"Because in the end you won’t remember the time you spent working in the office or mowing your lawn. Climb that goddam mountain"
Jack Kerouac
Ever considered having a go at Everesting? It’s a simple concept… Pick a single hill and ride repeats until you’ve climbed the height of Mt Everest (8848m).
Once you complete the challenge you get to put your name in the ‘Everesting Hall of Fame’ and if you chose a hill nobody has Everested on before – you get to get the wonderful Asterix next to your name indicating you have completed the First Known Ascent. You also qualify to wear the beautiful Everesting kit that is a badge of honor for Everesters the world over.
Glynis and I are committing to do this as a way to get our lazy arses training consistently, and as a great way to get us fit for the possible “Ride Across Australia” we had planned before Covid put paid to it. Sometimes having a huge goal that seems impossible is the catalyst you need 😊 (that’s what we’re hoping anyway)
So, we are looking at the end of April or early May 2021. This will give us the time to train and diet (speaking for me only here) enough to get in shape to tackle this. And to be clear, there's no way either of us could do this at the moment. It's going to take a lot of commitment to training and dieting between now and then to pull this off.
We’ve recce’d a hill that is close to home and simple and short but quite punchy. This means lots of repeats but shortens the length of the ride considerably (to under 200km – as opposed to over 300km if you did in on the Akatarawa climb from Waikanae for instance). The thinking is that the short length gives lots of rests, and the non-technical nature of the route means it’s a very simple descent – even when you’re tired.
WHO WANTS TO JOIN US?
We’ve been doing a wee bit of research and It turns out that the First Known Ascent badge will also be given out to groups if you are part of a bunch of people who Everest on the same climb on the same day… Wahoo!
We are planning on doing it as a fundraiser for something – though we haven’t landed on which one just yet.
And we would love company. That doesn’t mean riding together the whole way, it just means we’re all on the hill at the same time giving each other moral support and having a shared base camp.
If you want to know more come round for a cuppa on Sat 19th of Dec at around 4PM – or email me on This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. if you are interested but can’t make that time. We can lay out the plan more fully and talk through options. One of the options might be to try something I’m calling Aorakiing or Mt Cooking (which sounds ominous!). That’s a pretty, cover-up name for doing a practice run on the same hill closer to the time, and once we’re trained a bit, climbing the equivalent of Aoraki/Mt Cook – which is 42% of Everest at 3724m.
Even if you aren’t sure you can do this, but are interested in knowing more, come along and learn a bit more about it.
HELP ME GET THERE?
There is another option if you’re keen but don’t think the whole thing is possible for you… I’m thinking of doing the event on Ted’s tandem (I might need to get a little fitter to see whether this is even in the realms of possibility) and inviting other people to join me for sections of the ride. So, if you don’t want to commit to doing the whole thing sign up to help power me up the climb a few times. That doesn’t mean you get to not train though… I only want good strong legs on the front! 😉
Meeting:
19th December
79 Park Ave
Waikanae (down the long driveway to the right of our letterbox and then on the left at the end of it)
4:00pm
Cheers
Adrian.
