Goal and pace

In order to climb Mount Hood, you should be able to climb 5,500 ft in 6 hours with 20 lbs of added weight. A Hood summit day is about 10 hours round trip: roughly 6 up and 3 to 4 down plus the summit stop. This plan targets the 6-hour ascent, the hardest fitness piece.

The pace works out like this: walk at 1,000 ft per moving hour and take 5 minutes off each hour. That is 5.5 hours moving plus 30 minutes of breaks, so 5,500 ft in 6 hours.

The following is a basic plan with a long Saturday hike. Week 1 doubles as a baseline: if you cannot hold 1,000 ft/hr for 2,500 ft with 10 lb, repeat week 1 and push the test back a week.

Click the link below to get the full training plan!