Originally Posted by axolotl
..... I found that if I persevered for 10 or 15 minutes at the beginning of a climb, I fell into a relatively easy rhythm which I could maintain for a long time, assuming a fairly constant gradient. I learned to love climbing passes.... .
On my alpine tours I used to have the motto,
a pass a day keeps the doctor away. I loved to do chains of passes which are common in the Alps region. I might do Col la Cayolle in France, col de larche into italy; back into France over Sestriere and col de montgenevre; over Col de Galiber to the Maurienne; out of the Maurienne by Col De L'Iseran; over Petit St Bernard into Italy; finally into Switzerland over Gd. St. Bernard. After seven passes in a week or so i'd take a bit of break in the Lac D'Annecy region. But I loved climbing and soon found myself getting back to it.
My biggest climb ever was
Agua Negra in the Andes between Chile and Argentina; from sea level after a few miles of flatlands you started climbing to 15,500 feet. Took me nearly 3 full days. The second day was REALLY tough psychologically...you started climbing the minute you got on the bike, and KNEW you still weren't gonna reach the top at the end of the day. It got so cold that night that the water froze in my water bottles even though they weren't outside my tent all that long a time.
Not so sure i could keep up this pace now that I am older and my knees got obliterated on my world tour from malaria and the side effects of some of the medications; but I could just make my granny gears even grannier and hit the mountains!
roughstuff