Wes White Hill from the bottom
In April of 2021, after two failed attempts, I completed an “Everesting” attempt. I got a lot of questions and while the Pareto chart says the number one question was “Why?”, here are a few of the others answered in a summary. First of of all, why not?
I have held fast this past year to consistent efforts while racing is on hold. In a way, I don’t really miss racing, but I do miss the people I race with. That aside, efforts like these are what to do now as you don’t have a ton of commitments while things are getting restarted soon. But, take a step back. What is Everesting? It is where you climb the equivalent of the height of Mt Everest in one ride: 29031 feet of ascent. The first consideration is of course, the route. It has to be a single repeated climb per the rules. I toyed with a few locals: App Gap, Smugglers Notch from the Jeffersonville side, Bolton Valley Access, Mt Philo, and a few others. I think we all know, Philo was out fast: too many people. Then I considered my emotional favorite: App Gap. But looking at the numbers and the length, it was going to be challenging and I worried about the technical descents on both sides. Looking at the VAM (Italian for Meters climbed/hour) I was calculating a long time in the saddle coupled with a tech descent that could be dangerous when tired. Let’s not even talk about the potholes. Smuggs seemed good, and I had data there and at Bolton from the GMBC TTs. But Smuggs was too gentle on the easy descent Jeff side, and the descent to Stowe with tourists was too dangerous. Bolton was again, a decent option, but road conditions were a little crazy.
Ultimately, I landed on a road which drew my attention due to its myriad of descriptions using words like “@&£%” and “f&&^#!” That road was Wes White Hill Rd in Richmond. This road averages 10% for one mile, is completely paved, has a brakes off 55mph descent, and kinda goes nowhere except if you know where it goes. Calculations said that the ride would require 60-70 laps depending on where you started. Yes. 60-70 laps. Many comment on how that would be too repetitious and boring. But skipping to the end here: Everesting is so hard, it doesn’t matter where you are. You won’t notice after you get halfway there. So there it was. Road selected.
The equipment
Initially, in attempt 1, I thought it was all about gearing. I brought my gravel setup Specialized Crux with a 36-36. The bike had 38 Challenge Strade Bianca slicks on it pumped to 50 psi. As a backup, I brought my Kona King Kahuna hardtail with Challenge Gravel Grinder semi-slicks and a 36-42. I thought that the MTB could be a late game sub if it got too hard. But, the tires on the MTB provided enough drag that when I subbed it in, it provided little gain. Drag outweighed the mechanical advantage.
The successful attempt was a traditional climbing bike. A Specialized Tarmac SL6 with Next 45s, Specialized Turbo tires at 90 psi and a 34-32. (I could not find a 34 cassette, the max allowed for a Di2 Med cage). This thing was it. It descended fast and stable, and climbed super fast.
Helping out on this was my Wahoo ELEMNT Bolt which tracked elevation and VAM so I could see how I was proceeding. More on this later.
Prep
First of all, be fit. Yeah, that’s a nebulous statement, but it means you can’t do this cold, with no fitness, but at the same time, there is no way to duplicate the effort to get ready. Know how to ride 100 miles. And know how to mentallly stay in the game. I went into this with a very consistent winter of 10-14h training weeks. Not too killer on volume. I did core work, and rode a lot of tempo and aerobic efforts. I also raced on Zwift once/week with my BMB teammates to keep the top end tuned. But by the book, in April, I didn’t have a history of 10+ hour efforts. But, I did have TrainingPeaks. I’ve been using that for a long time and I have been coaching folks using the Fatigue/Fitness/Freshness metrics. Over the pandemic year of 2020 I was able to build a bigger base than ever, take a break in October and arrive in April with a fitness value of 30% greater than previous years. Knowing this non-dimensional value relative to times in-season when I had that value, I knew I could hold a reasonable part of the effort. With the exception of a few years, my fitness was at a level mostly seen in June. It would be a stretch effort still, but not a ridiculous “marathon off the couch” by any means.
I was riding without a power meter on this trip because my climbing wheels did not have a powertap. So, I spent a few sessions on Zwift dialing in the correct heart rate for a mid-tempo effort. This would be key for pacing early, but I also knew that after a while, it wouldn’t matter and grit and determination would take over.
The plan
First of all was the route. That was done. Second of all was fitting a full day in for the family schedule. Third, there was the weather. Previous attempts started in weather that was too cold. Descending was frigid and then you would climb and sweat only adding to the descending frigidity. I had three days as possibilities. This would allow me to flex based on the weather, family commitments, and pick an ideal day. Good plan because Day 1 it snowed. And it was one of those snows where IT SNOWED! Sugarbush got 10+ inches in 6 hrs! Day 2 the precip was hanging over so Day 3 was a go. Temps were forecast to be 38F at the start climbing to about 50. Slight chance of rain was the risk. However, I would say ideal weather would be 50-70F and dry.
For food, I got up early and kinda broke the rules and had some oatmeal which I have been doing lately. In the past I’ve steered away from eating that much fiber. But, it’s been doing ok on training, so.... I also had an absolute minimum of coffee. One 8oz cup right when I got up to avoid a headache. First attempt I drank way too much coffee in the AM and I got behind on hydration and it ended poorly. The plan was to drink one 20oz bottle on average and eat one Untapped per 30 min. I brought the old standard plain, and a handful of salted cocoa. Oh my, so good. I also love those GoGo Squeeze applesauces on long rides and threw those in for a change every few hours. I did not include any coffee or caffeine infused untapped during the ride. This was purely an aerobic effort and the caffeine would have negative hydration effects late in the game. This is also what happened on a failed attempt previously. So that was the plan. I loaded up the bike, made two gallons of Ginger Mapleaid in the new Coleman drink cooler and headed off. Knowing how to be kind to your stomach pays off in spades. You can train to match the effort, but if your stomach isn’t prepped for this effort by staying with friendly foods, there is no way to correct for that during the ride. For Christmas, I had asked for a Coleman drink cooler as a gift. For this ride and others, I filled it up with Untapped Ginger Mapleaid, and I could roll up and fill a bottle in seconds. Like 5 seconds. This was super helpful and made cleanup easy. I didn't have to make and wash 12 bottles. Just two.
The Go
I drove to Wes White and parked at the top. There is a little dirt turnaround up there I think for plows or buses. This is way more low key than the one at the bottom where there are four spots that river visitors fight over. That’s your pro tip there. I had my truck with the tonneau on so I put all the food in there and could just drop the tailgate and grab/fill a bottle and grab some untapped. I brought two bottles to fill and rotate through, but never carried more than one because the loop was so short. I carried four untappeds or 2 hours worth max. I pushed off at 6:18.
Now I had a friend Chris who super pumped to be a part of this. I told him I was shooting for a 6 am start which meant I would be probably starting at 6:15. So, I said don’t show up until 6:15. He texted me he was at the base and ready at 5:55. This part of the attempt was the unexpected gift. I started with him doing the first four laps. It was great to be slightly diverted from the ominous task with a few chats. Throughout the day I had many many people stop by, and ride a few laps with me. It was great. Some friends captured photos of me smiling...
The kit: helmet with buff, thermal jersey, lightweight jersey, SS jersey, baselayer, shorts, leg-warmers, oversocks, lightweight full-finger gloves
As I rode the early part, it was not 38, it was 32F. Then, after Chris left at lap 5 an hour in, it started to gently mist. This was not welcome. It lasted a few laps, but let up. I adjusted my descent speed accordingly so as not to slip. There was a lot of dust on the road from the snow three days before and that was concerning. As I worked through the first few hours, I began looking at the feet accumulated and started doing the 1/10th there, 1/7th...1/6th math game. I really enjoyed watching the denominator click down, and by noon, it was 1/2.
About two hours in I peed and it was really clear so I backed off a touch on fluids to prevent overhydrating. From then on, I tried to roughly drink one bottle an hour but the weather and my sweat rate didn’t really require it. I was still sweating, had no goosebumps (my initial sign of dehydration) and was peeing regularly and the color was right. This was one of the first efforts where it was so long, you could make this type of adjustment.
At about 10, it had warmed a little and I took off my outer cold weather jersey. I had been starting to zip it up and down making sure I was cool on ascents and warm on the descents. I also tried to take off my buff which I was wearing as a hat. That quickly went back on after one descent where my bald head was still freezing. The buff stayed on a few more hours, but I now continued with a thin LS jersey over a short sleeve and a baselayer, along with shorts and thin legwarmers. The legwarmers really worked well and it wasn’t until very deep that I toyed with taking them off, but was worried about cramps. The temp maxed out at 61 so it never was really an issue with the legwarmers. I often get cramps in my hip flexors and hamstrings trying to remove kit after a long event. I wanted no part of that.
Using data from the two previous attempts, my average VAM was predicting a ride time of 11:06. So the plan was to definitely hit halfway by noon, 20k by 2, and 25k by 4. I cleared the first by 15 mins, the second by 20, and hit the fourth right on target. These were the only real marks I made for myself this attempt. In the first attempt, I would track a single lap every hour or two. Watching this number fall on a micro scale did not do wonders for my psyche. This time, with a predicted time, a pace, a HR marker, and these three simple marks, I was able to just ride along and track ascent and watch it pile up.
Around noon, Jason arrived halfway up the climb with a musette bag of treats. He handed over some M&Ms and they were amazing. He ran along side, then drove next to me like a pro DS, and then hung out at the top for one more lap. Another thing I concentrated on was not resting too long at all. I grabbed a bottle, and went. When folks arrived, I chatted quickly, and then said “I gotta keep going!” This kept me on target. It got dark shortly after 7 so I did not have a ton of leeway. One funny thing was Jason dropped one M&M at the steepest part of the climb and it sat there taunting me for the rest of the ride. Perched on the shoulder looking at me like “go? Or grab me? You make the choice” with a cackle. Shortly after this, the untapped genies, George and Aliza stopped by the truck and left a lemon waffle and one of each flavor untapped. So good.
Then, as I ticked through 20K I had a pair of friends Jason and Eric arrive for a few laps. Then later, as I went through 24K Charles arrived and Alan for a half lap. Each time someone left and I was alone, it was like watching someone leave after a weekend knowing you would never see them again. When Charles left, I knew I was in for the long lonely finish. I was holding pace, but the legs were getting tired. I had to stand a little more. At the steepest part of the climb, I was in the 34-32, and not coming out of it as soon as I was earlier.
From this point on, I had weathered some clouds coming in and a threat of rain, but it cleared and the sun began to really shine. I got past 27K and one of the residents working in his yard stopped his tractor and yelled “YOU ARE A SAVAGE”!!! From this point on I knew I was going to finish. I had ridden the route 50+ times. I knew the lines down. I was riding no brakes descents topping out at 50+ mph. Once you get into the 28Ks the feet come slowly and they come hard. My knees started to complain. My back was getting tight. The chafing started to bite. It was hard.
And then, shortly after 5:45, I rounded the corner at the steepest part and just after the guard rail and that blue M&M, I saw the clock tick 29,000 I watched it religiously to see if I could stop right at 29031. I tried, but it read 29033. I took a photo, and I was done.
I was thankful this was right where the grade eased and I had earlier been shifting out of the 32. I rode slowly to the top, stopped the clock, and rested. So often this is where the pain starts. Your entire body cramps in the strangest places as you just try to put your leg over, or try to remove kit.
The after
As I said, I took my time. I changed clothes minus the shorts, and put on some dry LS baselayers and my favorite fleece. Yes I broke a rule and didn’t change shorts immediately but I knew that trying to change out of the shorts in the back seat of my car would cramp me to bits. But no joke, I was tired. George popped over from his house with two beers, offering me a celebratory drink. Man I wanted a beer. But then I’d probably fall asleep on the way home. I took a raincheck.
As the evening wore on, the knees became sore. All that load at low revs added up. The next day I went for a swim and this did wonders. It loosened up the muscles and allowed the knees some motion and they felt much much better. I did a short ride on the neighborhood trails for a half hour and I could tell I was smashed from the skin to the very center of my bones. I took it easy for a few days and the body turned around.
Being this smashed afterward was not surprising. This effort was extremely difficult. I have ridden 150+miles on the road four times. During those efforts, you have undulation and can coast. The flat sections are relatively easy. But in this effort, 50% of the 107miles was UP. And it was up at 10% average with a steeper pitch in the middle. There is no way to suffer through this and fake it. Everything has to align, and when it doesn't, your body lets you know, as I found out in my first attempt where I got to 23,600 ft and 94 miles and my body just started refusing to take in fluids and I had to stop.
This was a great effort. I enjoyed ticking this off, but I bid these solitary efforts adieu now. Vaccinated, I’m ready to race.
