Bikepacking is a lot of fun, and there’s nothing like going on an adventure on your own pedal power. It’s an amazing experience, and it is designed to challenge and test you. A question we often get asked by our amazing subscribers is, “How To Climb Better When Bikepacking.”

One of the tough aspects of bikepacking is getting up hills. You are often working on fatigued legs, and you generally have a heavier bike. For the best views, you might want to go up a mountain, not just a hill. 

In this article, I will discuss how to become a better climber when bikepacking. I will share my experience, give you some great tips, and much more. Let’s go!!!

• My Experience Bikepacking
• Climb Better When Bikepacking: 10 Top Tips
• Do You Need To Be A Better Climber?

My Experience Bikepacking

Before I discuss these tips in this blog, it’s helpful to know how I came across them. I’m Robbie Ferri, the author of this post. I have been bikepacking for about a decade, from casual trips to ultra racing and even breaking world records. It’s been an amazing journey.

I wrote this blog because I live in a fairly flat place, have always been a little taller, and seem to end up racing in the mountains a lot. Two highlights would be the Inca Divide and attempting the record for the most countries visited via bicycle in seven days.

 I had to really put a lot of time into becoming a much better climber, and it was a huge learning curve for me. Here are the tips and methods I found made a huge difference to my climbing. 

Climb Better When Bikepacking: 10 Top Tips

Now for the exciting part! Let’s start by explaining how you can improve your climbing. Here’s what you need to know.

1. Low Gearing

If you want to climb better, it’s not always about being super strong and traveling very light. A lot of the time, it comes down to gearing. When you first buy a bike, it comes with gearing for all terrain. They want you to have a wide range of flats, descents, and climbing.

When bikepacking, you don’t need these high gears for getting downhills and going fast on flats. You only need low gears. I recommend dropping chainring sizes or using a bigger cassette to ensure that climbing is much easier. 

Lower gearing also helps when using higher cadences to reduce fatigue and help carry much heavier luggage. I always try to go for a minimum of 34 on the front and 40 on the rear with a 2X system. On a 1X system, 36 on the front and 42 on the rear.

2. Go Lighter

This is probably the most obvious route when it comes to climbing. The lighter you are, the better you can climb a hill with the same power. You could take less gear with you, lose some weight personally, or opt for a lighter bike to shave off a few pounds.

I feel like unless you are losing the weight yourself, there are consequences to going down this route. If you take less gear, you might find yourself less comfortable or without things you might need when the weather turns cold or stormy. 

3. Train For Higher Power

When it comes to training for bikepacking, endless miles on the bike will only get you so far. If you want to make some big power gain, then you need to push those muscles to an uncomfortable place where they might not want to be.

To do this, I would do power sessions. It might be an hour on the turbo trainer doing intervals or even just an hour of holding a high power. It’s going to really help build muscle strength, which will give you a much higher base strength for climbing up hills. 

You might even want to try some strength training! This hugely helped my bikepacking and not just in making me a better climber!

4. Plan Your Nutrition

This is a common error I see so often when it comes to bikepacking, and I have made it myself so many times. When you come to a big hill or a mountain, you need to ensure you are hydrated and also get enough calories to climb it. 

So many riders are so concerned about hills that they just don’t eat enough. Quite frankly, when climbing, you need to eat and drink more. If you go in under-fueled, the mountain or rolling hills will get the better of you.

I always try to eat a big chunk of food around 30 minutes before I get to a climb so I have some extra calories when I need them. I also find if I have a very hilly day, I will tend to eat more just in case.

5. Pacing

One of the biggest errors I made when I first started climbing mountains when bikepacking is I would always attack them. My average heart rate would be roughly around 120 on a good day, but for some reason, on long climbs, it would be at 150 when it didn’t need to be.

I was giving way too much on hills and just expecting not to have to suffer for it later. You have to pace yourself. Don’t treat the hill like a challenge. Treat it like any other road you are on, where you are riding slower. 

Falling into the trap of overpowering into big climbs or lots of climbs is an easy way not just to cause yourself an injury but also make it a tough day you will get very little enjoyment out of.

6. Be Dynamic

I have always found on my adventures that you can cause yourself some real problems by not being dynamic. Sitting all day will put pressure not only on your back but also on your behind. Standing a lot adds pressure to the feet and can overwork the core.

This is the same for climbing. When going up a hill, it’s good to switch it up. Move around the bike with sitting, standing, and even using your aerobars if you have them. It will mean you will suffer much less, and your body will thank you for it when

7. Don’t Overthink it

It’s really easy for a climb or hilly day to beat you mentally. Yes, your speed is slower, you might not be covering much distance, or you might even be suffering much more. You can’t let this beat you. Progress is progress! It might be one mile, it might be 100 meters. Climbs can’t go on forever.

Just enjoy the climb and try to take your mind somewhere else. A good way I get around this is to break it down into sections, take it mile by mile, and celebrate the little wins, such as 20%, 50%, and 80%. It will help you so much.

8. High Cadences

Your cadence is how quickly you are pedaling. It’s important to know that you can generate the same power pedaling quicker with less resistance compared to slower with higher resistance. The best way many bikepackers find to get up a hill is high cadences.

When pedaling at a high cadence, you often generate more power, remove lactate quicker from your legs, fatigue much less in the long term, and get fewer injuries. I highly recommend trying some higher cadences when climbing. 

9. Pick Your Battles

It’s really easy to fall into the trap of going into tough climbs in the completely wrong conditions just because they are there. I have often reached the base of an alpine pass and stopped to attempt it the next day due to weather or the time of day.

They are not fun in the dark, and it gets cold at the top. They also take a huge amount out of your body. I highly recommend thinking about when to battle a mountain and when to wait for the right conditions to climb better when bikepacking.

10. Practice

Finally, the last tip is practice. Nothing beats just practicing climbing on hills. It’s easy just to chew flat miles up at home, but nothing is going to help you more than loading up your bike, digging into the pedals, and practicing. 

I tend to either travel somewhere hilly or find a small hill close to me and ride a short loop that consistently takes me up that hill. It can be incredibly boring, but it will make your life so much easier when it comes to going on an adventure. 

Do You Need To Be A Better Climber?

These tips will help you improve your ability to climb when bikepacking and ultra cycling. However, if you’re not in a rush when bikepacking, you don’t need to start making it more complicated by trying to apply each one of these rules. 

The only thing everyone needs to consider is having low enough gearing to get up a hill. It’s not nice running out of gears, and not only does it result in having to walk, but it’s incredibly fatiguing. If you are not in a rush, take the hills easy and enjoy the view. 

A Final Note: Climb Better When Bikepacking

Getting up hills is one of the biggest challenges in bikepacking and is often very testing for many. Thanks for taking the time to read my article. I hope that these tips help you. The most important thing is to enjoy the view at the top as much as possible!