Everesting end of February...

[thirdcrank]

In the old money, you must climb over 29,000 ft - quite a lot of climbing. You don't want to be reduced to grovelling, nor do you want to waste time riding around on the flat looking for your climbs and a complicated descent can be time consuming too. That's why I went for Cragg Vale, which also has the measurements conveniently noted on Wiki.

There are obviously much longer steady climbs in more mountainous countries; possibly, some where you could do the whole thing in a couple of climbs.

[Ellieb]

I think they reckon a hill of about 7-8% is optimal.

[Postboxer]

Or do it in your house by walking upstairs around 2,507 times.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-s ... e-52227352

Although his 3.53m high stairs seem quite high, by my maths, so it would be many more for me in my house. Do children find this challenge easier than an adult, is there a size where they have optimum power to weight ratio and aerobic capacity to weight ratio? Adding a cycle into the equation complicates this of course.

[Mick F]

The hill up from the bridge from England to the top.

75ft to 750ft in 2.7miles.

That's a climb of 675ft, so I would need to do it 43times making 116miles of utter boredom.

[thirdcrank]

It's obviously possible to reduce the climbing distance by going somewhere steeper. On the most superficial of checks, Sutton Bank has roughly the same height gain as Cragg Vale in about a fifth of the distance so perhaps "only" 30 miles of climbing. But Sutton Bank is so steep and twisting that you could not swoop down, to put it mildly. No matter how boring a rider found the climbing, the descending would maintain their interest, especially in fine weather with plenty of holiday traffic.

[PH]

Choosing the hill that suits you best is the first step. I cheered someone on an attempt at Winnats Pass a few years ago, they were after the record time for it and didn't succeed at either. I think once it became obvious they weren't going to break the record they lost the motivation to complete, I'd gone home well before that, but I hear they were still riding OK when they packed. It's something like 35 times, with a distance of round 1 km, but it's 20% in places. I'd consider it a personal achievement to ride up it once!
The UK record is (Maybe was) set on a part residential street in New Mills, that's close to 100 repeats. It's the NCN 68 route out of the town and I have no problem riding up it. I'm not saying I could ride it 100 times, but I'd have far more chance of that than riding Winnats 35 times.

[morzov]

Interesting article here by George Mallory, grandson of the famous mountaineer of the same name about the origins of Everesting and his own experiences.

https://cyclingtips.com/2012/05/mt-everest-in-a-day/

And here is a video of a record attempt by pro cyclist Max Stedman in the Quantock Hills - avg gradient of the section he did of about 17%!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hrp1KuHG2EQ

[rareposter]

The hill up from the bridge from England to the top.Screen Shot 2021-01-29 at 08.53.24.png75ft to 750ft in 2.7miles.

That's a climb of 675ft, so I would need to do it 43times making 116miles of utter boredom.

232 miles. You need to go back down again.

[rareposter]

Choosing the hill that suits you best is the first step. I cheered someone on an attempt at Winnats Pass a few years ago, they were after the record time for it and didn't succeed at either. I think once it became obvious they weren't going to break the record they lost the motivation to complete, I'd gone home well before that, but I hear they were still riding OK when they packed. It's something like 35 times, with a distance of round 1 km, but it's 20% in places. I'd consider it a personal achievement to ride up it once!
The UK record is (Maybe was) set on a part residential street in New Mills, that's close to 100 repeats. It's the NCN 68 route out of the town and I have no problem riding up it. I'm not saying I could ride it 100 times, but I'd have far more chance of that than riding Winnats 35 times.

That record was the guy who runs the bike shop in New Mills, he chose that hill as it was very local and he had a mate living half way up it so he could stash all his kit there, use the loo etc. That speed record has long since been beaten though.

Winnats is a horrible hill for Everesting, it's far too busy with traffic.

I did mine on The Struggle out of Ambleside up to the summit of Kirkstone Pass. 23 reps, it was only about 130 miles as it's both reasonably long and reasonably steep. I wasn't going for any speed records though and it took about 14hrs total, 12hrs riding IIRC.

However if you go much steeper than 10-12% it becomes too tiring. And if you go much less than about 8%, you end up riding a very long distance. There's a nice balance where you "only" need to do about 125 miles or so. You need to consider the descent too. Too steep and you're on the brakes, it gets very tiring. Ideally needs to be something you can relax a little bit on and recover.

[Postboxer]

Maybe the ideal hill is also about recovery time to the bottom, on a long hill, perhaps there is wasted recovery time on the way down, a short hill, you're at the bottom not quite recovered. Get it just right and you can climb, recover, repeat. You also get more recovery periods.

[thirdcrank]

Choosing the hill that suits you best is the first step. I cheered someone on an attempt at Winnats Pass a few years ago, they were after the record time for it and didn't succeed at either. I think once it became obvious they weren't going to break the record they lost the motivation to complete, I'd gone home well before that, but I hear they were still riding OK when they packed. It's something like 35 times, with a distance of round 1 km, but it's 20% in places. I'd consider it a personal achievement to ride up it once!
The UK record is (Maybe was) set on a part residential street in New Mills, that's close to 100 repeats. It's the NCN 68 route out of the town and I have no problem riding up it. I'm not saying I could ride it 100 times, but I'd have far more chance of that than riding Winnats 35 times.

That record was the guy who runs the bike shop in New Mills, he chose that hill as it was very local and he had a mate living half way up it so he could stash all his kit there, use the loo etc. That speed record has long since been beaten though.

Winnats is a horrible hill for Everesting, it's far too busy with traffic.

I did mine on The Struggle out of Ambleside up to the summit of Kirkstone Pass. 23 reps, it was only about 130 miles as it's both reasonably long and reasonably steep. I wasn't going for any speed records though and it took about 14hrs total, 12hrs riding IIRC.

However if you go much steeper than 10-12% it becomes too tiring. And if you go much less than about 8%, you end up riding a very long distance. There's a nice balance where you "only" need to do about 125 miles or so. You need to consider the descent too. Too steep and you're on the brakes, it gets very tiring. Ideally needs to be something you can relax a little bit on and recover.

@ rareposter.

"Well done!" from me. Not only for the physical side of your ride but for having the focus to press on and dismiss all the voices in your head telling you it was a stupid idea.

Also your comments about gradient versus distance and also the importance of the right descent.

[Mick F]

The hill up from the bridge from England to the top.Screen Shot 2021-01-29 at 08.53.24.png75ft to 750ft in 2.7miles.

That's a climb of 675ft, so I would need to do it 43times making 116miles of utter boredom.

232 miles. You need to go back down again.

Going down is anything but boring.
Reach speeds up to 42mph.

[PH]

I did mine on The Struggle out of Ambleside up to the summit of Kirkstone Pass. 23 reps, it was only about 130 miles as it's both reasonably long and reasonably steep. I wasn't going for any speed records though and it took about 14hrs total, 12hrs riding IIRC.

Congrats from me as well and thanks for the additional information.
I was in a group planning to go up The Struggle a few years ago, but due to weather and some other delays, we chickened out and stayed on the main road... 23 times, mind boggling.

[rareposter]

A bit of mental arithmetic suggests that this would involve something like climbing Cragg Vale some 30 times. That would make the climbing mileage something like 165+ . Doable in a long day for somebody fit enough and who could turn their mind to something other than "Why am I doing this?" I fancy the main advantages are that it's a long drag with no silly gradients and it's a fairly straightforward descent where no time would be wasted between climbs.

E&OE excepted.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cragg_Vale#Current_day

There's an Everesting Calculator here:
https://everesting.cc/app/lap-calculator/

You copy/paste the segment from Strava and it'll tell you how many ascents you need to do. Cragg Vale is too long and too shallow. The calculator reckons just over 500km of distance because the average gradient is only about 3.5%. It ramps up to 8% in places but it's far too long and shallow for a realistic Everesting. Same with climbs like Snake Pass or Cat & Fiddle.
Cragg Vale: https://www.strava.com/segments/16336054

Bear in mind it's not just the climbing mileage, you need to factor in descent too! Cragg Vale is far too pedally, you want something steeper that you can just freewheel down.

As with most cycling challenges, it's in 3 parts:
Logistics - you can't carry that much food/water so where are you going to stash it all, what's your strategy for refuelling, where will you go to the toilet? Will you have someone supporting you? How much time will you be riding in darkness? (if you're doing it at end of February, the answer will be "quite a lot"!). What's the bike set-up for maximum comfort?
Ideal is to park a car somewhere on the segment and stop every other descent (not climb!) for snacks. You want the bare minimum on the bike so 1/4 bottle of drink, a gel and the absolute essentials of fixing a mechanical. Everything else gets left in the car and you restock from that. Also in logistics is choosing the right climb - not too steep, not too long etc. And think about what back-up you have. You don't want a heavily traffic'd road, that's just unpleasant but equally you don't want to be lying on the verge for hours if you crash and there's no-one using the road!

Mental - the ability to switch the mind off, not think about the fact that it's 100 miles to go or 18 more reps or whatever but to break it down into manageable chunks.

Fitness - it sort of goes without saying that you need to have a reasonable base of fitness to attempt this!

[Mick F]

Just being a bit pedantic here .....................

How tall is Mt Everest?
I know that the summit is circa 29,000ft above sea level, but at what elevation is the base of the mountain?

If you climbed Everest, what elevation would you start to climb it?
Doesn't this make "Everesting" a different figure?