The Everest Attempt
Everesting- What is it? - One continuous ride , repeats of one hill, on an established STRAVA segment , accumulating the elevation gain equal to Mt.Everest of 8848m or 29028'. Lots of rules to follow and more info can be found here.
Why?- It Started a few years ago when I did a Double Mt. Lemmon climb of 7.5hrs, 100miles, and 11k elevation gain before I'd ever heard of an Everest. Later on learning of the Everest and looking it up, I thought , crazy and impossible. Then, with everything else we do (Ironman used to be impossible) , you break it down and its starts to look possible. I have ZERO interest in RAAM or these other multiday round the clock events with no sleep , but I do have some interest in Ultra events. I'm signed up for UMFL which is a 3 day ultra-tri with 12hr cut off's each day and been looking at the Leadman Series of MTB and Ultra-Running... The Answer- For the Challenge of it and to get a taste of going really long.
Training/Preparation- This was a challenge and not a race so very little specific training went into the attempt. Probably my biggest downfall. This meant very few hills or long ride training sessions and very little on the road bike. In June I did 2 long rides of 4 and 5hrs , one was flat and the other was for S2S Race both on the tri-bike. Only have 4 rides ever in excess of 8 hrs but 3 of those rides were in April this year , with 2 on the MTB and 1 on the Road bike , both of those had lots of climbing. In the 2 weeks leading up to the attempt I had got acclimated to my road bike and familiarized myself with the route of choice doing 3 - 2.5hr rides with a total of 12 laps to nail down my planning.
Route Choice- There is lots of info about this on the link above. Its a search for the Goldilocks route. Not too steep , not too shallow, not too long, not too short. Good roads, not much traffic, nice place to set up camp, safe places to turn around at each end, etc... I chose Bear Notch NH which offered 4.5 miles of continuous climbing at an average 5% grade...
Day Choice- I had wanted to do this on the summer solstice giving me the longest amount of light. Due to previous races on the calendar this was put off until 7/5 which still gave me almost all daylight. Being the fair weather athlete I am, preferring to be challenged by the event/terrain rather than the weather, this was a big consideration as well. I had allowed myself a couple windows of days and watched the weather for a good day (not too windy, low chance of precip, not too hot or cold).
Gear and Supplies - lots of fluid, food, clothes, tools, tires, tubes, wheels, extra bike shoes with pedals, extra bike computer's , external battery source for computers, 2 sets of lights front and rear, phone, chargers and adaptors to charge all devices at truck if needed (would even add an extra bike to this next time just incase) .
Nutrition and Fluid - Pancake dinner the night before , oatmeal on the way in AM , 2 probars, 1 cliff bar, 1 laurabar, 8 fig newmans, peanut butter and date sandwhich's , white rice , flask of gel, coffee, skratch, gatorade, coconut water, mountain dew , water
The Day - Loaded the bike, extra gear, food, and cooler of fluids the night before, Coffee set to 1am , alarm set at 1:30am, out the door at 1:50am , arrive Bear Notch 3:20am , On the bike at 3:30am. The best base parking I could find on this route was 1/2 mile from the bottom, coasting down in the dark , flipped it at the start and when the Strava Segment Live went off on Garmin 520 for the first time I was on my way. My best time on this 4.5 mile climb segment is a little over 20 minutes , a fast descent for me is sub 9 minutes, I was planning to average roughly 40 min per lap moving time (30min up and 10min down) X 27 laps = 18hrs , planning stops and fade I figured 18.5-19hrs total...Every minute adds up ,think about this, if you were to spend 5 extra minutes per lap x 27 that would add 2:15hrs to your day.... Being a little cool and dark not being able to see my computer screen I rode the first 3 laps just a few watts higher than I would have liked but not exceedingly so. HR stayed low and wasnt even sweating... I drank to thirst, ate 55-100 calories at the top of every single lap being every 38-45 min depending on stops etc...Every 4-5 hrs I ate an extra 3-400 calories... At the end of 6 laps I stopped to refuel, sent Heather a text update , took my warm clothes off , and kept at it...Felt pretty good until around 10 laps... Heather came out and did 3 laps with me #14, 15, 16, you dont get much of a draft going uphill but every little bit helps and it was nice to have some company , quick stop for more food and a kiss... My friend Harry came out and rode laps #18 and 19 with me... Somewhere in the next 2 laps I rode 1/2 lap with an unknown biker...The wheels were slowly coming off , my feet , hands, and back were killing me... I had taken a couple advil but wasnt offering much relief... As I was descending lap 21 my friend Jim showed up at my truck , ready to ride , I stopped at the truck ready for a break, I had Jim change my pedals from speedplay to look so I could use my other shoes and give my feet some relief , while I got some more food.. We rode laps #22, 23, 24 together and the wheels were really falling off now... I was standing up way too much...It was getting dark , I had to stop to refuel, put on some warm clothes, and change out lights for the last push... I got thru all of that but was dizzy, nauseous , felt off balance, not too mention feet, hands, A$$ , back and neck... I had to lay down ... Very similar to how I feel after finishing an IM with low blood pressure I always feel really bad for a very long time... Maybe I stopped for too long? Few minutes in the back of the truck laying down , then we went to Jims car to sit , eat, drink... I got up and walked around , still very dizzy and the back had locked up... Jim was done riding but had offered to stay with me and drive the car behind me for safety...Just couldnt get it together to get back on the bike...Called Heather and told her I was thinking of quitting, talked to her and Jim a bit more...They wanted so bad for me to continue , but didnt know what to say , didnt want me doing anything stupid... So close but yet so far... It was now 18 hrs since I started and only 3 laps to go under a fresh body would be less than 2hrs going easy but under these conditions I was looking at 3 more hours ....Called it a day.... Since Heather and Jim were both concerned about me driving home , Jim followed me for the first 15 miles... I agree I should not have been driving, snacked , drank, and stopped for a pee break and walk around about halfway home...
Stats... At 9.5hrs Garmin 520 went blank , even plugged in the external battery source, I was running my 920xt for back up documentation , on the descent of that lap got the Garmin 520 working again but had missed 12 minutes, 3.2 miles , and a few verticle feet elevation on the file below so the total ride was 221 miles , 26k elevation gain, and 16:43 moving time.... When the 920xt started giving me battery warnings I turned on an old 910xt for back up and shut off the 920xt... Garmin 520 worked fine until the end so didnt need the backup data... You can clearly see the decoupling thru the day...
https://www.strava.com/activities/631528351
1st 9 laps avg power 157w avg HR 133
2nd 9 laps avg power 134w avg HR 134
next 5 laps avg power 126w avg HR 124
last lap avg power 109w (IF .49) avg HR 114
Highlights - Saw 2 deer , 3 fox , 1 fishercat , sunrise , sunset , listening to the birds (no headset or music as I like to hear my surroundings and the traffic was somewhat busy during the day) riding with Heather, Harry, and Jim, receiving motivational text's from Scott Dinhofer and Heather.
What I learned or may do different?- Train with specificity for the Everest my body was not ready.... I would spend at least a month on the Road Bike , building my long day up to around 8hrs on the Segment of choice.... Stay closer to chosen route the night before and the night after to minimize travel, maximize sleep.... Start a few hours earlier , its easy to ride at night initially in the am , you naturally feel good when the sun comes up , but its much harder at the end of a long day , hopefully that would set up for a finish before dark....Definitely co-ordinate support for the end.
EDIT: The Days After - took 3-4 days for my hands, feet, back , ass, and neck to feel normal again... Surprisingly my legs felt absolutely great, I could feel some tendons for 2 days but not much else... Just really didnt work the legs that hard.. Also surprisingly my cardiovascular system felt pretty worked for a week even though I had a very low HR for the entire event... Maybe under TMI but my A$$ cheeks were pretty raw , no blisters like I got on my EPIC rides earlier in April, a couple days later I had skin peeling off like a sunburn, not painful but annoying, I did put tons of DZ nuts on at least 4 times during the day... My thought is my seat is too wide for extended periods of climbing as the under carraige did just fine.
EDIT: I titled my STRAVA file failed in the context of failing to do what I set out to do and that was to climb the equivalent of Mt. Everest in one ride. Still happy with the accomplishment.
Would I do it again? Not anytime soon... But the summer solstice is in June and that is a long way away :-) never say never
Comments
Great attempt! As you may know, Dino and I have a perfect Everest route (Chantry Flats) in our backyard and I'm seriously considering doing this next year.
In my experience with big monster climbing days, the lower back becomes the weak point. Even the best gearing will likely have you riding at a cadence lower than you'd like, you more likely to be pulling up on the bars when climbing and the net is that your lower back gets worked. But that said, climbing 29k continuously is gonna hurt no matter what you do.
Yes, the key to this event is minimizing the time you're not spending either going up or down.
Nice work!
You
are
an
animal
nice work. way to soldier on.
some day I want to get a group of folks to ride around Maui. including the 10,000 ft Haleakala climb. does not fit Everett profile but wonder if folks have tried to do it at least twice in a day.
Yeah, that's a clear example of the line, "There's no success like failure..." from Mr. Dylan.
The rules on that site seem like typical roadie excessive attention to micromanagement. Like, why CAN'T we do multiple different segments, if there is a good spot with, say three climbs rising out of it? The whole idea is to have fun, no? Even so, I did a quick scan, found the only WA State success is on Hurricane Ridge (Olympic National Park), sea level to 5200' in 17 miles. There's another opportunity which might be better: Sunrise Road (Mt. Rainier Park). They plow the road by mid-June, but don;t open it to cars until July 1, to allow time to ready to ready the top facilities for the summer crowds. So on the Solstice weekend, the road is free of cars, but also of snow. Around here, it;s light from 4 AM to 10:15 PM. The closed area goes from 4000-6400', and there's a good looking Strava segment of 2,181'. And in my other home, there's Maroon Creek road, 1100' in 4 miles. That;s another basically closed road. So, that's a dream for having fun with my fitness, I guess.
Preparation for an attempt is obviously critical, planning like a old time Himalayan assault. I'd prefer to do this with a few others, though.
Sunrise option sounds good. Closed roads !
Hurrican Ridge would be good. But, as you know, only the half day per year of being closed to cars. And i think they discourage biking the rest of the year ??? Is that true ???
Robin - I'll try to keep this fire lit over the winter and re-visit early next spring. But I'm beginning to think a better choice for me would be to "Rainier" (14,410') or maybe "Denali" (20,308') or "Kilimanjaro" (19,341'). I can see doing the Rainier - actually ON Rainier! - , then spending the rest of the day supporting others going for the full Everest.
I've ridden up to Hurricane Ridge at least twice during the summer on normal weekdays, and don't remember any issues from the NPS staff about bicyclists. I believe there are even those icon signs urging drivers to "Share the Road". I am doing the "Ride the Ridge" on Sunday Aug 7, going down to sea level for the full meal deal. It's a good ABP ride, and I'll be in week 12 of IM training for Maryland.
@Al and Robin - My route choice is also close in winter, usually opens right before Memorial day , while it would have been nice to attempt prior to opening there was a gate that would have been in the way every lap, the days were shorter and probably a lot cooler. Definitely consider % grade vs. distance per lap in your choice, plug it into the everest calculator , and check how many laps and how long it would take.
Also curious if you'd change nutrition plans if you had to do it again (Specifically as wheels start to fall off).
Finally, having ridding Bear Notch back in the day (such a great section), how did the weather treat you?
And then there's this guy in Australia who went up (and down) his 12% gradient street 836 times in 20 hours to meet the Everest requirements:
http://veloviewer.com/everesting/177735271
108 total miles. Less than 2 minutes for each round trip. Sheesh!
And the oldest guy to do this is 67. Hmmm...
Scott ... thanks for bringing this up. It had drifted out of my thoughts as I built my plan for the year. The time to do this is right around the summer solstice, mainly because that's when the Park Service has a the Sunrise Road plowed, but still close to cars. When I went last year, they only allowed bike up past White River Campground (where the road is closed) on the weekends. I want to do Coeur d'Alene 70.3 on June 25th, which makes June 17/18 the only feasible time, although July 1/2 might work, depending on when they decide to open the road up - 2016, that weekend still would have worked.
Six round trips from White River to the Sunrise viewpoint - the big horseshoe bend with a parking lot in the middle, a couple of miles before the end of the road - would equal 14,460' according to my data from two rides last summer. In the middle of a ride from Greenwater to Sunrise and back, I made that segment in 1:12, and back down in :26, so 2 hours round trip for 12 hours total allowing for slower climbs and some stops for food, nature, etc seems reasonable. 110 miles total. Going from 7 AM to 7 PM would allow two hours to get there, and still three hours at the end if it takes a lot longer than anticipated.
Maybe in April, you should start a new thread on this, and we can see if other ENers in the South Sound want to join; I can also check in my Mountain Goats riding group, who go climbing every Thursday in the summer. We could have a regular merry-go-round (or maybe it would be a Ferris wheel) going up and down that day.
sounds good.
I will pencil in the date.
Thanks Al. I'll pencil in the weekend of June 17.
Wow, I hadn't actually worked through the numbers. 12 hours of climbing! Hopefully I won't end up doing a St Helens - 9,700 ft then blow up!
I would be interested!
here is summary of the race we did from an old race report of mine:
the Everest Challenge Stage Race is the California and Nevada - State Climbing Championship and THE HARDEST TWO DAY U.S.C.F. / USA Cycling RACE!!!.
the EC has three eastern sierra climbs each day with gains of 2,600’ to 6,200' each
Saturday - day 1 - 120 miles, 15,465’ of climbing. Sunday - day 2 - 86 miles, 13,570’ of climbing.
total - 206 miles, 29,035' of climbing (the elevation of Mount Everest).
everest challenge - day 1
Day One starts outside of Bishop, Ca at Millpond Park, 4,425'.
The first climb is up to Mosquito Flat. At 10,250' it is the highest paved road in the Sierras. The run in is 11 miles long. The first 8 miles is neutralized. The climb is 22 miles, average grade is 5%. Maximum grade lower half 9%, upper half 11%.
Back down to Round Valley for a short climb up Pine Creek to 7,420' in 8 miles, average grade is 7%, max is 9%, extended sections of 8%.
Then past the start/cars and up Bishop Creek to South Lake at 9,835' in 20.4 miles, average grade 6%. While this is not the highest spot or most vertical gain, the last mile has two short sections around 15% grade. the bottom half has extended sections of 8-9% grade, max grade 9%. this was a hard climb at the end of a hard day
Total climbing for Day One is 15,465' in 120 miles (excludes decent from top of 3rd climb back to cars - another 20+ miles - this was a great decent if you had the energy)
everest challenge - day 2
Day Two starts outside Big Pine with a climb up towards the Palisade Glacier. Starting elevation 3,940' finishing elevation 7,800'. The run-in is 4 miles long. The first 3 miles are neutralized and marshaled through the first stop sign and across the Highway 395. The actual climb is 9 miles with an average grade of almost 8% (max is 11%). There are extended portions of 9-10%. Then riders head back across the valley past the original start.
Next we head up the Death Valley Road/Waucoba Canyon to 6,545' in 8.5 miles, average grade 5% (max just touches 12% in the roller in the "narrows", 11% in one corner before that).
Back down to the cars/start and then we go up to the Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest at 10,100' in 21 miles, average grade 6% (max in the lower half is just touches 14%, max in the upper half just touches 17%). There are dozens of 9-12% rollers in the bottom third. The last 3 miles averages 10% grade. this was also a hard climb
Total climbing for Day Two is 13,570' in 86 miles (excluding the 21+ mile decent from the top of the third climb ). This brings the two day total to 29,035' (the elevation of Mount Everest) in 206 miles (excludes the decent from the top of the third climb back to cars - both days - another 41+ miles)
From the road up to the Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest (ABPF) you can see most of the fourteen thousand foot peaks in California including Mount Whitney (the highest peak in the lower 48). You can see Telescope Peak (the 11,049' peak that looms over Badwater, Death Valley, at negative 282', the lowest spot in the U.S.)
my goal was to climb at 200w - 220w which based upon my FTP of 280 (at the time) is approx .714 if - .786 (if) and maintain a cadence of > 70 rpm's on the climbs.
i expected that my actual power would drop over the course of each race day due to the altitude (climbing up to 10,000' elev), strenuous grades which would tax my legs, cumulative fatigue, loss of mental focus, and the heat, (particulary on the last climb of each day. i also wanted to pace day 1 so i would be able to ride day 2 at close to my projected race pace. most of the decents were done between 30 mph and 50 mph, sometimes down grades with 1000'+ drops!,
the majority of riders in the Everest Challenge are USCF/USA Cycling racers with several former Cat 1/2 riders riding in the Masters 55+ age group. i was pleased with my performance and think i accurately reflected my fitness and ability. i was also pleased that i was able to recover reasonably well to ride day 2 close to my my overall race pace goals. total time 16:02:09, day 1/2 temperature range - 49 deg - 90+ deg
I count at least eight potential participants for a late June Rainier challenge, so I'm going to start a separate thread here in the Epic Forum to keep that flame alive: http://members.endurancenation.us/Forums/tabid/57/aft/22525/Default.aspx
@tim cronk this is awesome! I'm very impressed, but not surprised coming from you. Do you know what your W/kg FTP was around that time? Do you think a longer climb would have helped? I"m thinking every time you have to turn around at the bottom requires almost a stop and start --> more wasted energy.
@Al Truscott , you think "Maroon Creek road, 1100' in 4 miles" would the be the best place around Snowmass? We all know the scenery is great at the top: Maroon Bells (I edited my post and answered my earlier question).
@John Withrow , what about doing this as the stupid withrow trick day at Al camp 2020? It looks like no one has Everested any of the climbs around Snowmass, so we'd get designation in the record books for being the first.
PS. These strava segments don't start and end in exactly the right place, but they give a rough idea of what it would be like on Independence Pass or Maroon Creek road up to Maroon Bells.
@Larry Peters That sounds like a REALLY stupid idea and I totally suck at climbing! I'm in!!! Let me ask another idiot who will surely also think this is a terrible idea.. <cough> @Jeremy Behler
(Only Caveat is that I'm not 100% sure I'm going to Al Camp next yr because I'll probably be retiring from triathlon <cough> again... after I do Kona this yr. Really haven't even thought about what my 2020 plans might be.)
With that disclaimer out of the way, I think Everest'ing will be sufficiently hard enough If you're doing it close to sea level... My guess is that Maroon Creek Rd. is not the optimal place to do it for a couple of reasons. First Maroon Bells Tops out at ~9,560'. It feels to me like everything above like ~8,500' is simply a LOT slower going than climbing below 8,500'. Next we might need to either start in the dark or end in the dark (or both). I'm not sure it would be ideal jumping the speed bumps at the bottom in the dark when we're already trashed (and/or, not sure that is technically even open after dark). And "if" you did that route, you'd want your support car parked near the gate and not all the way down at the bottom where Al normally parks on that route because you wouldn't want that extra ~mile of maintenance riding on either side of your climbing segment. And finally, that road could have slow moving cars going down it depending on the time of day, at least half of the times I have done that descent, I've been slowed by cars which would be extremely frustrating if you have to do it ~25 times...
I think a decent option would actually be Capital Creek Rd... It's not quite as steep as Maroon Creek, so you only climb ~815' in 5 miles so you'd have to do it ~36 times. The good news is we'd "only" be riding at elevations between ~7,260 and ~8,077' so there would be comparatively more oxygen than at the top of Maroon Bells. Because it's not very steep, it would take a ~360 mile effort to Everest on that road, but it is much less populated and safe ascending and descending and you could leave a car parked at the top the entire time where the road turns to dirt... Eric Bachmann and I did this up/down segment when I was already ~75 miles in on the day after our Epic Aspen-Vail-Aspen ride in June. So I was sufficiently trashed when we started it and we were just talking the entire time and noodling our way up it with no real agenda other than logging the miles. We round-tripped it in ~40 mins that day. So at that pace it would take exactly ~24 hours but then adding in food stops and bathroom breaks, my guess is you're looking at somewhere around ~26-28 hours of total time to complete the ~360 miles. So maybe we'd need a steeper climb...
A Steeper route would be the first ~4.3 miles once the road starts to get steeper on the Independence Pass Climb (~13.5 miles from @Al Truscott's house). This would go from 8,128' to 9,338' which is 1,210' in 4.3 miles. That would certainly be much harder climbing, but you'd Everest in ~24 Round Trips which would be ~207 miles. Basically ~103.5 miles of straight up climbing and ~103.5 miles of coasting downhill. The descents would be faster, but might be a bit sketchy in the dark...
If you wanted a shorter hill, check out the ride we did last yr on June 6th, 2018. There's a 2.7 mile climb out of Catherine (which is just up from Carbondale) that starts with the Catherine Store Climb. It goes from ~6,291' to 7,007' (more oxygen) in ~2.7 miles. That round trip can likely be done in ~30 mins if we're noodling. So ~41 laps of that (~221 miles) can probably be done in under 24 hours (including breaks).
In summary, this sounds like a fantastically terrible idea. If it gets legs I guess I'll be buying a new ~14lb road bike...
No time to weigh in in depth, @ USAT SC NC. But IMO the best Everest spot near me would be Fryingpan Rd from about MP 13 where it starts tp get steep, up to the dam. Also, some of the-neighborhood rds in Snowmas would be good... steepness in the sweet spot, between 1.25 and 2.25 mi. LMK if you want me to research it.