Hearing fellow climbers yell "Ice!" is one of the scariest experiences Dave Sunderland ever had while clinging to a wall. Even worse than leaving his fingernail in a crevice while scaling Rock Canyon's Tinker Toys wall in Provo.

"There's nothing like looking up when someone yells 'Ice!' and you see it coming for your face," he said. "When an icicle hits you, it's like getting hit by a rock."

"The first time I heard it, I looked up, and then common sense took over, and I put my head back down and it just hit me on the chest and arms," Sunderland said.

But that didn't deter the Lindon engineer from joining more than a dozen novice ice-climbers led by Peak Physique owner Mat Gover for their first hike up Bridal Veil Falls at the south end of Provo Canyon on a freezing morning in January.

Their goal: climbing up 500 feet from the bottom of the Provo River Parkway Trail to the base of the Stairway to Heaven, a 750-foot ice fall that offers a mix of rock and ice climbs for beginners to experts.

It's one of the customized physical training programs offered by Mat and Pam Gover of Peak Physique in Orem, who take their clients ice climbing, snow shoeing and rock climbing four to five times a year.

"We do that to show our clients how strong they're getting and that they can get a good workout outdoors too," Mat Gover said. "In fact, ice climbing can be empowering. We've had middle-aged women clients who break down and cry once they've made the climb up the Stairway to Heaven because they can't believe they've done it."

For Sunderland, who says he has been climbing with Gover for four years, weight-lifting five times a week and practicing at the Quarry is critical to building his strength. But he was still surprised at how physically demanding it was to scale the Stairway to Heaven.

"It's a lot different than I thought," he said. "Not knowing how to swing an ice pick correctly is hard. It's not like swinging an axe to chop wood. To secure my upper body against the ice, I had to swing the pick six to 10 times in the beginning. It's also interesting getting used to kicking your boot three to four times in the wall to get a grip. I wanted to make sure my foot hold was secure, so I kicked a lot harder. But that just means you tire faster."

"On top of all that, I also had to juggle my fear of falling. I didn't realize how hard it was to get my crampons or ice cleats on the ice wall. My feet were brutalized by the time the hike was over," Sunderland said.

For Matt Monson of Lindon, learning to ice climb was his way of getting over his "deathly" fear of heights.

"I can never get used to the feeling of falling," said Monson, who had once fallen 75 feet while ice climbing. "But it happened so quickly, and you're protected as long as the top ropes are there. And the worst case is, 'Crap, I have climb up 75 feet all over again!' "

"Just learn to trust your hands," he said. "Unless you feel your fingers peeling off the wall."

But ice climbing isn't without its hazards. Just last week, one ice climber plunged 200 feet to his death from one of the upper tiers of Stairway to Heaven. The victim, who died of severe head injuries at the scene, was wearing safety gear including a helmet.

"It's really sad when a fellow climber goes down," Sunderland said. "But the most valuable thing Mat taught me was to just go ahead and do it."

For Gover, personal training is more than just getting his clients on a treadmill or doing strength-training.

"Our clients are more detail-oriented and they expect a lot more out of their training," he said. "We work a lot with motor pattern correction. If someone has a hard time running well, or isn't lifting well, it's probably because they're using the wrong muscle or their muscles aren't contracting correctly. So we try to get the client to develop the right balance of muscle movement, flexibility and strength to work out more efficiently."

An athletic training graduate from Brigham Young University, Gover has kept his client base modest so far to maintain the quality of their physical training. "I've had offers from clients who want to fund me to expand and get more trainers. But my concern is that the training may get diluted."

Peak Physique, which has been operating as an independent fitness contractor for 11 years at Gold's Gym on 800 N. State St. in Orem, now has about 500 clients ranging from triathlon athletes, skiers and hikers to housewives and rehabilitation victims. Gover trains 30 clients a week, while his wife, Pam, trains 15 clients a week, many of whom are members of Gold's Gym.

"The first session includes a fitness profile, setting them up with exercises to test their balance, coordination and posture. Then we design a program to target their weaknesses," he said. "We get a lot of exposure and traffic at Gold's Gym, and we don't have to worry about paying utilities or repairing sports equipment."

But Gover is now planning to hire a nutritionist for his clients who are on weight management programs. A growing clientele helped the company's annual revenues jump to $120,000 last year, from $42,000 in 2003. "Instead of having one-on-one sessions, I'm also training two to three people at a time to maximize my time," he said.

Raising the standards of personal training is also a key concern for Gover.

"As there isn't any government regulation on personal training, we advise our clients to do their due diligence to make sure their trainers' certificates are legitimate. Ask for references, talk to the trainers' clients. There are many Web sites that offer online training certificates if you answer a fitness survey. That's ridiculous. When trainers aren't properly trained, they put their clients at risk."

To that end, Gover plans to start an internship program to educate and help those interested in becoming personal trainers receive certification from the American Council on Exercise, National Academy of Sports Medicine, the National Strength and Conditioning Association's Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist program and the American College of Sports Medicine.