January 13th 2021
Mr Orgill Cycles Up Everest
Everesting - Pick a hill, anywhere in the world and complete cycling repeats of it in a single activity until you climb 8,848m (the equivalent height of Mount Everest). The activity may be completed in real life or by means of a turbo trainer and the virtual world of Zwift.
Everesting was not a word that featured in my vocabulary until 2020. As the year progressed it punctuated more and more conversations with fellow cyclists. I had a nagging feeling in the back of my mind I’d end up doing it at some point. It triggered a sense of excitement at the prospect of pushing my body, whilst still held down by the ever-changing restrictions of Coronavirus.
Flash forward to 7.30pm on 29th December 2020 and here I am in my garage, mounting my bike ready for a 12 hour stint in the dark slogging away on my turbo trainer. I was most apprehensive about the sleep deprivation of riding through the night. I had promised my partner Charlotte I would not “waste” a day of the Christmas holidays and would instead complete the challenge overnight.
As it was, sleep deprivation was a relatively minor issue. I reached a mindspace where the pedals almost seemed to be turning themselves, I was well fuelled by the array of food on the picnic table next to my bike and chose Netflix programmes and Podcasts so that they maintained my interest, without distracting me from the task at hand.
All was going well for the first 6 repetitions up “Alpe du Zwift” (a virtual replica of Alpe d’huez, the fabled alpine climb). I would ride for 70-80 minutes, holding a manageable tempo and then climb off as my on-screen avatar rolled back down the mountain. In this 10 minute rest period I would get some more solid food in and stretch off on the yoga mat laid out on the garage floor. All of this in my big Moulsford sports coat so as not to lose precious body heat during my rest period with temperatures outside the garage reaching -2oc.
In order to complete the challenge I needed to climb the Alpe just under 9 times. Repetitions 7 and 8 were a horror show. All sense of momentum was lost, every pedal stroke was now a very conscious effort and even one of my favourite Christmas films, Love Actually, could not distract from the effort now required. I resorted to music. Anything loud with a strong beat I could use to carry my legs along.
Long story short - I reached 8900m (always a little extra!) just after 8am and let my avatar roll down the hill once more to add a few kilometres to my ride. I’m now in the Everesting Hall of Fame but I slept through a large amount of 30th December!
The biggest treat came after my Everesting had been confirmed. A typo meant they had put my age as 27 - I’d gained 2 years in one long night!
