Here at EverestingUK we like to concentrate mainly on all things UK based, having said that it seemed a shame not to share this great story sent in from overseas.
By Dr Oliver R. H. Hambidge
So,
Everesting? Chances are that if you’re reading this you have a fairly good idea
what Everesting is all about – the same hill, 8848m of vertical ascent and
enough bloody mindedness to get the job done in one sitting. What you may have
less idea about is the actual experience of
doing it.
A lot of
people talk about the psychological battle they faced and while it is
undoubtedly a big undertaking I really didn’t have too many problems. Firstly,
16 hours was only the equivalent of one day at work with a solid evening of
study, something I had spent a full year doing prior to sitting for my
Anaesthetic Fellowship. This Everesting expedition would certainly be more fun
as I got to spend the entire day on my bike; also I only had to tough it out
for one day, not 365. Secondly, I was electively deciding to ride an expensive
road bike up and down a hill in the middle of a very affluent suburb in Sydney.
Whatever the outcome, I was going home to a hot shower, a hot home cooked meal
and a hot pregnant girlfriend. In the context of 1.1 billion people worldwide
not having access to clean drinking water I found it rather difficult to feel
sorry for myself!
I’d sized up
a couple of hills in and around Sydney in the days leading up to my weekend off
work and had ultimately come up with Taronga Zoo (1.4km, 6% average gradient and
84m vertical ascent per climb). If you’re considering an Everest attempt you
will no doubt be familiar with the ‘short and steep’ vs ‘long and flat(ish)’
debate. It’s probably also worth considering the status of the climb and
whether its been done before as well as slightly more mundane things such as where
you’ll be able to park your car full of supplies and whether your cheer-leading
squad will make the effort to come along for the ride (so to speak). I worked
out I would need to do 105 repeats with a few extras thrown in for good measure
to allow for the inevitable ‘Garmin Gremlins’.
Having
packed my car with enough food and drinks to fuel a Tour de France Peloton I
set off at 03:30 with a planned 04:00 start time. According to Strava, I set
off at 03:57, it would be the only time that day that I was ahead of schedule! My
ride, as anticipated, started and finished in the dark. Regrettably, the time
did not pass with the beautiful serenity of time lapse photography so familiar
from David Attenborough’s documentaries, though bizarrely I actually enjoyed
(if that’s the right word) almost every hour - 11 in daylight and 5 of
darkness.
For the
first 90 minutes I saw absolutely no one. Then slowly the odd car materialised
followed by occasional Zoo workers heading in to work. After about 2 hours I
began to see other cyclists doing one or two hill repeats. One guy though
caught my attention as we crossed paths again and again. I noticed him pouring
intently over his power meter and the thought began to crystallise in the back
of my mind that perhaps I wasn’t alone in my glorious quest to conquer Everest
this day. I knew I had about 2 hours head start but nevertheless he looked in
pretty solid shape and if he stayed the course I knew, even with my head start,
that it would be an uncomfortably close race to the summit. The thought of
unleashing a Kittel-esque sprint after a full day of climbing did not appeal.
At all. Thankfully after about 15 laps of seriously committed training this guy
departed and with him went my fear of being beaten to the top of Taronga
Everest.
Taronga Zoo
hill is a fairly popular stomping ground for cyclists so I was fully expecting
to be able to count on a bit of moral support and strength in numbers. To my
amazement I saw only a handful of other cyclists throughout the day. More surprising
still was that I only spoke with one other cyclist for the whole 16hrs and even
this was only for half the climb before he pealed off to knock up his ‘RaphaRising
2014’ climbing meters elsewhere.
In
retrospect my climbing purgatory was almost certainly a function of the
weather. Heavy, albeit intermittent, rain and a maximum temperature of 12 degrees
is not particularly tempting weather even for the most hardy of cyclists. I
remained in tights, gillet and arm warmers all day with the only concession to
the ‘warmer’ daytime temperature being to remove my shoe covers and change to
short fingered gloves. Though even these were borderline decisions.
Once the sun
was up and the volume of traffic and people had increased I realised how much I
had enjoyed the isolation that darkness had brought at the start of my ride.
Now my descents were slowed by aimless Zoo patrons meandering along the side of
the road, cars slowing to a crawl in desperate search of a parking space and
most moronically of all a Park ranger using a leaf blower to shower the sharp
right hand bend mid descent with leaves and twigs. This last factor was the
most unwelcome of all and despite considerable caution, I very nearly came off
twice.
I had
planned on stopping every time I had climbed 1111m, neatly making for 7 food
breaks prior to my final assault on the summit. The aim of making each section
manageable with a small sliver of light every 80 minutes or so worked well and for
future reference I wouldn’t change this approach. By about 3333m I was
beginning to doubt the ability of my Garmins battery to make the full
(predicted) 16 hours – easy I thought, just charge it for 10 minutes every time
you stop for food. As I tentatively plugged my Garmin into the cigarette
lighter my worst fears were confirmed with the power down beeps – all data
fields suddenly read 0! 0km, 0hrs in the saddle and most distressing of all 0m
altitude gained. To say I was furious would be a masterful understatement.
Apoplexy might just about do it justice, but would still be somewhat short of
the mark. It took a considerable amount of will power to calm down and
certainly once back on my bike, the next few laps were a lot faster than
intended. I consoled myself with the knowledge that I did at least have photos
of the screen up to about 2500m, though I realised that if my Garmin had indeed
erased all data, I would rely on a ‘pinky swear’ with the Hells 500 boys before
official conformation of a successful Everest. Sadly, this little Garmin moment
also meant I would never get the satisfaction of seeing 8848m displayed on the
screen. Psychologically this was a big knock as no matter how many times I
added the totals in my head the new display of vertical ascent was always about
3333m short of what it should have been. I was gaining considerable momentum
and motivation seeing the halfway mark approaching and for this reason I think
that the next 2000m or so of climbing was the toughest I faced all day.
By lunchtime
I had climbed about 4800m (corrected) and I had my first (and only!) visitors.
My girlfriend, best friend and his wife as well as my girlfriends Dad and
partner had stopped by to lend some moral support. Above and beyond the short
break, welcome conversation and strong coffee I can’t begin to explain how much
of a welcome lift this gave me. I felt renewed with purpose for the second half
of my endeavour – oh god, the second half?!
It hit me, 8 hours in and I was only just over half way through!!!
The
afternoon passed by much as the morning had, with pleasant regularity. There
was something almost cathartic about the discipline and monotony of ploughing
up and down the same piece of road. I continued to employ little tricks to keep
me occupied – observing little changes in the scenery, different grips on the
bars, different climbing positions to fragment the climb - indeed anything to
mix it up. I took the opportunity to improve my aerodynamic tuck as well as the
lines through the sweeping bends of the descent. And I listened to music. A lot
of music.
By the time
I had reached 7777m (corrected) the sun had set and the climb was again
blanketed with darkness. I found some strange solace in the fact I had survived
from sunrise to sunset and I actually welcomed the return to darkness and the
quiet, uncluttered roads that came with it. Some simple calculations told me I was
only 14 reps away from the immortality of the Hells 500 Everesting Hall of
Fame! Buoyed by this I had planned on a full on smash and grab to get the job
done and suddenly I was climbing at a not particularly sensible 340W. With 6 reps to go the unwelcome, yet entirely
predictable, spectre of Garmin uselessness reared its ugly head (again). Within seconds of my screen announcing “low
battery” it packed up completely. With Murphy’s Law well and truly kicking me
in the balls, this occurred at the very bottom of the climb! So back to the
faithful data erasing/resetting cigarette lighter, with no credit for the 1.4km
and 84m of vertical ascent that it would take me to get there. With no photos
for the last hour or so I was now desperately clinging to the idea that my
Garmin was just resetting itself rather than erasing the data but even if this
was the case I had well and truly lost track of exactly how much elevation I
had clocked up. I knew I had calculated 6 reps to go but was I prepared to risk
my Everesting quest for the sake of cutting it fine? The answer was of course
no, so after 40 minutes sat in my car getting progressively more irritated as
my Garmin re-energised itself I embarked on the final 10 reps. The first 3 were
hard work with cold and achy legs. I had unwisely used my enforced break to conjure
elaborate plans as to how I would destroy my Garmin once I had (hopefully)
retrieved the data. What I should have done was stretch and eat because with 3
reps to go I bonked. Following a very wobbly and undoubtedly the slowest ascent
of the whole day I once again found myself off my bike and in the car. I scoffed down some sweets in the vague hope
of coming good. This final push, for a variety of reasons, had ended up being infuriatingly
hard and I just didn’t seem to be able to finish the job off. For good measure
it was now bucketing down and I was faced with the unappealing prospect of
completing the final 3 laps in the pouring rain when by all rights I should
already be home, showered and savouring a cold beer.
After a few
minutes I finally pulled myself together and went over the top. Three solo,
unwitnessed victory laps up and down Taronga Zoo which with the benefit of
Garmin data recovery and file merging software from some kind soul on the
internet proved to be completely unnecessary! All up the amalgamated files
said: 321.3km and 9,728m vertical ascent. I had done it and with 880m to spare
– the equivalent of my final 10, soul destroying, reps! While I may have lost a
few battles over the course of the day, ultimately I was very proud to have won
the war to summit “Taronga Zoo Everest”.
For the
record:
Distance
321.2km
Vertical
Ascent 9,728m
Moving time:
15hr 07m 44s
Elapsed
time: 17hr 02m 11s
Didn’t wear
a HR monitor
All Power
data was lost due to the merging of 3 separate Garmin files.
Inevitably I
created a couple of Strava segments from the ride including Taronga Zoo 300km
and Taronga Zoo x100. Would you believe I’m KoM on both?!
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