Part three of my monthly countdown for Denali. Read about what I did last month to get ready for my Denali expedition. Part three of the series: Prepping for Denali: 4 months to go.

Physical preparation

I’m definitely in a good program again! While last month I experienced training as hard, dark and wet, I currently enjoy my workouts a lot. I now have so many training options I can choose everyday what I want to do. This mostly results in the weekly program below:

The workouts in the gym are intense, but very good. In combination with the Be Your Best-program, my core stability has dramatically increased last month.

Overall, I feel my training is a lot more structured. I have been reading extensively in Training for the New Alpinism. The book is really helpful and confirms my current schedule isn’t that bad. At the same time, the book has plenty of tips and tricks to improve my program.

Another improvement is that I got a Polar M400 heart rate monitor. This device gives a lot of insight into my training intensity. Funny enough, I mostly learned my training sessions where to intense.

Last for now; I’m starting to hike more. After all, this is the real work. I hiked two days of the Twentepad  (50km-walk in total) and am planning to do a part of the Eifelsteig next week.

Equipment

New items arrived!

	Little Hotties hand and feet warmers. Apparently the huge boots and mitts may not always be warm enough. In that case, these little hotties have to make sure warmth is where it should be!
	Ayacucho Army Cap, to protect my head from the sun, and make sure the sun won’t burn my face too much.
	Mountain Equipment Wet & Dry Bag 140L. To be honest, I got two of these now ;). Because I still have the option for a stopover in Iceland, I will bring some extra stuff (Tent, hiking shoes, etc). I can take up to 50kg in the plane. These bags should make this possible.
	Osprey Drysacks. Remember you needed something from your rucksack and you couldn’t find it until you took everything out? This is where these drysacks come in. They allow you to put some organisation into you rucksack. As a bonus, they will keep your stuff dry.. even after days of rain.
	Oakley Custom StraightLink. On Elbrus, I broke my sunglasses. I still believe there’s only one brand that makes really good sunglasses, so here are the new ones. They are custom-made, so do not match the image exactly!

One big item is still missing; the sleeping bag. I’m waiting for the new Mountain Equipment bag to become available.

The expedition

(Almost) everything is set and done! Flight tickets are booked, reservation for the Fireweed Station is done, snowshoes are hired. What’s left? Just my initial night in Anchorage. I still need to book a hotel for that night.

Iceland

I have been looking into making a stopover at Iceland for a while now. I believe Iceland is a very beautiful country, definitely worth a visit. But Iceland is (very!) expensive, and I do arrive a bit early in the hiking season for Iceland. This makes it unsure if all routes are open yet.

So I decided… not to make a decision yet! My flight tickets are flexible, allowing me to stay a week in Iceland on my return from Anchorage. If weather is good, and I still feel strong enough, I will make a stopover at Iceland and do the Laugavegur in 4 days.

That’s all for this episode of Prepping for Denali: 4 months to go. Keep coming back for updates on my preparation and stuff related to climbing Denali.