Just got back from 5 days of Colorado 1st season. Season is only 5 days long so you hunt 5 days....
An observation to consider: resilience and stamina, or endurance, whatever your parlance. It's not hard to drag a fat ass, 10 lb rifle, and a 40 lb daypack up a steep slope to 10,000+ feet - on day 1. The true test is day 3-4-5. Can you do 7-10 miles/day every day for multiple consecutive days? Alot of guys, myself included in the past, could go for a couple days then need a day off and 25 Advil to keep hunting.
I guarantee, not my opinion, a lighter body, less weight on your feet and back, equates to greater stamina/endurance over the long haul.
As to bodyweight and BMI, I tend to agree with jay - my BMI is "overweight" and in past years I've been borderline obese. No one has ever looked at me and said I could lose some weight. BMI is a basic measure that needs tempered with reason. But - how strong is strong enough to haul 60-70 lbs of elk off the mountain? For 3-5 trips up the hill? Over 1-3 days? This is the realm of stamina/endurance.
I learned this the hard way over the years. I actually am carrying less muscle than in past years for that very reason. I can still squat 250, bench 225, deadlift 300 for 4-8 reps depending on the exercise. The central question: does benching 300 lbs, deadlifting 400 lbs, squatting 300 lbs make me a better mountain hunter? Am I able to maintain an acceptable level of effort over multiple days? To me, once a certain level of strength is achieved, aerobic capacity, both aerobic and anaerobic, need maximized. You get resilience from being strong but you get aerobic and anaerobic capacity from training your muscles to do repeated heavy work over long periods of time. An example: stepups with 60-80lbs in your pack for 2-3-400 reps while keeping your heartrate below ~ 150 bpm. IOW at a rate of about 1 step every 3-5 secs and slow down when HR gets close to, or exceeds, 150 bpm. This type of training sucks. Sucks bad. But I've found it to be the best training I do.
As an aside, elk won this year. I mmm, mmmiss, mmmiissseeedd one..........their were intervening factors (unforeseen tree branches) which I didnt see in the last 10 mins of shooting light. Shooting over my pack at 125 yards is not much of a shot. Except when things are in the way.
I believe that lifting heavy does indeed help your performance in the mountains. At least that's my expierance. In a typical day elk hunting I go about 8-12 miles at an average elevations of maybe 8000' hunting out of a base camp. This is different than living out of your pack FWIW.
I'm 5'7" 160lbs and 45 years old. I have both a light weight rig that weighs 6.5 lbs and a standard weight that weighs a hair over 8lbs. I'll take the standard any day for what I do.
