As outdoor people, most of us at one time or another have been asked “Why would you want to do _____?” by a colleague, friend, or family member who doesn’t share a love for doing fun things outside. To which you might reply (much like George Mallory when asked why he was going to climb Everest) “Because it’s there”.
Let me introduce Everesting.
Climb the height of Everest, 8848 metres on one hill, anywhere in the World. One activity, no time limit, no sleep. You can complete the 8848 metres on foot, but it’s more usually done on a bike.
The feat was first achieved by George Mallory’s grandson (also named George Mallory) inthe early 1990s when, as part of his training to climb the real Mt. Everest, he completed 8 reps of Mt. Donna Buang in Australia by bike.
I first heard of the challenge back in 2014 when it got some coverage in a UK cycling magazine with Andy Bergen from Hells500 bringing it to the world’s attention.
Within a couple of days I had picked a local hill - the route of the Mam Tor Hill Climb - and the next weekend I parked up a car full of food and drink on the climb at 10:30 pm.
43 times I climbed the 2.13 km long 213 metre climb until, after some 19 hours and 8946 metres, I was done.
It was hard. That’s a fair chunk of climbing in one day. One of those things that I wasn’t really in a rush to repeat. A box ticked.
Fast-forward to 2017, and we hear of a 14-year-old who has become the youngest to Everest. This fired up Tom who was then 12.
A week later we were parked up at the bottom of the road to Stwlan Dam in Wales waiting for the rain to cease before completing the 34 reps required in just under 24 hours.
So now Tom and I had both completed an Everesting.
There was no need to do another, but then the two of us start chatting about what we might fit into a short summer trip to Europe...
We revisited a hill that we'd ridden before on a previous trip to Belgium, the Kemmelberg. Tom and I climbed the cobbled road 137 times, and another everesting ticked off... Read the full blog about Everesting Kemmelberghere…
So, after EverestingStwlan Dam in Wales and Kemmelberg in Belgium, Tom and I are planning on doing an everesting ride again this weekend, in Holland of all places. The hill is called the Eyserbosweg in the South of the Netherlands and features in the pro cycle race Amstel Gold.
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