Over the past 11 years Everesting has grown from just a few people going out for what was admittedly a crazy ride that they weren't sure they could finish, to a global movement that has inspired all manner of bike riders to take the craziness to the n'th degree.
Speaking to Cycling Weekly's Going Long podcast, Everesting founder Andy van Bergen let us in on some of his best tips for first-timers, and revealed some of the craziest Everestings that riders have bagged over the years.
Top among these has to be the 79km Everesting by 'Demonic Dan Vegan', on the 23% Bundarra Road in Marino, South Australia. Given that he was only climbing half the time (descending the rest), this equates to amassing the full altitude in a crazy sub-40km.
"That one happened to be in the outskirts of Adelaide," says Van Bergen. "It was a couple of years ago, and I was like, oh, I'm free, I'll pop down and ride a few laps in support.
"He had a cassette that was bigger than this room," Van Bergen jokes. "It was giant. It was so steep I was getting front wheel lift-off. I was struggling to do two or three reps, and I don't kind of remember how many he needed to do."
Van Bergen's love of the romance of mountaineering played a major part in him setting up Everesting and its umbrella organisation Hells 500 in 2014, which has morphed into something huge and produced so many heroic tales.
"There's one thing that I've managed to do," Van Bergen says, "and that is to suspend my disbelief about what the community is capable of. When we first set this challenge, we had this evidence of [mountaineer George Mallory's grandson] George Mallory doing it back in 1994 but, you know, from reading what he did, it took him so many attempts, and it sounded brutal, and so when we first launched it, I just wasn't even sure if I was going to be able to do it. I didn't know if our friends or our community was going to be able to do it."
These days, however, it has almost become a rite of passage for climb-orientated riders both professional and amateur, who have completed Everestings the world over and in some pretty crazy ways. There have been two unicycle Everesting, Van Bergen explains, as well as two Everestings where riders have wheelie'd the entire way.
For those who are thinking of embarking on their first Everesting (and probably not on one wheel), Van Bergen advises that the 'Goldilocks zone' for gradient is somewhere between six and nine per cent.
"I think, a slightly shorter climb as well, one that you're going to get a little bit more active recovery, because you're going to be descending every couple of minutes," he advises.
"I love any contest where a community can take something and make it their own," he says. "And I think that's the reason why Everesting has been such a success. It's not like 'this is exactly what to do and this is how you do it'. If Everesting only existed on Alpe du Zwift on a trainer then it'd be one thing. But you can do it on a mountain bike or on a singlespeed. Or you can do it in a suburban location or you can do it on some epic mountain col… the stories that come out of that are so different as a result, it's quite cool."
Hear more about these crazy tales of derring do on the Cycling Weekly Going Long podcast, which can be found on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and all major podcast outlets.
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