WK: Can park authorities in the U.S. prevent climbers from climbing if they do not have the proper skills?
CN: For most of the mountains that lie within the park service boundaries, the park authorities cannot dictate who can climb and who cannot. Where guide services are used, they can determine which guide services are allowed to operate and who cannot. The Denali National Park service only allows five guide services to operate commercially on the mountain. The Grand Teton National park only allows two guide services to guide on the Grand.
National parks do not provide guide services, but they usually have guide services that work through them and are available to climbers. Climbers do need a permit to climb mountains within most of the national parks.
WK: What kind of physical fitness training should a climber undertake to prepare for higher elevations? What kind of training do you do when you are not climbing?
Nance: There's a pretty famous quote that says: "There's no better training for climbing than climbing." As long as you're climbing consistently and you're constantly out there practicing your craft, whether that's rock climbing or ice climbing or skiing or mountaineering, for most of us, that is our passion, and there's no external physical training program that you need to do.
As long as you focus on your physical fitness gradually three months prior and spend some time above 8,000 feet, most climbers don't need to train extra hard for anything in the contiguous 48 states. Once you begin to talk about mountains above 20,000 feet, the game changes. Experience at altitude and prior conditioning is critical for success.
WK: How does someone arrange to climb a remote mountain like Vinson Massif in Antarctica with a guiding service?
CN: A person who wants to climb a mountain like Vinson Massif would most likely contact us on the Internet. I now work for Adventure Network International, www.adventure-network.com, and climbers who contact us are usually experienced.
When I first started guiding and I had a client who had climbed Everest, it was a "no brainer;" they were obviously a strong climber. In more recent years, clients on Everest are never far from assistance from a guide or Sherpa support—it can become almost a one-to-one relationship.
So seeing climbers do Denali, where they are asked to be self-sufficient, has become a better gauge for a client's climbing ability. The park service is there and can rescue you if it really gets bad, but they expect that you can self-rescue and be able to get out on your own. It's more remote and conditions are harsher because it's closer to the North Pole.
It's the same with Vinson. It's very, very remote and since it's so close to the South Pole, if anything serious happens, you may be in trouble. If it is something that is controllable, it will be days or weeks until you can get out to South America. It's good experience if a person has climbed Denali or has climbed on other high remote peaks. That's the benchmark.