Coaching with Leif Whittaker & Evoke Endurance

"Climbing Mount Baker has been a dream of mine for years. And even though with most things I am confident I can work hard and achieve the goal, I put this off for many years because I was scared of what mountaineering would be like and I knew I'd have to be in great shape. Getting to work with Leif made me feel confident that I could do it. I knew I could trust in the plan he laid out to get me where I needed to be. I would not have managed these climbs (or even been confident enough to sign up for them) without his advance planning and keeping me accountable. I hope he realizes what an impact he has in helping people achieve their wildest outdoor dreams!"

"As a non competitive ultra runner and climber, I thought, 'I don't need a coach.' I was wrong. It took a life-or-death situation for me to figure it out. An especially bad case of Covid that attacked my respiratory system left me with acute respiratory distress. After 30 days in the ICU, I had lost over 40% of my lung capacity to scarring and neurological damage. I spent another 16 weeks in intensive rehab learning to walk again—walk 40 yards that is. It took me another 9 months to extend that to a mile, and then I plateaued. I spent 9 months trying to build up to running an aerobic mile at any pace, but I just couldn't get there. I'd followed Scott Johnston since reading Training for the New Alpinism and reached out to him in desperation. Scott connected me to Leif. To say Leif steepened the recovery curve would be an understatement. Within 8 weeks I ran my first mile since the hospital, and I did it aerobically. 10 weeks after that I led a rock climb again and finished a 50K trail race. Leif has invested the time to get to know me physically and psychologically. He often pushes me when I want to ease up and enforces some recovery when I'm running on all cylinders and get greedy for more. I think it's equal parts science and intuition, but both are backed with his investment in analyzing me and my performance data to make day to day individualized coaching decisions.
For the first time in a long while, I'm dreaming big again—and that's priceless!"

"The summit was a success! Thanks for the wonderful training plan, motivation and feedback! Your training was perfect. My heart rate stayed in Zone 1 70% of the time and Zone 2 30%. What a magical experience!"

Seattle Times article about coached athlete Travis Van Overbeke completing the Seven Summits by climbing Everest and Lhotse back to back. 

AustinFit Magazine article about coached athlete Tim Kraus reaching the summit of Aconcagua with Type 1 diabetes.

Story about climbing Ecuador's volcanoes from coached athlete Devin Geoghegan.