Skiing
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Getting Back to Strength Training — or Making What You’re Doing Actually Work
STRENGTH TRAINING — AGES 40 TO 80 What the research supports, what changes after 40, and how to build a program that fits where you are right now. Steven Markusen CPT Featured Photo: Buck Mountain and Avalanche Canyon from the Ullr Ridge, GTNP, February 2026 FOREWORD The sun makes a fleeting appearance between waves of…
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Burning Fat for Fuel
Photo: The early bird gets the worm: first tracks on the XX Face of Mt. XXXX, Teton Pass, WY 2025 The buried ski track winds through Lodgepole pine and Douglas fir, branches laden with snow. It is 7:30 am, January, 2025. The sun peaks over the Gros Ventre Mountains bathing Teton Pass Ridge in dawn…
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Lucky to be Alive: 52 Years of Backcountry Skiing
Photo: The author telemark skiing on Berthoud Pass, Co 1978. Steve Markusen Collection. Arriving at Grand Teton National Park headquarters, a park ranger is waiting for me at the door. It is 8:30 am on Wednesday January 8th, 2025. My friend Nick, a climbing ranger supervisor invited me to give a 30 minute talk to…
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My Aching Back: Managing Lower Back Pain
Featured Photo: The origin of my lower back pain: backcountry telemark skiing. Berthoud Pass, CO 1979. Credit Dale Anderson It’s 5:30 AM. Turning off the shower, I grab the squeegee to clean the glass door. Lifting it over my head, I feel a twinge in my lower back— red light. My lower back muscles spasm.…
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Last Tracks
Featured Photo: My “last tracks” to the right of center, Edelweiss Bowl, Teton Pass, Wyoming 2014 The only sound is the hiss of my skis moving in the deep ski track. Week sunlight filters through giant Ponderosa pines. Light gusts of wind pitch snow crystals into the air sparkling against the blue sky. I am…
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Deliberate Training Week Nine: Payoff
Photo: First tracks on Triple Direct, south of Teton Pass, WY, January 8, 2019. Photo credit Max Markusen. This is the ninth and final installment of my series Deliberate Training: Principles of Periodization. Whether you are alpine climbing, ice climbing or backcountry skiing, mental and physical fitness is your key to enjoying the moment and…
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Deliberate Training Weeks Six, Seven and Eight: Recovery–Endurance–Power
Photo: Me and my buddies on a March 1978 backcountry ski tour, Sun Valley, Idaho Fitness programming works. There is a formula for success: goal + reality + determination = a positive outcome. You need to have clear goals. Decide what you really want and commit. Prioritize, you can have most anything, but not everything.…
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Deliberate Training Week Five: Strength Part Two
Photo: Powder goatee, Vail Pass backcountry, 1984. Photo by David Bispham Deliberate Training Week Five: Strength Part Two I am glad Week Five is over. Last Friday at the climbing gym I was dead. Two hard weeks of building strength and now it is time to back off. After a week of recovery, we will…
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Deliberate Training: Week 3, Active Recovery
Photo: Waist deep in Eagle’s Nest, Alta, UT. Photo by Robert McCord, 2008. Achieving big athletic goals requires a capacity and affinity for hard work. Successful athletes train hard. As physical and mental stress increases, the need for rest and recovery accumulates. Continuously hard workouts reach a point of diminishing returns. When you hit that…
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Deliberate Training: Building a Base, Week One Workouts
Photo: The author approaching the base of the Eiger North Face, Grindelwald, Switzerland, by Hansueli Glossner, 2006 “The journey of a thousand miles begins with one step.” – Lao Tzu. Each athlete and every sport is unique, subject to different physical, psychological, and environmental demands. I train to be a competitive cyclist and for outdoor sports: rock &…