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High Country Backpacking
After a number of years of learning how to walk uphill, I've finally gotten to the point where I climb like a salmon swims upstream—neither easily or gracefully, but naturally, following an instinct that home is where the contour lines bunch together in craggy brown cliffs and steep mountainsides.
The key—the key—to hiking uphill is finding a pace you can stick with all day. For some hikers, an all day pace is a brisk stroll. Other hikers are better served by the ungainly, stop-and-start, little-engine-that-could gait of the rest step. Either way, slow and steady will get you there. Beginners who haven't learned to pace themselves sometimes push too hard and then fall into an exhausted heap. It's far better to find a pace you can sustain for an hour or so, and then take a 10- or 15-minute break. As you gain experience your body will actually learn to climb; you may even find that you can climb comfortably without the need for a rest
Going uphill is work, so be sure you've got enough fuel to do the job: A liter of water before a climb and a quick snack will give you that extra oomph. And if your spirits and energy are sagging midway along on the climb, stop for a quick pick-me-up. A rest and a snack won't make the mountain any smaller, but they will help you get there.
Details mentioned in this article were accurate at the time of publication
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