vEVERESTING 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, RGT, Rouvy, or Race Republic.

Submit for approval

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

The Spirit of the Challenge

In the same way that it is possible to tweak your results in a race on Zwift, FulGaz,, RGT, Rouvy, or Race Republic by changing weight or not calibrating a trainer, it is also possible to similarly make things easier for a vEveresting. You could adjust the trainer difficulty, underreport your weight, or go against our recommendation for the general type of trainer to use on a given hill. In the same way you could take a nap, hold onto a car, or use an eBike on an outdoor Everesting, and who would ever know? Well – the answer to that is yourself.

Hells 500 was built on finding something difficult, and making it harder. It’s about tenacity, and pushing yourself beyond what you thought was possible. That’s what this crew is all about. It’s not about shortcuts, it’s about death by 1,000 cuts. Trainer difficulty needs to be at 100%, direct drive only for the steep hills on Zwift, FulGaz, RGT, Rouvy, or Race Republic, no ERG mode. These are all in place to make things hard. We also aim to keep the rules as simple as possible, hence not having to search through an endless list of trainer capabilities. t’s not about trying to find the grey areas, it’s about bleeding out of your eyeballs until you get the grey stripe. If in doubt, don’t look to someone else who you think got off easier – think what you can do to to make your own harder. That is Hells 500. This is what makes crew. TL;DR: Make it harder.

Vertical Gain

– The 8,848m/29 029ft is taken as your total elevation gain.   – 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 vEverestings in one activity. In this instance the first vEveresting must still be completed with no sleep, however an allowance for up to 2 hours for each ‘subsequent’ vEveresting 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 vEveresting attempts please ensure that you have support on hand to assist in making an independent judgement call on your fatigue levels.

Single Climb

– Rides can be of any length, on any hill or mountain within theZwift, RGT, Rouvy, or Race Republic framework. Essentially anything that has a vertical gain can be used to complete an vEveresting.

– Rides must only focus on one hill or mountain per ride.  You cannot ride different routes on the same mountain. If there are 4 routes, that means there are 4 possible ‘vEverestings’ (think of it like the North and South face of Everest).

– Rides cannot be loops. The descent must be via the same road. 

– Rides must be full ascents each time. You can’t commit to a combination of full and half laps within the one vEveresting attempt. 

– 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!)

– No need to stay on the trainer on descents. Depending on the hill you have selected, there could be a long descent (i.e. Alpe du Zwift is around 10mins, or RGT’s Stelvio 15minutes) and the level of difficulty for this challenge is not increased by sitting on your saddle waiting for your avatar to descend. Feel free to use this time to top up food, take a change of clothes, have a stretch etc. 

Approved Devices

We only accept vEverestings completed on an electronically controlled smart-trainers. This is to ensure the physical effort of vEveresting is in line with that of a traditional Everesting attempt. This rule is to ensure during the vEveresting the trainer is simulating climbing as much as possible. If you have a direct-drive trainer you can complete an Everesting on any hill within Zwift, FulGaz, RGT, Rouvy, or Race Republic‘s virtual worlds (note that trainer setting must be set to 100% and you cannot use ERG mode). Don’t have a direct-drive smart trainer? No problem. Non-direct drive smart trainers (using a tyre to engage) are fine to use on Zwift, FulGaz, RGT, Rouvy, or Race Republic, however at around 7-8% gradient they can slip. You’ll just need to pick a climb that doesn’t include gradients above 7-8% (e.g. Zwift Epic KOM without the radio tower is fine, but Alpe du Zwift is not). On RGT you can easily find climbs that will be below 7%.

Approved App

– Rides must be completed on Zwift, FulGaz, RGT, Rouvy, or Race Republic in order to be approved. – Gradient setting to 100% replication/max. This isn’t a game! Riding up 7% means you have to ride up 7%. Note that if you are not able to replicate 100% difficulty with an older trainer due to slippage, it will still generally work on lower gradients. – Your rider profile weight has to be accurate as of the day you vEverest. Weighing yourself once at the start will be sufficient.

Safety Agreement

– Riders take full responsibility for taking on an vEveresting attempt. Talk it through with your mates and family. They are generally a pretty good judge of whether you should be sweating it out on a a stationary bike for 20 hours.  – Your consideration of this challenge means that you are going to explore the limits of what your body is capable of. Know your limits, know the signs of breakdown, and be prepared to walk away. – Our strong recommendation is for both personal/medical insurance and ambulance cover (if applicable). – Get a medical check-up before you attempt this. – If you are under 18 years old, get a parent or guardian’s approval first. – Be safe. It only counts if you get off the (virtual) mountain …

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.

Check out our guides here