Story for EVERESTING PRADED MOUNTAIN. A ride to the sky...

Everesting. There's a challenge for you if you're a bit of a mountain goat like me who loves cycling in the hills. 

I stumbled upon the concept one day surfing around the 'net, looking for interesting cycling topics. Everesting, eh? Pick a hill and ride the pants off it, and yourself, until your accumulated altitude gain is at least 8848metres (ie.. the height of Mount Everest). Sounds great! 'Hells 500 - keepers of the cloud' the group behind such a challenge..these guys..., these are my type of guys.

Realising the enormity of the challenge, far beyond my biggest climbing day , I thought I would give it a crack early next summer when days are again long in Central Europe. But that little seed I planted in my brain thrived and grew into a proverbial oak tree in no time at all. The thought of everesting a climb possessed me. Obsessed me. It had to be done, and soon. No time like the present.

What better hill to 'everest' than Praded Mountain in the Czech Republic? The road to the summit is the highest paved road in the country at 1491m. It is a road I was quite familiar with having ridden up there from my home in Olomouc thirteen times already this year. However, to everest it, I would be required to climb, and descend it 13.2 times IN ONE RIDE.  I would be the first person to everest it too.

I chose Saturday 1st October 2016 to be the day. I would do the ride solo and without support, although making things a lot easier was staying at a hotel on the route itself, near the top of the mountain. From a planning point of view this was invaluable. As breaks are allowed ( but NO SLEEP), I could store excess kit, food, drink etc in my room and duck in and out as required throughout my ride. I could also recharge my light ( little did I know how much Id need it!) and accessories.

I rode up there the day before, 73km to the hotel with over 1500m of climbing serving as a nice warmup. Not too fun with an 8kg bag on my back though.

At 4am still over 2 hours to dawn, I began my adventure with my light blazing away. I rode up to the summit which was just 4km from the hotel then began the first of fifteen exhilarating descents. Despite a 700 lumen light, restraint was called for. The last thing I wanted was to crash.

I normally ride this hill with a compact crank (50/34) and a 32/11 eleven speed cassette. Thats when I am just doing it once! I knew that for this day I needed to conserve my energy and ride well within my self so luckily had the foresight to downgear my setup. I installed a 40/11 MTB cassette, with a roadlink derailleur hanger extender and I was glad that I did. The 35 tooth got a lot of use early on and as the day wore on and my legs wore out, I was so thankful to have the 40 tooth gear. Spin to win, as they say. Cadence is king.

Descending is as much a part of everesting as climbing. In fact, its 50% of the ride. However, it hardly gets a mention, no doubt as the gargantuan effort of racking up almost 9000m of altitude gain takes centre stage.  My ride was up and down a genuinely gnarly, exhilarating and roller coaster steep mountain road that takes no prisoners. I needed to get down as soon as possible each and every time, without taking too many risks if I wanted to keep my ride time somewhat sane. Each descent, I got to know the road that little bit better.. where the ruts, bumps and potholes were, what line to take through corners, where I could safely 'no brakes' it and where I needed to slow down.

Each 'lap' from the bottom of the main climb to the top where the tower is and back down again was 18km. It normally takes me less than 45 minutes to do the climb, but for everesting a more gentle pace saw my times around 1 whole hour per climb and 10 to 12 minutes per descent. 

Eating and drinking a lot is vital for an everesting. Calories are being consumed at a frenetic rate and to avoid the dreaded 'bonk' you need to keep fueling the whole ride. I went through 8 large muesli bars, 3 peanut butter, banana and honey sandwiches on wholemeal bread,lunch of blueberry dumplings at the hotel (a Czech specialty!) and 2 energy gels. I lost count of drinks... I drank more than I usually would and probably went through a 500ml bottle every lap. My total ride time was 21 hours by the way.

The 'lowest' point of my ride was late in the afternoon as light began to wane. I decided to do 2 whole laps without looking at my altitude gain then hoping for a pleasant surprise. I was guessing I would be about 7000m into it but to my dismay had only 5800m up. It was like a slap. I was tired and thinking that another 3048 m was beyond me. Something shook me and I decided then that stopping was not an option. Id be sleeping in my hotel bed that night, else id be sleeping on the road, next to my stricken bike. No more excuses. 

My mood varied between grim determination to elation. At one stage, I was singing Doors songs out loud keeping myself distracted and not thinking about how far I still had to go.
As darkness fell, the throngs of people that were all around the place during the day dissappeared. It was just me and the mountain now.

One utterly mad man on a bicycle riding up and down in total darkness. What a sight I must have been! The temperature began to plummet now, down from a pleasant 16 degrees in mid afternoon to a chilly 6 degrees. The wind near the top was brisk and cut its way through my kit to chill my sweat soaked skin. I began to shiver on the descents. One final 'pitstop' to my room saw me change into the warmest kit I had which still felt insufficient on the descents though I was fine on the climbs.

My eyes, and my mind started to play tricks with me on the descents. I thought the pinecones on the road were frogs. They were hopping. It was just an illusion I guess although I take a bit of poetic license and call it a hallucination. As my heartrate dropped on the descents, I began to feel sleepy with microsleeps threatening to derail me. Once climbing, I was wide awake again.

On my second last climb, a feeling of excitement and anticipation took hold. I was tired and feeling every metre but I knew that on the NEXT lap every bit of road my tyres went over was the last time I would be there.

HOWEVER, the rules of everesting are strict. I had insufficient altitude at the top after 13 laps. The '0.2' laps needed to start from the bottom again so down I went one last time. NOW it was the last lap. At the little turnoff to the hotel, I had the metres and could end it there and then, but I pushed on to the summit one last time. A feeling of euphoria took hold and there I soon stood in the total darkness of 12.45am beside the tower, listening to the howling wind and looking up to a brilliant night sky full of stars, the likes of which I have not seen since being in Australia.

I did it! I was so utterly stoked!
262 km, 18 hours in the saddle (21 hours in total since I started), average speed only 14.6kmh, top descent speed 81 kmh  and, most important of all, 9,288 metres of ascent in one long, gruelling ride.

I had earned my 'grey stripe' in emphatic style, finishing my epic ride well after midnight and was worthy to be included in the Hells 500 Hall of fame. It was an immensely proud moment for this usually humble guy.

Down I glided to my hotel grinning like a clown, just beside myself with relief, feeling like superman. I should have pushed on to 10,000m to join the 'High Roulers Society' but that can wait for another day, another epic ride.

What was waiting for me on my windowsill was a lovely bottle of Czech beer which I enjoyed whilst soaking in my bath. I should have been dead to the world tired,  but my elation kept me up until after 3am.

Completing the Everest ride was one of the greatest things I have done.
Ianbike.

 

Type: 
Ride
Date: 
2016-10-01T02:05:28Z
Avg Pace: 
4:07/km
Elevation: 
9287.6
Distance: 
261874
Moving time: 
64751
Activity id: 
733002225
Strava title: 
EVERESTING PRADED MOUNTAIN
Total photo count: 
0
Title: 
Story for EVERESTING PRADED MOUNTAIN. A ride to the sky...
Summary Polyline: 
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Description: 
An unforgettable day and night on the bike! Started in the dark at 4.05am and finished close to 1am the next day! Just an epic day out on the bike.. Feeling so elated at the end! Enjoyed a beer I had kept cold outside my window while soaking in a bath.. until 3am!
Average speed: 
4.044
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