I like your standards too, and I am glad that we finally have a thread about physical fitness, clearly an important part of survival.

I think, however, that one might look at the standards and conclude "well, I can do ten pull ups - I can go out and climb."

In actual fact, arm strength (pullup style) is not that critical in rock climbing or mountaineering, while leg and core strength, along with balance, are far more necessary. Many climbing techniques are designed to conserve arm strength - hand and foot jambs, arm locks - while others are designed to ascend in ways that are not intuitively obvious (lay backs). When it comes down to it, most climbers agree that climbing is predominately mental - finding the route, and then perceiving a sequence of holds that will enable you to cover the terrain.

It boils down to - the best conditioning for climbing is to climb - gym work is only an adjunct to acquiring the techniques and stamina, along with the knowledge, to climb. Funny, it all seems to come back to the head.

All of this gives us a lovely excuse to not mow the lawn - "Honey, I have to do some survivial training, sorry..."

My neice is about to marry a reserve SEAL; she says they seem to have a wonderful time in their training. I believe he was out skiing this weekend. <img src="images/graemlins/smirk.gif" alt="" />

Again, while running will certainly give you aierobic fitness, running in town is not the same as hiking out in the woods - train for hiking by hiking.