Don't know if it is close to a record but there was a Kiwi MTB'er who did the Yunga's Rd (worlds most dangerous rd) from Corioco at 3,900ft to La Cumbre Pass at 15,200ft before connecting to the road to Chacaltaya Ski Lodge above La Paz at 17,400.I believe he did the 80k'ish in around 9hrs on a MTB.

I used to ride from La Paz to La Cumbre as a hard uphill TT once a week...Damned near killed me.


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How about this.

Sea level to Mauna Loa summit by bike.....13500 feet. Aparently Mauna Loa is recently repaved and much less severe than Mauna Kea
Ride down to saddle road (you are back at 6000 feet).
Back up to Mauna Kea visitor center (9300 feet)
Run to Summit 13800 feet.

That would be 21300 feet.

I don't think you could do this in an entire day. Winds alone could derail the plan of getting to one summit, forget about two.

Kilimanjaro has been ascended in less than 9 hours. That's roughly 13,000' of gain. Presumably such an athlete could run back down in maybe 6-7 hours. That would leave several hours in the day. The topography would allow someone to start a few thousand feet below the regular start, ride to the start and run from there. 15,000' of gain might be doable within 24 hours.

To do more than that, you might need a scuba start to Mauna Kea.

Slowman, To some extent if you want one ascent, you have to look at something called topographic prominence. It is concerned with vertical height relative to its surroundings. It is the lowest contour line that surrounds the peak.

Even though Everest is the highest peak and has a highest prominence, you can't climb from the lowest contour line. In fact, I doubt anyone has round tripped Everest from base camp in a day. Base - 17,598 ft, Summit 29,028 11,430 gain.

If you are looking at prominence which can be climbed in a day, the big two are Rainier and Mauna Kea.
If you can do Rainier from sea level in a day, 14,411 ft. Mauna Kea 13,796.
My guess is for Rainier will be 13,196 ft so Mauna Kea is it.
Mt Fuji is only 12,388 ft from sea level and totally doable.

On the topographic prominence listing, Pico de Orizaba is 18,491 ft high with 16,148 for prominence. So you may be right in thinking this is your best bet.

i've wondered this from time to time. if the metric was: highest total elevation gain, in one day, up AND back down (round trip), under human powered locomotion (walking, running, cycling, nordic skiing, crawling, etc.) what would the best available options be? if one wanted to set a record, establish or break a record.

dev paul would have done 13,800 or so this year in kona had he had the time, riding from the ocean to the top of the paved road, then running to the top. assuming he returned the same route! i've done a little over 10,000 feet.

cuautla sits at 4,500 feet above sea level. popocatepetl sits at about 18,500 feet. so, there's 14,000 available, achievable, feet. road cycling to 12,800 or so, then hiking, then non-technical ice climbing. what would beat that?


LATE ADD: okay, how about orizaba, mexico, to pico de orizaba. 4000' to 18,500'. there's 14,500' available. i think that's do-able, bottom to top and back, in a day.