Preparing for the Peaks of the Balkans

Training, you ask? Is it really necessary to be in “peak” physical shape before starting a two week, 30,000ft elevation gain, 115 mile hike?

Let’s imagine for a second an average day on the Peaks of the Balkans. You wake up at 6:30am or 7:00am, you get dressed, eat breakfast, pack up your bag and hopefully start hiking before 8:00am because trust me, you probably have 6-10 hours of hiking ahead of you. The day starts with a grueling uphill battle, switchbacks aplenty, and often loose gravel or mud to slow you down. Each day has a similar profile, up up up then down down down. Don’t use all your energy on the uphill or your kneecaps will shoot out of your legs like a couple of edamame on the way down. And that’s just one day out of 10!

At this point in the blog, you’re probably questioning things, wondering if there’s anything positive or enjoyable about this hike. Well don’t even ask if it’s worth it because this is one of the prettiest places you’ll ever see, and the best way (and only way) to see it is on foot with everything you need on your back.

In this blog, I want to talk about the preparation that I think is appropriate for hiking the Peaks of the Balkans Trail. Again, there’s other ways to do the hike, and certainly the most popular is the day hike from Theth to Valbona or Valbona to Theth. But here, we’re talking about the main prize, the full loop, or at least one of the full loops that are possible (I’ll discuss itineraries another time).

There are two main areas of preparation that contribute to a successful trip:

You’ll notice that I don’t have a gear list here. I’m writing a separate blog about that. This is about your body, mind, and heart.

Physical Preparation: It’s all in the reflexes

I highly recommend doing at least something before starting the trail. There’s a direct correlation between how in shape you are and how much your body enjoys it (which is not always related to how your mind enjoys it, but I’ll get to that later).

What does mean to be in shape?

You do not need to have well defined abs. You do not need to squat 200lbs. Being in shape for the Peaks of the Balkans is all about cardio and endurance. The best way to prepare for hiking is hiking! Duh!

However, most people don’t live right next to a mountain that they can train on. I get it. So how can you build cardio and endurance without hiking a lot of elevation? That’s the real question.

My recommendation is to determine your current level of cardio and endurance, make a plan to improve, and stick to the plan. Everyone starts at a different place physically which makes it hard to give exact details. A basic rule of thumb is that if you haven’t been doing much for cardio, you should start your preparation far sooner.

Here’s my tips:

• Run, walk, hike, just move on your feet!
• No elevation in your neck of the woods? Do some stairs.
• Train with weight on. Fill up a backpack.
• Start small and gradually increase. By the end, you should do at least a 12 mile day.
• Don’t go too hard and injure yourself.

Mental Preparation: Your greatest asset

There’s no greater tool in the kit than your own brain matter. No matter how hard you train and how physically prepared you are, there will be mental challenges, trust me.

Depending on how hard that first day is, it can be quite a shock. It’s easy to despair. It’s easy to give up! I mean if you struggle the first day, how on earth can you continue? I’m going to focus on Zeb for this one because his mental toughness was unrivaled. He had a hard first day physically which wore him down mentally as well. When we (finally) found a place to stay for the night, Zeb was speechless. I was worried, and incessantly asked him if he was going to be okay for the next day. He couldn’t answer, and didn’t need to. The next day hadn’t started yet. My worries were assuaged when he woke up and said, “I can do this.” Sure as shit, he did.

From Zeb’s playbook, here are some tips:

• Take it one day at a time. Don’t think about the entire trip.
• The first few days are a shock but you get better.
• Be easy on yourself and believe in yourself.
• Don’t forget to laugh. This is not an obstacle to overcome, but a process to enjoy. As hard as it sounds, enjoy the difficulty.
• Use it as a chance to grow.

There’s also an emotional aspect that I don’t want to disregard. Pushing yourself physically and mentally can have an emotional toll or release feelings that you didn’t know were there. Let them happen. Let them wash over you. Acknowledge and share them, and appreciate that you’re a living, breathing human being with a heart.