The Brisbane Lions conquered Mt Humphreys on day two of the Club’s high altitude training camp in Arizona.

Every player and coach reached the summit – which is 12,633 feet above sea level – but it certainly wasn’t easy.

New Senior Coach Justin Leppitsch later tweeted that it was ‘one of the hardest things he has ever done’, while many of his players echoed the sentiments.

Strength and Conditioning Coach Matt Hass said it was important to have the players complete the hike early in the program.

“The thought process behind Mt Humphreys is to expose the boys to high altitude early in the camp to get an EPO spike and speed up the adaptation,” Hass told LIONS TV.

“I’ve done the hike a few times and it’s not often you get to the summit. We were blessed with really good weather and the whole playing group, and all the staff and corporates managed to get to the summit.

“It really steps up a gear from the saddle, because you ascend so much in a short time. So the gradient is really steep.”

The players were afforded a well-earned day off on Saturday, but can expect higher intensity training on Sunday (US time).

“(Saturday) was a recovery day. We had a stretch and trigger session. There were also no alarms set for the boys this morning – we let them have a nice big sleep in and plenty of food,” Hass said.

“Hopefully after today’s rest day, they hit the ground running tomorrow.”

The Lions player will be challenged with a second climb up Mt Humphreys towards the end of next week.