"Everesting" In Arlington

[TwoWheelsDC]

@vvill 91992 wrote:

I’d like to ride Onion Valley one day too
http://www.outsideonline.com/adventure-travel/north-america/united-states/california/Onion-Valley-Road-California.html

It is steeper and longer than both the Tourmalet and the Galibier

Psh. No one climbs just Galibier. You gotta hit either Col du Telegraphe or Col du Lauteret on the way up, making it 20+ miles.

[kcb203]

I did the Mt. Washington climb on Saturday. What an amazing event. I went in with 24×12-30 gearing. I used the 24×27 about half the time, and 24×30 the other half. Average cadence was 83, and average power 219 watts. Weather at the top was 39 degrees with 35-40 mph winds. What’s strange is how 7.6 miles at 12% eventually becomes normal. The 18% sections seem hard, the 12% sections seem OK, and the 8% sections are a chance to yank your gloves out of your jersey pocket and put them on, or take a drink from your bottle. Everything became relative.

[Terpfan]

@mwhatley 91998 wrote:

+1 to the camp of people dumb enough to think this kind of thing sounds fun.

I believe it’s akin to the next Ice Bucket Challenge, except it’s like a $3,000 donation or something.

[mcfarton]

@kcb203 92861 wrote:

I did the Mt. Washington climb on Saturday. What an amazing event. I went in with 24×12-30 gearing. I used the 24×27 about half the time, and 24×30 the other half. Average cadence was 83, and average power 219 watts. Weather at the top was 39 degrees with 35-40 mph winds. What’s strange is how 7.6 miles at 12% eventually becomes normal. The 18% sections seem hard, the 12% sections seem OK, and the 8% sections are a chance to yank your gloves out of your jersey pocket and put them on, or take a drink from your bottle. Everything became relative.

Very cool iam so jelly

[skipmcne]

@TwoWheelsDC 92003 wrote:

Psh. No one climbs just Galibier. You gotta hit either Col du Telegraphe or Col du Lauteret on the way up, making it 20+ miles.

If you REALLY want to spend all day, you start in Val-d’Isere, ride Bonneval Sur-Arc, then down the valley to Saint-Michel-de-Maurienne, up Telegraphe, have a pastry for lunch in Valloire, Ride Galibier, and finish in a chalet atop Alpe d’huez.

Yes it was a long day.

[TwoWheelsDC]

@skipmcne 93170 wrote:

If you REALLY want to spend all day, you start in Val-d’Isere, ride Bonneval Sur-Arc, then down the valley to Saint-Michel-de-Maurienne, up Telegraphe, have a pastry for lunch in Valloire, Ride Galibier, and finish in a chalet atop Alpe d’huez.

Yes it was a long day.

Did it all minus the Bonneval Sur-Arc The rain that turned into snow while I was going up Galibier (in late June!) was icing on the cake.

[Greenbelt]

Not Everest, but maybe Pikes Peak?

So I did a test this evening on Research Road hill behind my house. It’s almost exactly 100 feet elevation gain from the base to the gate at the top (gate closes the road to traffic on weekends and evenings…). Grade is moderate — ranges from 2 to 6 percent with a flat section at the bottom for deceleration. Run is 1.2 miles round trip (.6 up, .6 down including the flat run out).

So in one hour, at a pretty easy pace, which I figured would be possible to continue for many hours, I did 1200 feet (12 up down repeats): http://www.strava.com/activities/197239822

So if figure if we get a nice three day weekend this fall, maybe with a bit of a north wind, with a rest day prior and a recovery day post, I could do repeats at that pace with a few breaks for 5 hours in the morning, another 5 in the afternoon, and another couple after dinner (in the dark no doubt).

So 12 hours riding at 1200 feet elevation gain per hour = 14,400 of climbing in a day, equal to sea level to the highest peak in the continental US.

With my house at the top of the hill for easy food and water replenishment and potty stops, and maybe a midday and dinner hour shower and change of clothes, that sounds pretty doable, even for the old fat guy.

Who’s in?

[hozn]

Or just ride Diabolical Double gran fondo and get 16,500 ft of elevation more quickly — and enjoy the insanely beautiful scenery and big-smile descents.

[Greenbelt]

@hozn 94973 wrote:

Or just ride Diabolical Double gran fondo and get 16,500 ft of elevation more quickly — and enjoy the insanely beautiful scenery and big-smile descents.

Nah, too far to ride to get there. For normal people, I was thinking we could make a party of it and people could try for any elevation they wanted, ranging from the Statue of Liberty to Kilimanjaro.

[hozn]

Well, I realize the everesting thing isn’t meant to be fun, but it seems like a waste of a day on the bike to do small hill repeats when you could get the same elevation in a more spectacular environment. If you want to ride to the ride, then the Catoctin mountains surely could be useful for constructing a route.

[Rod Smith]

Riding to Catoctin Mountain, Everesting, then riding home…

Everesting on a climb that forced Pete DeNitto to get off and walk…

Everesting on a gravel road…

I think Everestng on Research Road is a slightly less bad idea than these. Technically it’s not in Arlington. It’s kinda boring. 12 times an hour for 24 hours? Most times I’ve ridden it, Greenbelt has been steadily pulling away from me, so that small hill is associated in my mind with getting my butt kicked. I don’t like riding Research Road but it’s not terribly steep. What is the optimal grade, length of a hill for Everesting? I’m sure that varies depending on the rider. For me a short (frequent descents for recovery), easy grade might be the best choice. I can’t join if it’s Columbus Day weekend though. Do we really need a day off before and after? Maybe on a Saturday, recover Sunday?

[vvill]

I’d imagine a 100 feet climb for repeats would be a bit boring, and too short to get any kind of climbing rhythm. I think the optimal length of a hill would be closer to 250-500ft with a decent gradient but nothing really above 12%. That way you can recover/relax on the longer descents, without it being too fast/dangerous. You’d also want something without a lot of traffic… so yeah, I have no idea where.

Also, for this sort of thing it’s not bad to have a section where there’s actually a slight dip in the middle of the climb. Essentially you get some free elevation since you will get a little momentum from entering the dip, and a little respite each climb. (And going back down, it’ll only be a little bump totake some speed off and reduce braking fatigue.)

Normally (so NOT Kill Bill) when you do a lot of climbing in a ride, there’s actually a lot of descending that brings up your average speed and lets you recover, and often works to help you up the next climb, but obviously that won’t happen with Everesting.

[Harry Meatmotor]

I have no intent of doing something like this, but the notion crossed my mind that what may work best is to find two 250-500′ climbs separated by a valley that you could essentially see-saw back and forth between. That way you’re not wasting the downhill speed on a u-turn at the bottom to climb the same single climb. think of it like riding a huge halfpipe all day long.

[vvill]

@Harry Meatmotor 94994 wrote:

I have no intent of doing something like this, but the notion crossed my mind that what may work best is to find two 250-500′ climbs separated by a valley that you could essentially see-saw back and forth between. That way you’re not wasting the downhill speed on a u-turn at the bottom to climb the same single climb. think of it like riding a huge halfpipe all day long.

I think the everesting.cc rules forbid that (which is why I said a slight dip in the middle of the climb).

[ShawnoftheDread]

I for one would like to disassociate myself from this entire thread. Have fun storming the castle!

[Author]

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