It sounds almost like those steep hikes with weight require a lot of muscular endurance and maybe that’s why it feels like it isn’t carrying over.
Partly, yep, I notice the most immediate and direct carryover from ME-type work. Very high rep weighted step-ups are a winner, as are unweighted complexes along the lines of the gym-based ME workout. Tricky to avoid burning out on this stuff while sustaining a high level of conditioning for much more than a few weeks, though.
Partly I think it’s maybe a joint angles and velocities thing, and I’d be better off if I did a significant fraction of my aerobic base work on an incline trainer or a stairmaster. I’m pretty good at tolerating boredom in my training by the standards of most of the people I know but that’s a bridge too far for me, at least for now. Hiking steeps is great but coming back down eats up a lot of time and it’s tough to find a good sustained slope.
Do you by any chance do those steep hikes at a higher altitude too?
Nah, mostly under 8k.