New book teaches importance of positive thinking

Champaign, IL--Mountaineering requires extensive physical training, but few consider the mental training involved in climbing. Carlton Cooke, co-editor of Mountaineering: Training and Preparation (Human Kinetics, February 2010), says mental training aids mountaineers' concentration and enables them to adopt an analytical system of thinking rather than become emotionally reactive when faced with risk.  
 
"Having the skills that allow clear thinking in the face of risk enhances the chances of making realistic predictions," Cooke explains. "This is a core feature in ensuring safe and enjoyable sport involvement." Cooke, head of the Carnegie Research Centre for Performance at Leeds Metropolitan University, supports British Army expeditions in a team of sport and exercise scientists, including an expedition to Everest West Ridge in 2006. According to Cooke, four psychological skills are essential to mentally preparing for a climb.
 
Goal setting allows climbers to set clear outcomes for judging performance and make plans to achieve those goals. Writing personal goals also helps to develop and refine individual commitment and accountability. Cooke suggests that mountaineers set specific safety goals before completing a climb. "Goals might include setting arrival times for the stages of the descent, directing attention to specific descent practices, or planning refueling stops," Cooke says.
 
Imagery involves creating mental pictures relating to performance and often includes athletes' visualizing themselves negotiating difficult tasks or completing a highly technical skill. "Climbers who are preparing for big expeditions often report reading all available accounts of previous climbs and consulting extensively with others who have made those climbs, both of which enhance imagery," Cooke explains. Aspects such as specific physical movements, environmental factors, task, timing, learning history, emotion, and perspective should be considered in developing adaptive images.
 
Self-talk exercises aim to control the way people talk to themselves and can be most effective when planned and repeated. "Given that there are so many occasions when mountaineers might be isolated, this may be an important skill for sustaining quality performance," Cooke says. "For extended high-altitude expeditions where long periods of downtime can be spent in tents and where winds are so strong that they prevent conversation, self-talk may be key to maintaining morale."
 
Reinforcement is central to motivation and sustained involvement. According to Cooke, anything increasing the likelihood of repeating a specific behavior is a reinforcement agent. "In high-altitude mountaineering, it may be important that climbers find value in undertaking the dog work so that others may succeed," Cooke says. "Another intrapersonal reinforcement for international mountaineering may be the desire to interact with other cultures or with transcendental experiences of just being in the mountains."

For more information on Mountaineering: Training and Preparation or any other outdoor recreation resources, visit www.HumanKinetics.com or call 800-747-4457.

ABOUT THE EDITORS
 
Carlton Cooke is the director of university research, Carnegie professor of sport and exercise science, and head of the Carnegie Research Centre for Performance Sport at Leeds Metropolitan University. 
 
Carlton has presented and published extensively on aspects of sport performance, physical activity, exercise, and health, principally in the areas of exercise physiology and biomechanics. He has worked with a range of partners in high-performance sport in facilitating, developing, and delivering support and research in sport science. He worked with a team of sport and exercise scientists from Leeds Metropolitan University in support of the British Army expedition to Everest West Ridge in 2006. The university continues to support preparations for army expeditions and other expeditions in the outdoors as well as commit to optimizing the role of the outdoors in higher education through the Carnegie Great Outdoors. Carlton has participated and competed in various outdoor sports and activities and continues to enjoy the outdoors both professionally and recreationally.
 
Dave Bunting is director of training and cofounder of My Peak Potential, an experiential learning and development centre in the Bavarian Alps of Southern Germany. He served 24 years in the British Army, predominantly within the Army Physical Training Corps, where he became a specialist in mountain leadership training. He has instructed in mountain training centres in Wales, Norway, Canada, and Bavaria. In Bavaria, he undertook the arduous year-long German Army Mountain Guide's (Heeresbergfuhrer) course, becoming one of only a few British soldiers to have gained this prestigious qualification. Dave has a passion for mountaineering and has been involved in the organisation and execution of numerous expeditions, including 10 to the Himalayas. In 2006 Bunting led an elite selection of climbers from the British Army on a groundbreaking expedition in an attempt to become the first British team to climb the formidable West Ridge of Mount Everest. As expedition leader, Dave headed up the planning, team selection and preparation, and he was a strong member of the climbing team. This highly publicised expedition earned Dave an MBE and was filmed for the televised documentary Everest: Man vs. Mountain.
 
Dr. John O'Hara is a senior lecturer in sport performance physiology within the Carnegie faculty of sport and education at Leeds Metropolitan University. His PhD was on carbohydrate ingestion and endurance performance. He is a sport and exercise scientist accredited with the British Association of Sport and Exercise Sciences. His research interests are focused on carbohydrate metabolism, hydration status, limiting factors for sport performance and the preparation of athletes for extreme sporting challenges. As a hill walker, mountain biker and climber, he has a keen interest in the outdoors. John has been on two Himalayan expeditions: Yala Peak (5500 m) and a climb to camp 1 on the lower slopes of Mount Everest (6100 m) with the Everest West Ridge 2006 team. He has also summited Mount Killimanjaro (5895 m). Through his cumulative experiences in academia and in the great outdoors, he led, developed, managed and delivered the multidisciplinary support services to the Everest West Ridge 2006 team, which included physiological, nutritional and psychological support. Since then, he has provided a similar level of support to other Army Mountaineering Association expeditions and other sporting disciplines, such as the Vendée Globe 2008, a round-the-world single-handed sailing race.
 
 
CONTENTS
 
Part I   Planning and Team Selection
Chapter 1 Logistics and Planning
Chapter 2 Team Selection
Chapter 3 Preparation
Chapter 4 Equipment
Chapter 5 First Aid, Travel, and Acclimisation
 
Part II Conditioning and Nutrition for Expeditions
Chapter 6 Fitness and Training
Chapter 7 Endurance Training
Chapter 8 Strength and Power Training
Chapter 9 Nutrition for Training
Chapter 10 Nutrition for Expeditions
 
Part III Expedition Leadership and Psychology
Chapter 11 Psychological Skills in the Outdoors
Chapter 12 Resilience
Chapter 13 Leadership