![]() That meant starting out carrying everything he needed for three weeks on his back and planning a re-supply. I thought if I trained like the sherpas and actually took iron and protein supplements, it would probably work out.” “I was always inspired by the sherpas running around the mountains,” Wallace explains, “But I saw the food they ate was not that nutritious. Remote fueling means heavy packsĪside from getting used to a slower pace of life, especially on rest days with minimal access to a phone or the internet, the biggest challenge was nutrition. You just walk and eat and sleep,” Wallace says with a laugh. A simple three days on, one day off routine was the only other structure. A breathing bag added a bit more specific training. He didn’t wear a heart rate monitor but did use an O2 sensor to monitor blood saturation. ![]() In contrast to some data-driven training plans out there, the Jasper racer’s plan was, in his words “pretty loose.” He’d track time and the elevation he slept at. I was in a good rhythm, so I thought I’d just keep going.” “I was kind of planning on it snowing, then the high passes would be blocked and the trip would be over,” Wallace recalls. The trip started with a hike up to Kanchenjunga Basecamp, continued across the Milke Dande ridge, and into the Everest region via the Mera Peak route. They have tea houses everywhere and it is all at high altitude.” Going downhill, you just have to be careful not to hurt yourself,” Wallace says. “I just knew from years past that going uphill is perfect conditioning. After a previous attempt at a hiking camp was cut short in 2020, the Canadian was keen to see the experiment out. Since Wallace already covers thousands of kilometres in racing and training every year, he wanted to try switching up his off-season to keep riding fresh for the race season. The skating was a small part of a much larger plan to take a different approach to winter training. Wallace didn’t travel all the way to Gokyo Lakes just for pond hockey. “I’m hoping to get a full-on game up there next winter.” The hockey sticks are … not subtle. “I left my skates and stick up at a lodge where I have some friends,” says Wallace. ![]() A friend then sent the gear by plane from Kathmandu to meet Wallace high up in the mountains, where he carried them on his back for the final week of his 36-day trek. When he returned to Nepal this year for winter training, and another swing at the Yak Attack MTB stage race (he won), Wallace packed a stick and skates in with his bikes. The Canadian first spotted Gokyo Lakes, and their potential for high-altitude hockey, two years ago. Wallace’s latest adventure took much more planning, though. Kilimanjaro and bikepacking base miles through the Serengeti. Everest to support a local monastery? Stuck in South Africa by sudden travel restrictions? Perfect opportunity for an FKT on Mt. Locked down in Nepal? Why not do an Everesting in the shadow of Mt. ![]() The past few years have proved the Canadian’s resilience. The Jasper, Alta.-raised mountain biker is clearly comfortable adapting to the unexpected, even in situations where others would be uneasy, if not very uncomfortable. Cory Wallace and a high-altitude Himalayan hockey gameĪt a time of year when most Canadian pro cyclists are headed south to warmer climates for easy base miles – locations like Hawaii, California and Arizona that would double as very nice vacation spots – Wallace is usually in some far corner of the map, far from the creature comforts of major urban centers. The hockey game capped off a unique cross-training program that saw him hiking through remote regions of the Himalayas for 36 days. Everest as a backdrop, that sets Wallace’s training camp apart. It’s not just the highlight reel, skating on a frozen lake with Mt. Of all his adventures, playing shinny on a frozen Himalayan lake in the rarified air at 5,100m elevation has to be one of the most Canadian moments in the history of cycling training camps. Cory Wallace has a way of finding himself in the most interesting training situations.
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