Sussex boys in 'Everesting' attempt - 60 consecutive climbs up Ditchling Beacon

[Bold Seagull]

http://road.cc/content/news/228171-sussex-cyclists-aged-13-and-14-ditchling-beacon-‘everesting’-attempt

https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/lukas-nerurkar-tom-pughe-morgan

Two young cyclists from Sussex will next week attempt to ‘Everest’ Ditchling Beacon by riding up and down the South Downs hill until they have climbed the equivalent height of the world’s tallest mountain.

Lukas Nerurkar, aged 13, from Hangleton and Tom Pughe-Morgan, 14 and from Plumpton Green will have to ride more than 60 times up the West Sussex climb to beat the height of Mount Everest, which is 8,848 metres.

To comply with Everesting rules, they will have to do it in a single continuous ride, with no loops involved, meaning that each time they reach the summit the pair will have to go back down to where they started and turn around for the next ascent.

According to VeloViewer, the typical ascent of Ditchling Beacon has an elevation gain of 154 metres, and elevation change of 133 metres, and an average gradient of 9.1 per cent.

The youngsters are aiming to raise money for the UK charity Nepal Youth Foundation, which supports impoverished children in Nepal.

On their Just Giving page Tom, who has secured sponsorship from Hassocks-based Proper Cycling & Coffee which is supporting the challenge, said:
“We wanted to set ourselves a gnarly cycling challenge for a good cause. We decided to do the Everesting Challenge which is a well-recognised club cyclist's challenge but usually undertaken by adults.
“It involves riding repeatedly up a single hill until a total climb equivalent to the height of Everest is achieved.
“We have chosen to ride Ditchling Beacon where 60 climbs will take us just over the summit of Everest.
“Although we are both fit youth cyclists it is going to be a significant challenge – we have done a practice run of 25 reps which we managed OK, but another 35 on top of that is really going to test us!
“We have chosen to donate the sponsorship money to Nepal Youth UK as it means supporting our own age group in the country where Mount Everest is located.”
He added: “We are hoping to raise a total of £500 and would be really grateful for anything you are able to donate to support this excellent cause. Thanks a lot for your help.”

Their challenge takes place next Wednesday, 30 August.

 

[Mackenzie]

They'll sleep well that night.

 

[Ninja Elephant]

Absolutely no chance they're going to ride up the Beacon 60 consecutive times. None whatsoever.

I'll donate if they do it, but they won't.

 

[Motogull]

That's an incredible challenge.

 

[studio150]

What 14 year old boy uses gnarly in conversation

 

[knocky1]

Everest, buried in St Andrews Church, Hove, had Sagarmatha changed to his name and this is a challenge worthy of Hove boys.
Raising money for Nepal is great too.

I've cycled it a number of times,once on a 3 gear Sturmey Archer, walked it numerous times and driven it. Think it's a dangerous challenge and not possible.

 

[Stat Brother]

Two Strava athletes take on the ultimate test of climbing, summiting Everest, at 8,848m. They recount their 17 hour journey up Firle Beacon 68 times.

http://blog.strava.com/on-top-of-the-world-everesting-8332/

 

[1066familyman]

To be honest I had Pogue Mahone down as older than 14 years old.

 

[Ninja Elephant]

Quite honestly, I reckon that between the top cyclists in the Geeks Strava group, a total of 60 attacks on the Beacon would be possible in the space of a few hours.

I'd be happy to keep count of the laps. From the top.

But I seriously doubt any one person would be able to do the Beacon 60 times in a single day. 60 times in a week would be special!

 

[Greg Bobkin]

What 14 year old boy uses gnarly in conversation

One named Tom Pughe-Morgan, by the looks of it

Good luck to them – amazing challenge and I reckon they might just do it. Although the 'continuous' bit confuses me. Does that mean no stops at all? Literally not being able to put your feet down, or stop for food/water?

 

[Stat Brother]

One named Tom Pughe-Morgan, by the looks of it

Good luck to them – amazing challenge and I reckon they might just do it. Although the 'continuous' bit confuses me. Does that mean no stops at all? Literally not being able to put your feet down, or stop for food/water?

No it means you can't leave the climb, the blog post in #7 is an excellent account account of a couple of guys everesting Firle Beacon.


The concept of Everesting is oh-so-diabolically simple: pick your hill and ride it repeatedly until you’ve ascended the equivalent height – 8,848m – of Everest from sea level. The only real rules are that it must be an up-and-back along the same road and that it must be achieved in a single ride: no sleeping! Given that an ‘average’ tough and hilly ride might have 2,500m of climbing, Everesting in a day is no mean feat.

 

[spongy]

Sod that.

I don't think its possible.

The riders in the Tour de France did it in a shade under 5 minutes. And they're the worlds best. These are two young kids. Even if they are fit then I still reckon it will them 20 minutes. 15 minutes at a push, and that's early on.

At that pace it will take them 15 hours. Before they get tired.

I will definitely donate if they manage it. But I just cant see it.

 

[1066familyman]

Two Strava athletes take on the ultimate test of climbing, summiting Everest, at 8,848m. They recount their 17 hour journey up Firle Beacon 68 times.

http://blog.strava.com/on-top-of-the-world-everesting-8332/

Thanks for that, very enjoyable read.

Wise choice of Firle Beacon over Ditching, for all the reasons they gave. I would have thought it's not very safe or practical attempting this on Ditching Beacon. Fair play to these young lads, but I'll be amazed if they complete it and there's not some serious tension with motorists.

 

[1066familyman]

Quite honestly, I reckon that between the top cyclists in the Geeks Strava group, a total of 60 attacks on the Beacon would be possible in the space of a few hours.

I'd be happy to keep count of the laps. From the top.

But I seriously doubt any one person would be able to do the Beacon 60 times in a single day. 60 times in a week would be special!

I don't think the physical task of doing Ditching Beacon is beyond any one person, although I'm not sure if it's beyond someone the age of these two. What I think is beyond possible is doing it without closing the road off to traffic.

Are they closing the road off to traffic that day does anyone know?

 

[Wrong-Direction]

Pffft intentionally pissing off drivers driving up and down it

Sent from my SM-A310F using Tapatalk

 

[1066familyman]

From that article SB posted:

As with all these things, the devil lay in the detail. George’s Mt Donna Buang attempt took him 287 horizontal KM to achieve. The shortest Everesting currently stands at 95.6km (an 18.6% hill); the longest at 461.7km (a 4.11% hill). So: what are you best at? Pick a shallow gradient and you’ll be there all day. And night. And day again. Pick a steep one and your knees might pop. In the end, we decided against Ditchling: though convenient, it was a narrow, sometimes busy, road and a technical descent. Instead we landed on Firle Beacon. Firle Beacon, 15km away along the same ridge, was a similar climb to Ditchling: 1.3km and dead on 10%. It only had a car park at the top, it was quieter, wider and prettier, and I’d repped it many times before. And that extra 0.9% of gradient cut around 25km off the ride. Bingo.

 

[Motogull]

Given that an ‘average’ tough and hilly ride might have 2,500m of climbing,

Sake, I thought it was 2,500 feet.

 

[Cheshire Cat]

Ditchling Beacon is hideous to drive up or down, regardless of two knackered cyclists in the road all day. It's steep, lots of curves and the visibility round the bends is awful.

 

[Stat Brother]

Yeah the Beacon is very much the wrong road for this attempt, it's a shame they have gone public because someone should be telling them to go elsewhere.

Everesting as such isn't a problem, I have confidence that 2 friends could do it with comparatively minimal training.
For me it would be a 6 - 12 month project with a commitment to losing a considerable amount of weight, so that ain't happening.
The most climbing I've ever done in one ride is 3,000m so only a third of the way 'up', (as said fook that) but I'm sure our Strava 'club' has a few potential 'minimal training' Everesters.

 

[knocky1]

Yeah the Beacon is very much the wrong road for this attempt, it's a shame they have gone public because someone should be telling them to go elsewhere.

Everesting as such isn't a problem, I have confidence that 2 friends could do it with comparatively minimal training.
For me it would be a 6 - 12 month project with a commitment to losing a considerable amount of weight, so that ain't happening.
The most climbing I've ever done in one ride is 3,000m so only a third of the way 'up', (as said fook that) but I'm sure our Strava 'club' has a few potential 'minimal training' Everesters.

I think there's time for the parents to get them over to Firle and get some warning flag volunteers out for those latter ascents and descents.