When ascending mountains at high altitude, perhaps the most significant factor contributing to success, beyond acquiring safe and thorough acclimatisation, is the trekker’s power to weight ratio. If you’re heavy, you’re going to struggle, whether the reason you’re heavy is that you’re carrying a lot of muscle, or your body is well equipped with unused “emergency reserves”.
So, while we leave the choice of whether or not to join one of our climbs to you, we prefer climbers to be properly informed about what are realistic expectations for heavy people.
The following are our recommended physical limitations guidelines for joining the Atlas Morocco-Toubkal trek.
Body Mass Index Result
Maximum of 29
Aim for 18 – 25
To have a realistic expectation of reaching Kilimanjaro’s summit, a person 5’7” tall should really weigh no more than 13 stone (185 lbs). A person 6 feet tall should weigh under 97 kg (215 lbs). Use the BMI Calculator.
Basic Fitness Test Result
Maximum best time of 15 mins 30.
This is a mile and a half run (2.4km), usually including only a very slight incline. However, we suggest you test yourself either on a treadmill at a gym or by running 6 times around an athletic track.
Although no running is required on the expedition, nonetheless, a BFT is a good indicator of cardio-vascular output, a reasonable level of which is required on Toubkal.
Calculating your VO2 Max from your Beep Test Results
The results obtained by using the calculator below should not be regarded as authoritative, as this is not an objective means of measurement. The algorithms are simply based on a reasonably accurate correlation between the known performance of athletes on the beep test and their otherwise-measured pre-known VO2 max data. It is, however, a very useful tool in our view and renders a very acceptably accurate approximation of VO2 max.
The results obtained by using the calculator below should not be regarded as authoritative, as this is not an objective means of measurement. The algorithms are simply based on a reasonably accurate correlation between the known performance of athletes on the beep test and their otherwise-measured pre-known VO2 max data. It is, however, a very useful tool in our view and renders a very acceptably accurate approximation of VO2 max.
Enter your age.
(Rating is only based on ages > 17 years.)
Gender: Male or Female
Enter your level (example: “7“):
Enter your number of shuttles (example: “6“):
Your result (ml/kg/min):
Rating:
To make sense of your VO2 estimate, see where you fit into this table 👇