Just returned from an Alaska 8 day backpack hunt. No frills, crappy freeze dried food, heavy pack and conditions changed hourly from fairly warm to ice cold and wet. I thought I did fairly well preparing. For 7 months I hiked 4 miles of up and down hills weekly, did stair climbing 2-3 x's weekly, lots of squats and strength training as well. I was ready or so I thought. I am up in age, but better shape then most in my age bracket. I was totally blown away as to how difficult the hikes would be. I have read here that some think weight training and strength training is first and foremost.I have always had good upper body strength and strong legs but no where near the level of strong legs I would need for Alaska. Stamina and endurance, ie: cardio and actual climbing mountains is your best bet regarding training. You need to be able to carry your body and pack up steep muddy and slippery climbs. That takes more then strength. It takes cardio and good legs. I underestimated the difficulty of walking 5 miles over swamp, tundra and alder trees while fighting mosquitos. It is simply miserable. If you want to train for the irregular earth, the unforgiving tundra and constant streams, rivers, mud holes, bottomless water holes, then get your pack on and walk in sand dunes with 50 pounds on your back, or actual mountains without trails or as someone else mentioned, backpack on and walking in muddy bottom body of water up to your waist...do one of those 2x a week and maybe, just maybe you will have a sense of what to expect. For myself, living near sand dunes, next time I will train with backpack on and walk in dunes for 4 miles....if I can. Cardio and general endurance of long, hard hiking is how to train if you want to be relatively ready to traverse the unforgiving ground of Alaska. Will not say where exactly my guide took me per his request. I picked a spartan backpack style hunt in unit 13e of Alaska and it kicked my ass. You cannot fly, float or ATV into the areas we hunted. You can only walk. Tundra if you don't know, is like walking on or between those half ball exercise things pushed together with say...6" of moss on top and 6" deep of water between each one for miles on end. You do not walk in a straight line. You have to pick each and every step carefully to avoid injury. Your feet will take a beating and you will be fighting to prevent your feet from constantly being wet even with gators. I stepped in mud holes up to my knees more then once. The alders were as bad. No trails, just pushing through. I quit worry about a grizzly encounter after the 1st mile in. That was the last thing on my mind walking in. Surviving the hike became the goal. Glad I experienced it, but at my age, never again.
