I did my everesting attempt yesterday (Mt. Kearsarge in NH). For route selection the best thing I can suggest is to pick a route with smooth, quality pavement. The auto road I went up and down for 12 hours was very bumpy and full of pot holes. It made descending more stressful and less of a recovery. The jarring with every bump certainly caused a higher rate of fatigue - especially in the lower back and neck.

I looked into that hill (which I haven't done), but quickly came to the conclusion the pavement was not going to be adequate. Congrats on doing it, 12hrs seems like a pretty good time.

Edit to ask . . . what kind of wattage did you put out on the climbs, and how much do you weight?

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Dimond Bikes Superfan

Thanks! If I ever do it again I'll definitely try and find a different mountain to go up. I'm in the 59-60 kg range. Unfortunately, my power meter died last week, and the new replacement will be here tomorrow so I didn't have power for this ride. Strava estimated a 155 W average, right around 2.5 W/kg for this one. I have no idea how accurate their estimates are but it seems in the ballpark based on feel. I guessed it was in the 150-170W range before uploading it and seeing the report.

So here are some of my thoughts and a few details:

1. Hard! Actually, physically it was easier than any of the IMs that I've done (all in the 10 hr. range), and even easier than a 215 mile ride I did a couple of weeks ago. But I took a LOT of breaks. Mentally it was tough because I wasn't totally invested in finishing, well not until about 20,000 ft.!
2. It took me 14:56. My goal was simply to finish; I wasn't concerned with how long it took.
3. I'm still pondering that!
4.I think that the grade worked out to about 6.7%. It was 1.2 miles long with 430 feet of elevation gain. It was a fairly gradual climb, with three steeper pitches, but nothing crazy. I put on a 34t inner ring and a 32-11 cassette just for this. I stayed in the 34-32 99.9% of the day. For me it was a good hill, I'd ride up for about 10 minutes (it took longer as the day went on), and then get close to a 2 minute rest heading downhill.

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Mike Sparks


I have competed well, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.

OK, you are motivating me here . . . I weigh just slightly less than you and should be doing very similar wattage. I'd run some conservative numbers based on strava segments I'd done before and guessed it would take 14-15hrs, which was unacceptably long to ride a bike in one day. I'll go out and actually do a cpl hours of repeats on the same hill and see what happens.

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Dimond Bikes Superfan

Go for it! I'd recommend doing the full attempt on a warmer day. We started yesterday when it was in the high 40's and it only warmed up to about 60 at 3 or 4 pm then started dropping again. Just about every descent was cold and stiffening and I never removed my arm warmers the whole day. But if you do a test ride I'm sure you'll get the idea of the proper attire that works for you. Also go for the 1:1 gearing! My 50/34 crankset and 11-34 cassette combo was a lifesaver