Opanuku Everesting challenge

Blog

It’s well documented that Everesting is one of the hardest challenges one can do on a bike. It’s, quite frankly, insane. For those of you that don’t know, and if you’re reading this blog there’s a high chance you do, Everesting is riding your bike up a hill as many times as it takes to reach the height of Mt Everest (8848 metres).

It has taken us close to 2 years to get this close. Timings have never been great. One of us is always out of synch with the rest of the group. This time it’s for real. We’ve got close before, very close. We had decided on a hill and date, then a guy we know knocked the bugger off before we could. That’s the way the cookie crumbles, but it’s a fucker.

On Saturday 23rd, election day, Glcc will attempt this very feat. We’ve found a hill that’s 4km long, 2km of sealed road and 2km of gravel. The plan is to climb it 30 times in 17hrs. Starting at 4am with the 1st lap complete by 5, we aim to be in the pub by 8/9pm.

The preparation

We’ve been tracking the weather like Pessimystic Meg, aka Ian Fraser, for the last month. Here’s how everything looks right now. All being good, the dampness on the day leading up to the challenge will keep the dust on the gravel section from causing problems. Anything to make our lives easier. Right now I’ll be just happy to complete it, but if I’m feeling good I may try and push on to 10,000 metres. Mentally it’s what I want to do.

I’ve managed to gather 15 water bottles. These will be filled with sugar water and Powerade. I’ve also bought a 20 litre water container, just for plain water. I’ll be cooking Kumara (sweet potato), rice and chicken for our main meals. I’ve also built a Focus Mares AX bike for the Opanuku Everesting challenge, Hawaii and Haute Route Ventoux. Having 32mm tyres will hopefully ease some of the pressure on my arse after 17 hours in the saddle.

Strategy

The idea at the moment is to do 4 laps and then rest for 10 minutes, another 4 laps and then take half an hour’s rest. These rests will be for water and food. The lap time will be roughly 30 minutes, 20 minutes up and 10 minutes down. The main obstacle is coming down in the dark. For that reason we’ll be taking two front and back lights. We’ll also be taking a power pack for the Garmin and phones. No Garmin or iPhone battery lasts more than 10 hours, and that’s a problem right there!

Most of what awaits us is mental fatigue, and fucking sore legs.

Opanuku Everesting challenge

Everesting statistics