Want to train effectively for winter ice/mixed climbing? Build a “PLICE,” or plywood ice, and stash it somewhere legal or illegal, get strong! I came up with this idea about 15 years ago while trying to train for a 24-hour ice climbing event. The ice was late that year, so I built this thing in my back yard. Originally it was vertical, then gently overhanging, and as I and my training partners have grown stronger it’s now “Steep Plywood Ice,” or SPLICE. There are probably a half-dozen of these hidden in the woods around Canmore, and every week or two I get another pic of a balcony or backwoods SPLICE from the Netherlands, Chicago, Quebec, all over the world. They are cheap, brutally effective, simple to build, and most of all result in all the right physical strength and movement patterns you need for ice climbing, and as a base for mixed (more mixed training videos coming!). Link below for free plans. If I can build one you can too! $100 and a few hours a week can change your winter climbing fitness level by an astoundingly huge amount.
A quick rant: Most winter climbing “training” plans suck when measured by the one thing that truly matters: Winter climbing performance. It’s common to get sucked into easily “improved" but irrelevant metrics like number of swizzle squats with X weight or waving a fat rope around like it’s a sine wave. Unfortunately, most winter training plans and metrics are devised by people who don’t actually climb much in winter. Their programs are based around metrics that are easy to measure in the trainer's preferred habitat, the gym, and make us feel good about our supposed “progress,” but don’t actually result in much if any real winter performance gains. Any training is better than sitting on our asses so right on, but most of us have limited time and limited resources. Don’t waste either. Build a SPLICE, stash it somewhere, and aim for three one-hour sessions a week before ice season. Throw in some Tabata hangs, do some pushups and air squats between splice sets for extra load if you’re psyched, hike up hills in the snow/rain for a couple of hours three times a week at night with a heavy-ass pack and you will see genuine winter climbing performance improvements. Or improve the number of Swedish Snazzlefish you can bust out every week….

Full Plans here too: [ Ссылка ]

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