{"id":2460893,"date":"2016-05-24T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2016-05-24T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.outsideonline.com\/uncategorized\/fitness-tech-changing-how-we-climb-everest\/"},"modified":"2022-05-12T12:17:54","modified_gmt":"2022-05-12T18:17:54","slug":"fitness-tech-changing-how-we-climb-everest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.outsideonline.com\/outdoor-adventure\/climbing\/fitness-tech-changing-how-we-climb-everest\/","title":{"rendered":"Fitness Tech Is Changing How We Climb Everest"},"content":{"rendered":"

Over a month ago, mountaineers Adrian Ballinger and Cory Richards<\/a> set out to summit Everest via the north side, in Chinese\u00a0Tibet, without the aid of supplemental oxygen. Using social media<\/a> and the hashtag #EverestNoFilter<\/a>, they decided to bring the world along for the ride, sharing photos and videos of life on the mountain via Snapchat, and publishing their movement<\/a> on the fitness app Strava.<\/p>\n

Earlier this week, as the two men rested at base camp, preparing to make their final summit push, we got them on a satellite phone call to talk about how shareable data has been instrumental in the success of their trip and how it can work to inspire future climbers to blaze new routes.<\/p>\n

OUTSIDE: You mentioned on your Snapchat<\/a> the other day, Cory, that you needed a rest day because your coach was monitoring your data. How is he doing that, and is this something you\u2019ve done before?\u00a0<\/strong>
\n\tRICHARDS: My coach Steve is using TrainingPeaks<\/a>, an app that collects a lot of the same data as Strava, but isn\u2019t a social platform. I\u2019ve never done this sort of in-depth scientific coaching before. What they\u2019re looking at is basically a stress score\u2014a heart rate threshold stress score. And coupling that with my chronic training load, they can start to see, basically \u201cyou\u2019re recovering, you\u2019re not recovering, your training load is too high, your heart rate is too high.\u201d They can make recommendations based on those numbers.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The day that Adrian and I went to 8,000 I felt amazing, but by the numbers I wasn\u2019t that strong. This is all to say that it\u2019s still a guessing game, given the lack of scientific knowledge about human physiology at high altitudes. What Steve and I are working on, and what I\u2019m projecting into in my rotations up the mountain, is basically guesswork that\u2019s scientifically backed. But we\u2019re trying to figure it out. You know, there are no real clear answers.<\/p>\n

\"\"
(Adrian Ballinger)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Adrian, have you been doing anything like this?<\/strong>
\n\tRICHARDS: Adrian is just flat-out more fit than me.\u00a0<\/p>\n

BALLINGER:\u00a0Or I suffer more quietly.<\/p>\n

RICHARDS: Down on lower altitudes, Adrian can go much, much faster than I can. He\u2019s a monster. The only thing we can figure out is that he\u2019s got a much bigger heart, and it\u2019s beating a lot slower. So his output isn\u2019t as high. But as we get higher on a mountain, Adrian and I sort of start to even out. We\u2019re just different physiologically. You can\u2019t really compare.<\/p>\n

BALLINGER:\u00a0I want to mention: I\u2019ve never worked with a coach while up here on the mountains, but we have this incredible expedition doctor, Monica Piris, and she does a lot of what Steve is doing remotely. She\u2019s done in the past locally here, just with less data. More hands on: how we look, how we feel, how we eat, how we drink, how we sleep, things like that.\u00a0<\/p>\n

I really believe that this data-driven process with professional coaching is going to transform what is done in the Alpine realm\u2014in the Himalayas and the other greater ranges of the world. I think that for so many years, mountaineers have just been individuals, with a lot of preconceived notions. People have done incredible things, but as we bring true, cutting edge athletes with coaching and data to the mountains, I think we\u2019re going to see this explosion of speed ascents and new routes. Really interesting things are going to happen.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Just because the athlete can become that much more dialed? \u00a0<\/strong>
\n\t\u200bBALLINGER: Totally\u2014instead of us just being in our own little world, like, \u201cI know what\u2019s best for my body, and I\u2019ve done this before and now I\u2019m going to go charge up the mountain and suffer because that\u2019s what mountaineering is.\u201d And it\u2019s wild to see people like Cory who are okay with suffering less sometimes. Like, chill the fuck out and take some days off, because the data tells us that you\u2019re no longer doing positive change for your body, you\u2019re doing negative change. It\u2019s in total contrast to my history of two decades on the mountain, which has always been about suffering the most you can, and that\u2019s how you\u2019re going to get to the top.\u00a0<\/p>\n

RICHARDS: In the past, suffering has always been sort of the benchmark of doing good work. And now it\u2019s like, wow, actually, back off a little bit and you\u2019ll probably perform better come summit day. In essence, that\u2019s the only thing that matters. We\u2019ve done this whole #EverestNoFilter, this fun social media experiment, telling the story of Everest from all sides\u2014but in essence, the only thing that matters is the next six days.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Have you discovered anything specific about yourselves\u2014how you operate best or a new way to train\u2014by virtue of this data<\/strong>
\n\tRICHARDS: I think for me, as a fairly young man, my tendency is to compare. And what I\u2019ve learned being with Adrian is I can\u2019t compare myself; we\u2019re just built differently. You know, we have to pay attention to each other\u2019s pace, needs, and also egos, and allow ourselves to just relax into our own bodies, our own abilities, and let ourselves be there, and know that the goal is to be together on summit day with the same amount of power.\u00a0<\/p>\n

One of my favorite quotes is: \u201cComparison is the death of joy.\u201d If Adrian needs to go faster one day? Fuck it. I can\u2019t try and keep up because that\u2019s going to damage my psyche and it\u2019s also going to damage my fitness.\u00a0<\/p>\n

So how does Strava fit into all of this? It sounds like it\u2019s not necessarily a tool for you to track your fitness, but instead share your progress.<\/strong>
\n\t\u200bBALLINGER: I think that\u2019s right, especially for us on this trip. Cory\u2019s coach specifically uses a different product, but I keep Strava as an alternative social media stream for me. I have a lot of athlete friends who I really enjoy following; it\u2019s the first social media app I open every single morning. You have this GPS record of what you did, with all the sort of pertinent data of your heart rate and the elevation change and the mileage. I very much see it as a way to share our story.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Shareable fitness data has been instrumental to the success of Adrian Ballinger and Corey Richards\u2019s push up Everest. Will it change how the mountain is climbed?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11311,"featured_media":2082551,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"uuid":"a22b85ee1024bbbd65e8cfff39ff3284","footnotes":""},"categories":[2543],"tags":[2640,3102,3111],"byline":[1592],"ad_cat":[],"legacy-category":[],"class_list":["post-2460893","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-climbing","tag-climbing","tag-mount-everest","tag-mountaineering","byline-j-wesley-judd"],"acf":[],"parsely":{"version":"1.1.0","meta":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","headline":"Fitness Tech Is Changing How We Climb Everest","url":"https:\/\/www.outsideonline.com\/outdoor-adventure\/climbing\/fitness-tech-changing-how-we-climb-everest\/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.outsideonline.com\/outdoor-adventure\/climbing\/fitness-tech-changing-how-we-climb-everest\/"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/cdn.outsideonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/20\/adrian-ballinger-cory-richards-everest_h.jpg","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https:\/\/cdn.outsideonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/20\/adrian-ballinger-cory-richards-everest_h.jpg"},"articleSection":"Climbing","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"ndavidson"}],"creator":["ndavidson"],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"ºÚÁϳԹÏÍø Online","logo":"https:\/\/www.outsideonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/favicon-194x194-1.png"},"keywords":["climbing","mount everest","mountaineering"],"dateCreated":"2016-05-24T00:00:00Z","datePublished":"2016-05-24T00:00:00Z","dateModified":"2022-05-12T18:17:54Z"},"rendered":"