It’s 3am, time to get up and put down a big breakfast before heading to attempt Everesting on the North Side of Highway 215. Everesting on a bike has been something that has been on my bucket list for almost a year. Ever since I heard of the concept of pedaling a bike for the equivalent riding to the top of Mt. Everest from sea level, a total of 29,029 feet of climbing in one ride. I’ve done some big days in the saddle but never that much climbing without taking a break and getting a little sleep. One of rules to Everesting is the participant cannot go to sleep, breaks are allowed but no sleep till after the mission is accomplished.
I have taken on some extreme challenges over my endurance athlete career but somehow this one felt different. It felt good, carefree, and fun. This wasn’t a race so there was no pressure to push the pace or to compete with anyone else. In order to reach 29,029 feet of climbing I needed to repeat the 8 mile climb up Highway 215 to the Blue Ridge Parkway 13 and a half times. My route required me to pedal 225 miles to Everest.
I took on the challenge on my 1998 steel Bianchi Trofeo outfitted w/ flat pedals while wearing my pair of Vans slip-ons. I didn’t wear a fancy kit, special shoes or even a shammy. My goal was to complete the challenge relying on my fitness and not my gear. This is not wise if you haven’t been training this way but I do most of my long road miles on a Brooks C17 saddle. I almost never have saddle sores or rash on long road rides with the C17.
Lap 1 was in the dark and in complete silence as I departed on the first assent. The roads were still wet from a late night storm that now had all of the waterfalls rumbling and breaking the silence. The route wasn’t too strenuous or monotonous so I had a good feeling about how the rest of the ride would go. Lap 2 was another dark ascent but it was the first daylight descent during the sunrise. At the top of my route I saw a familiar face pass by in a pick up truck, Pat! Pat had come out to get some trail running in and caught me at the parkway for a quick chat. I was feeling good and stoked to rip the descent again unfortunately the road was still very wet and sketchy at high speeds as it was easy to get over 30 MPH. Over the next couple of laps I found my rhythm and settled into the cycle of climbing, descending, eating, hydrating and repeating. Around Lap 6 George and Richard joined me for some support. It was a nice change from talking and singing to myself. With the boost from my fellow riders I continued to knock out three more laps while they were still on the mountain with me. Even though I got separated from Richard and George I still looked forward to seeing them in passing. Around Lap 7 I bumped into Michell up near the top of the climb. Seeing a smiling face as I was getting over half way was rad!
Shona and Micah delivered a pizza and stayed around for 2 laps playing in the woods and in the creek at Sunburst. The weather was pretty mild and even though I didn't get any luck descending in the dry I somehow missed all of the rain on the climbs. After Shona, Micah, George and Richard had headed out for the day it was just me and the mountain. I now knew every turn, pitch, strait away, switch back, waterfall and campsite along that stretch of 215. I was so dialed in I was time traveling from one pitch to the next.
Just as I was getting towards the top of the climb on Lap 10 a Blue Element rolled up slow and started harassing me. At first I was annoyed but I was too tired to care. Turns out it was Coach Lyle and his friend Caitlyn busting on me. He had driven out to hook me up with a slice of pizza from Standard Pizza! I finished the climb and headed back down to meet up with them and scarf down some pizza. They had brought their road bikes to join me for my next lap. This would be my first of 3 Laps laps that I would have to complete in total darkness. Chatting along the climb helped make the time pass while keeping a steady pace back up to the parkway.
We all returned back to the cars from the descent from Lap 10 where I grabbed a few more snacks and refilled my water bottles. It was time to head back out into the darkness and finish this adventure solo. 3 ½ laps to go, if I stopped at lap 13 I would have been a few hundred feet short of Everesting. Laps 11 & 12 seems to fly by but by the time I started out on Lap 13 I was feeling all of the miles of climbing. I had put in 200 miles so far and I still had 24 miles to go. I took this lap to reflect on how the day had gone and by the time I was half way up the climb I started to feel the excitement of finishing. Finally on Lap 13 I got my first and only completely dry descent I had had all day so I let it rip. Full Send!
With just one more ½ lap left to finish up I took my time refueling and hydrating before heading out. This was the lap that I got to see what was left in the tank, to find out how hard I could still push before feeling a cramp come on. There are 3 fake outs in the dark before reaching my turn around spot at the bridge that goes over a waterfall. In the dark the approach seems the same, the rushing water sounds the same but only one meant the climbing was done. I counted them off until I knew around the next bend was Everest. I sat on the bridge for several minutes taking a moment to reflect on what I had just put myself through. I slow rolled the last down hill. My mission was done and there seemed to be any rush to get back to the van. It was now 1am and I had been on my bike for over 20 hours. It was time to put on the kilt, air out and take a short nap in the minivan before heading back to Asheville.