Training

Fitness is an essential part of mountaineering. In fact, at high altitudes, your fitness may be the deciding factor in certain life and death situations. Other than that, being fit is always an advantage as the stronger climbers can always help the weaker ones and the team can proceed faster. Therefore we take training very seriously, and follow a very strict training programme which consist of long runs, stairs climbing and gym sessions.

Long Runs

Typically we do 2 long runs a week, 5km and 10km respectively. The usual route we take is 2 rounds of the NUS 5km route, which is also the assessment route. However, sometimes we do run out of campus, such as runs to NUS Bukit Timah Campus, West Coast Park, Hwa Par Villa etc.

The first part of the physical assessment is a 10km run, passing time for guys is below 50 minutes and for girls, 60 minutes.

The NUS 5km route, starting and ending point denoted by the blue star, which is the Sports and Recreation Centre (SRC)

Stairs

As mountaineering involves climbing vertically to reach the altitude, stairs training is also an important part of our physically conditioning. Climbing stairs puts predominant stress on the lower body muscles, especially the calves and thighs, which are where the action is during the actual climbing and trekking in the mountains. We usually climb up HDB flats of at least 21 storey, with loaded backpack of 14kg, and take the lift to descend before we continue on the next set. Otherwise, we would training at Bukit Timah Nature reserve, doing the infamous Bukit Timah Circuit, where it brings the climber through the steepest steps one can find in the nature reserve.

This time round, our assessment passing criteria for the stairs component is to be able to complete 18 sets of 22 storey, with 12kg of loaded backpack, in 4 minutes 30 seconds per set for guys, and 5 minutes per set for girls.

Stairs raining at a 22 Storey block in Clementi

View from the top of a 40 storey block in Toa Payoh

The towering 30 storey blocks in Tiong Bahru!

Taking a break after 2 sets of Bukit Timah Circuit, one more to go!

Gym

We are required to fulfill at least 2 gym sessions a week, which helps us build and train various muscle groups which are important when climbing. The gym sessions also help the members to reduce injuries which arise from over working of certain muscle groups during stairs or runs.

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