u/hurbaglurben

The question, in short: is it beneficial to hike with weight for my easy, aerobic base building work? If so, how much?

I think there are several nuances/things to note for this question. For example,

• of course consistency matters far more than any other factor. I'm already consistent in this, so I'm just wanting to optimize further. I generally do about 4000m per week, on foot or skis.
• I'm curious if there's an optimal amount of weight that drives SAID, but doesn't cause fatigue. I understand a large idea behind the aerobic base work is the minimization of global fatigue on the body, so you can do more work. Obviously unweighted is best for this, but less specific to the actual (mountaineering) activity. I can imagine a middle ground, say 5-10kg, that is still 90% as recoverable as unweighted work but much more specific/realistic. This is a spectrum--where is the right amount? Pack weight of 1% BW? 5%? 20%?
• then there's the downhill part. In the past when I do hill carries with water I generally dump out like 50% of it, because I still want to train my eccentric downhill movements, but not wreck myself. but I'm not totally sure about this approach. On the other hand, running downhill is a) fun af and b) maybe puts a similar strain on your body to slowly hiking downhill with weight?

I live in a mountainous area and I don't really have any options for flat runs (ok, some, but I'd lose motivation after about a week). So the majority of my base training is hiking up the mountain in aerobic HR, and then often running down. Often I go for a minimal trail-running style but I'm curious if I should change this approach.

My goals: 4000m peaks in a day style, building large work capacity for some rock route linkups, backcountry route development, long routes like Peuterey Integrale, Central Pillar of Freney