,000’-12,000’, you will want to make sure you’re not burning through your energy too early.
Consider approaching each 14er as you would a marathon. You wouldn’t sprint a marathon, would you? Hike at a pace where you can walk and talk. Of course, the air is thinner up there, so it might not be an easy talking pace, but if you are out of breath right out the gate, it might be a sign to slow down a little bit.
Other things that may impact early burn out:
Pack weight (if new or untrained)
Nutrition and hydration
Fitness level
Ability to acclimate or adapt
Quality of sleep the night before
Overall, the better the fitness, the better of time you will have on the trail.
3. Treating Hydration as An Afterthought
You’ve packed your rain jacket and extra layers, spent time in the gym building strong legs, and brought along all of your favorite trail snacks. But don’t forget to give the same care and attention to your hydration strategy.
You probably know that staying hydrated is important - especially at altitude. Here are just a few of the ways dehydration can ruin a fun day in the alpine:
Muscle cramps and heavy legs
Headaches
Nausea or loss of appetite
Early fatigue
Irritability
Post-hike “hangover”
Dehydration can also affect your cognition, which can be dangerous, especially on technical terrain. Making smart decisions in the alpine is critical to staying safe. Imagine not turning around when a storm is moving in, making a mistake route-finding, or (if roping up for a more technical route) rigging a rappel incorrectly. These mistakes could be disastrous.
At altitude, you lose more fluid through breath, skin, and urine, which means you need to drink more to stay hydrated. But thirst is not a reliable indicator of hydration needs, particularly at higher elevations.
So, how much should you be drinking on a 14er hike? Hydration needs are extremely individual (based on the amount of fluid and salt that you lose in sweat). Here are some general recommendations to get you started:
Start early: Drink 16-24 ounces of water in the morning before starting your climb. If you are a salty sweater or it is going to be a hot day, you may want to include some electrolytes (200-600 mg of sodium).
Sip regularly: Drink every 15-20 minutes, if possible, while on the mountain. Hydration bladders are convenient and allow you to hydrate on the move - but make it difficult to keep track of how much you’ve had to drink.
Drink up: Aim for 300-600 mL of fluid per hour. Heavy sweaters may need more (such as up to 1.5 L per hour). A water filter or iodine drops may help you drink more water without weighing down your pack.
Stay salty: Include electrolytes with 400-800 mg of sodium per liter of fluid. If you are a salty sweater, start on the higher end of this range.
At the end of the day, the best way to gauge your hydration status is to monitor the color of your urine. Hydrated urine is pale yellow - the color of lemonade. If you need help understanding your unique hydration needs, schedule an appointment with a Registered Dietitian.
4. Relying Too Much on Trail Mix
If you’re going on trail, you should be eating trail mix, right? Not necessarily. Now, don’t get me wrong - I love a good GORP as much as the next guy. But most commercial trail mixes are too high in fat to support your body on a hike.
Carbs are the muscles’ preferred source of energy. While we can convert fat and protein into energy, it’s not very efficient. This is especially true at altitude where the air is thinner. With a limited oxygen budget, your body needs to make energy efficiently, which it can do more easily with carbs than with fat or protein.
Here are some basic recommendations to fuel your next hike:
Aim for 200-400 calories per hour.
Prioritize carbs but include about 5-10 grams of protein per hour (or 10-20 every 2 hours).
Include some fat as tolerated for taste and satiety.
Not ready to give up your trail mix yet? Consider including these carb-rich foods to boost your energy on the mountain:
Popcorn
Cereal
Pretzels
Dried fruit (PS: dried tart cherries are a strong antioxidant and can reduce muscle soreness)
Gummy bears or other candy
Graham cracker pieces or Teddy Grahams
Yogurt-covered raisins or pretzels
Peanut-butter filled pretzels
Granola
5. Tapping Out Too Early On Fuel
As they say, going up is optional - coming down is mandatory. Just because you made the summit doesn’t mean the hard work is over. As mentioned previously, descending can feel harder on the body than ascending - and still requires plenty of calories to get the job done.
Most mountaineering accidents happen on the way down. You’re tired and possibly a little complacent - and can start to make mistakes. Being under-fueled heightens this risk, as poor fueling can lead to not only muscle weakness but also poor decision-making, which can be dangerous in the alpine.
Athletes often describe to me (Alyssa) death marches back to the trailhead after a long day out. After some careful questioning, we often discover that, even if they stayed on top of their nutrition the whole way up, once they tagged the summit, fueling and hydration quickly dropped off. Nutrition can’t prevent fatigue entirely… but it can sure make your day end on a more positive note.
If you’re someone who struggles to fuel until the end, try out these strategies:
Make a plan and stick to it. If you make the intentional choice to fuel the whole hike, you’re more likely to do it. Pack uphill snacks and downhill snacks. And look through your wrappers when you get home to see how closely you stuck to your plan.
Set a nutrition alert on your smart watch (if you have one) to remind you to eat at regular intervals (I like every 30 minutes for hikes). Some watches will allow you to set multiple alerts, so you may have a food alert going every 30 minutes and a drink alert every 15.
Don’t have a watch? That’s ok. Choose landmarks on the descent (a saddle, treeline, an overlook with a great view, a funny-shaped boulder) and plan to stop and grab a snack when you reach each one.
The most important thing you can do nutritionally on a hike is keep eating. It may take some trial and error to find a fuel strategy that works for you. Keep trying… and don’t be afraid to adjust as needed. (Need some help with this? I got you!)
Summary
Hiking 14ers is a great summer activity - but not one that should be taken lightly. Coming into your hike prepared could make the difference between a great day in the alpine and a death march back to the car. Through thoughtful strength training and intentional nutrition, you can hit the trail feeling more confident about a summit and a safe descent.
About the Co-Author: Katharine Moustakes, CPT, CRC
Katharine is the Owner, Personal Trainer, and Running Coach at Kathletics. She’s your go-to expert for all things hybrid training and sustainable fitness. Katharine approaches lifting, running, and hiking in a way that allows you to meet yourself where you are at and be adventure ready all year long. Learn more about Katharine at www.kath-letics.com or follow her on Instagram at @kathletics_.
