Everesting - a personal account.

deadhead1971

"Everesting" is where you ride repeats of a hill until you've climbed the height of Everest - 8,848 metres (!)

My friend Nic did it and wrote up a report. It might be quite interesting to anyone else who might be thinking of having a go at Everesting.

The report can be found here:
http://www.scarletfire.co.uk/everesting-report/


Anyone else tempted to have a go? It sounds very, very hard!

qube

Great achievement!

24 hours! Man, that's amazing.

dilatory

What a choice of hills! I'd have gone for something a bit longer and less sharp! Fair play. I'd love to have the balls to attempt something like this.

Tiesetrotter

I am thinking of going for this next spring. One of club members is doing Box Hill this week ........... brave.

theobrixton

It's pretty nuts. Check out this account from a guy who Everested a short but very steep climb local to me in Melbourne Australia:
http://theclimbingcyclist.com/everestin ... -159-laps/

Wheelspinner

dilatory wrote:

What a choice of hills! I'd have gone for something a bit longer and less sharp! Fair play. I'd love to have the balls to attempt something like this.

I reckon you'd find it a bit easier if you used your legs instead.

tlw1

thanks for posting that - great read

bobmcstuff

One of our new grads used to be one of Scotland's top triathletes and is trying to persuade me I want to do it with him next summer.

I'm not completely convinced I must say... I'd need to lose a whole stack more weight for it to be even feasible

davep1

A great read, thanks. Like most people on here, I'm thinking "Bloody nutters! But could I do it?!"

I know a mountain in Italy that is 7100 feet; from the coast to the top it is just under 34 miles. I'm hoping to ride it for the first time next month, don't think I could do it 4 times and cover the 272 miles it would take!

The rules are quite specific, having to have a barometric GPS device, so my Forerunner would need some other kind of back up. And I don't know how I'd keep it charged long enough. Lots to think about, as well as the physical side of it...

unixnerd

Our village has a time trial that goes up the Cairngorm ski road. A few years ago I trained a bit for it and was doing hill repeats up the final 1000 feet above Loch Morlich. Bloody hard, wife thought I was nuts (and was likely correct).

vs

I think the best advice I could give is not to take it lightly, I found it mentally incredibly wearing. I spent a good deal of the middle part of my ride hoping the low battery indicator would appear on the Garmin (giving me the only excuse for stopping that I could have accepted), then most of the last couple of hours, hoping to hell it didn't come on. It finally appeared as I was resetting the completed ride.

http://www.strava.com/activities/170874610

davep1

vs wrote:

I think the best advice I could give is not to take it lightly, I found it mentally incredibly wearing. I spent a good deal of the middle part of my ride hoping the low battery indicator would appear on the Garmin (giving me the only excuse for stopping that I could have accepted), then most of the last couple of hours, hoping to hell it didn't come on. It finally appeared as I was resetting the completed ride.

http://www.strava.com/activities/170874610

If there was ever a reason for the "Kudos" button, that was it!

dilatory

Everesting requires a "We're not worthy!" button. Seriously. Chapeau.

jgsi

Is there an "Eiger Sanction" ?

ugo.santalucia

How about going up and down a flight of stairs 3000 times? That's everesting too... Or going up and down the same step 80,000 times?

I suggest to read "into thin air" for the real thing... and the Everest climb is only 3,500 meters or so from base camp

dilatory

ugo.santalucia wrote:

How about going up and down a flight of stairs 3000 times? That's everesting too... Or going up and down the same step 80,000 times?

Both seem rather impressive too.

Maybe with your palmares it's easy to scoff at people riding nearly 9,000m of elevation on the same hill over the course of 24 hours and treat as just another opportunity to dole out some snide; for us mere mortals, it's an impressive feat of mental and physical fortitude.

ugo.santalucia

dilatory wrote:

Maybe with your palmares it's easy to scoff at people riding nearly 9,000m of elevation on the same hill over the course of 24 hours and treat as just another opportunity to dole out some snide; for us mere mortals, it's an impressive feat of mental and physical fortitude.

Surely you must see the difference between an achievement and racking up stats... personally I would get more satisfaction from climbing up the Galibier once than going up 70 times Box Hill... yet the former accounts for less than a quarter of the total climbing...
I guess if you are into stats, going up and down the same small bump a number of times must give some sense of achievement... it wouldn't work for me: I would just get mortally bored after a handful of climbs and lose interest, as I would expect any normal curious human being to do...

sloppyschleckonds

ugo.santalucia wrote:

it wouldn't work for me: I would just get mortally bored after a handful of climbs and lose interest, as I would expect any normal curious human being to do...

Well said that man. Its dullness to the extreme, and then to go on the internet and talk about it really emphasises its pointlessness.

ChrisB200SX

joe2008 wrote:

and to dig up an 'old' thread so that you can make snide, dull comments isn't pointless. :roll:

Haha You've hit the nail on the head

Anyone who can excercise at that sort of level for 24 hours has certainly achieved... anyone who belittles that achievement... well, I suppose they must have achieved something far more substantial? :roll:

I'm sure if there was a road that went from sea level to the peak of Everest, people would attempt to ride up it (and then descend too!), unfortunately that doesn't exist.

People like to set themselves arbitrary goals, people's goals and interests vary.

ugo.santalucia

ChrisB200SX wrote:

I'm sure if there was a road that went from sea level to the peak of Everest, people would attempt to ride up it (and then descend too!), unfortunately that doesn't exist.

True, but there are some brutes around the world

http://www.strava.com/segments/alto-de- ... 1?hl=en-GB

slowbike

ugo.santalucia wrote:

ChrisB200SX wrote:

I'm sure if there was a road that went from sea level to the peak of Everest, people would attempt to ride up it (and then descend too!), unfortunately that doesn't exist.

True, but there are some brutes around the world

http://www.strava.com/segments/alto-de- ... 1?hl=en-GB

But they're not always accessible to your everyday rider ....

At least going up (and down) the same short hill all day shows dedication, even if it's a nuts thing to do, it's still quite admirable...

ugo.santalucia

Slowbike wrote:

At least going up (and down) the same short hill all day shows dedication, even if it's a nuts thing to do, it's still quite admirable...

Admirable? Please... Insane, maybe... :?

A different matter would be to do a 200 miles loop with as much climbing... that would be quite something... without the need to travel to the other side of the world