RIDE RULES

 

 

CLIMB THE
HEIGHT OF
EVEREST.

ONE HILL.
ANYWHERE IN
THE WORLD.

ONE ACTIVITY.
NO TIME LIMIT.
NO SLEEP.

 

THE RULES

The Three Steps to Everesting

Plan and Prepare

– Our Everesting guides are a comprehensive resource to help you plan.
– Use our Everesting Calculator to determine the number of reps you require for your chosen climb.

Complete the Everesting Challenge

– It must be recorded on Strava.
– vEveresting must be completed on Zwift.

Submit for approval

– You must submit the Strava activity from your Everesting to us for approval. Submit at everesting.cc/submit

Vertical Gain

– The 8,848m/29 029ft is taken as your total elevation gain.

–  If your descent includes a bit of climbing this still counts toward your total. Keep in mind that this is a climbing challenge, and routes with ‘kinetic gain’ should be checked via the everesting calculator first. The calculator has a built-in ‘check’ on descent elevation gain. You’ll know yourself from riding it in real life whether your chosen segment has a gain on the descent. We want to avoid ‘free metres’ where possible. A ‘rule of thumb’ should be applied when looking at a route with elevation gain on a descent or kinetic gain. If it feels like you are gaming the system, then you probably are! Ask us first if in doubt (it’s never nice explaining this afterwards).

– You may decide to push on past 8,848m to get to 10,000m, in which case your ride will also qualify for an Everesting 10K. It’s a two-for-one deal!

Single Activity

– It does not matter how long the ride takes, but it must be ridden in one attempt (i.e. no sleeping in between). Breaks for meals etc. are fine. You can break for as long or as little as you like. Bear in mind break times add up quickly, and can add significantly to your elapsed time.

– An exception to the no-sleep requirement is if you are completing multiple Everestings in one activity. In this instance the first Everesting must still be completed with no sleep, however an allowance for up to 2 hours for each ‘subsequent’ Everesting exists. This 2 hour allowance is a total, so it can be taken as 1x 2hr sleep, 2x 1hr sleeps, 4x 30min sleeps etc. We will respect your integrity, and trust you on the use of this time. Please don’t break that trust! This allowance is to reduce the impact of sleep deprivation and ensure that you get back down off the mountain safely. As with single Everesting attempts please ensure that you have support on hand to assist in making an independent judgement call on your fatigue levels.

– It’s important to note that you undertake an Everesting entirely at your own risk and Everesting, Hells 500, this website and its contents accept no liability for your actions, impact on others, safety, or your mental state! If you are under the age of 18 please ensure a parent or guardian is aware of your intentions, and that you have the proper support in both the lead in, and on the day.

Single Climb

– Rides can be of any length, on any hill, mountain, driveway or bridge. Essentially anything that has a vertical gain can be used to complete an Everesting.

– Rides must only focus on one hill or mountain per ride (e.g. you can’t base yourself in one location and ride multiple hills). You cannot ride different routes on the same mountain. If there are 4 routes, that means there are 4 possible ‘everestings’ (think of it like the North and South face of Everest).

– Rides cannot be loops. The descent must be via the same road unless you are prevented from doing so (e.g. one-way street or one-way trail). This is to prevent kinetic gain sometimes afforded by a loop, or an ‘easier’ descent.

– Rides must be full ascents each time (Strava segments or the accepted ‘traditional’ climbing route will generally be the best guide for this. You can’t commit to a combination of full and half laps). Acceptable is a shorter segment of a climb if it is recognised in its own right. If in doubt, ask.

– The exception to full repeats of the same section/segment of hill is once you hit 8,848m you can abandon that repeat (although we highly recommend bagging ‘just a few’ extra metres.. just in case!)

– Each repeat must be ridden up and down (i.e. you can’t get driven down each time). You also need to keep your device recording the whole time.

– No section of the ride can be walked. This is a cycling challenge.

Approved Devices

– Your Everesting attempt will be verified through proof of the laps repeated of a hill (or a shorter section of that hill). As we verify your attempt based on the completed laps, the previous requirement to use a device with an altimeter or barometer no longer applies. You can record your attempt on a dedicated cycling computer, fitness watch, or smartphone – essentially anything that allows you to record an activity in Strava.

– Our strong advice is to pre-calculate the amount of repetitions of a hill / section of hill / segment prior to commencing. An accurate calculation is important.

– Take 8,848m (29,029ft) and divide that by your elevation gain to calculate reps
(e.g. a segment of 100m gain: 8,848 ÷ 100m = 88.48 reps required)

– Study the hill / section / segment in Strava or on VeloViewer, and take note as to whether the profile looks accurate. A hill / segment / section with a saw-toothing profile will be the result of bad data, and will therefore give you a false elevation. If the hill / segment / section you have selected looks like this, best to find another alternate recording of the segment, or create a new one yourself.


(This is an example of poor data, resulting in ‘saw-toothing’. It only takes a quick look at this profile to know that no road had a gradient like this!)

– An important note: Non-barometric devices can significantly under or over report your elevation while climbing, so do not rely on those figures.

For clarity, previously rides were required to be recorded on a device with an altimimeter or barometer. This is no longer a requirement.

Accepted Bikes

– Acceptable bikes: Road, MTB, CX, Track, BMX, ElliptiGO. Not acceptable: Electric, Recumbent (Exception exist for special circumstances)

Records

As it stands, the overall Everesting record time is only really possible now by highly trained and experienced pro cyclists, however other permutations of records, like country, age-based, terrain type etc. are still in the realm of amateur riders.

This is an extreme challenge, and our fear since starting this concept would be that someone would have a serious accident whilst participating, so where possible we have put boundaries in place – for example making allowances for start and finish points if safety is a factor, adding in a two-hour sleep allocation for multiple Everestings, and until recently never making a deal about time-based records.

We will continue to verify and acknowledge the overall male/female fastest time for cycling, running, and virtual rides, however we will no longer highlight other records.

All rides will still be accepted into the hall of fame, and the hall of fame filters will allow people to do their own sleuthing, however we won’t be publicly calling out or shortening rides to determine the exact ‘official’ time other than those overall records.

Rider safety is first and foremost in our mind, and with these time records really pushing the boundaries we want to make sure that if that is happening, then it’s through no promotion or encouragement from Hells 500.

As our amazing community pointed out “It only counts if you get back down from the mountain”.

Ride safe out there – whether it’s 7.5 hours on the bike, or 27.5 hours.

PREPARE, PLAN, AND COMPLETE
AN EVERESTING USING
OUR COMPREHENSIVE GUIDES.

If you are In Search of Up, then this is the perfect place to start. We’ve prepared a series of guides that will walk you through everything you need to know about preparing, planning for, and completing an Everesting, Virtual Everesting, and Run Everesting.

With detailed information stepping you through what to expect, how to train, what to eat and drink, and what you absolutely don’t want to forget to bring, it’s the ultimate guide to Everesting. Best of all, it’s completely free!

 

PREPARE FOR THE
EVERESTING CHALLENGE
WITH OUR GUIDES.