A valiant effort to disprove the notion that no shandy supping southern lightweight can climb a hill will be attempted on Saturday.

A pal of mine Mark Emsley will be attempting to ‘Everest’ the Bostal climb up the North face of the South Downs in Steyning. Those who know the hill will know it’s a tricky little blighter with some steep sections and a few false crests. Not much time to recover going down either which I think makes this particularly tricky.

In order to make the full 29000ft of Everest Mark will have to climb the Bostal 72 times. 😯 Starting at 5am he’s provisionally set aside 14hrs for the challenge.

He’s raising cash for Water Aid specifically to help the communities affected by the earthquake in Nepal.

So, if you’re on your bike on Saturday, road or MTB around the Steyning area, pop by and shout abuse/support and even better ride up once with him and revel in your smugness as you don’t have to turn around and do it again.

Strava segment

Just giving link

Mark will have to climb the Bostal 72 times

Mark is a nutter!

he is a nutter, I’m not convinced it’s possible. There’s no recovery time going back down, he couldn’t have chosen a more challenging hill.

I’ve just gived 🙂

Sounds bloody excellent, expect a light blue CX’er with me on it coming over to shout abuse encouragement

that’s a lot of hill reps. I thought 15 times up hardknott would be mind bogglingly boring (I got bored after 5 reps of a short local hill) so yeah that’s going to be a feat of mental endurance never mind physical.

If you see a red camper with 2 unruly kids at the top of the hill Bike Buoy, come say hi, Mark has requested an ice cold coke ‘like the pros’..

Wonder if he wants some of the other stuff the pros use?

Wonder if he wants some of the other stuff the pros use?

Podium girls in bikinis?

Donated. Good luck to him.

Mental. If he matches the KOM each time it’ll take over 4 hours plus all the descending. In terms of climbing it’s like doing the SDW almost three times! Good luck and don’t let him crash on the way back down!

Hint: use at least 2 GPS units.
My “main” one died at 8750m (not out of battery, it just died, no amount of rebooting would get it going again) but fortunately I’d had a backup unit in my back pocket the whole time and that (just about) held out for the full 15 hours it took me when I did an Everest.

I’d have cried for a week if I hadn’t had a backup GPS!

In terms of climbing it’s like doing the SDW almost three times!

A bit different in that one’s on road and the other mostly isn’t. Still a mental thing to do mind you, chapeau!

Hint: use at least 2 GPS units.
My “main” one died at 8750m (not out of battery, it just died, no amount of rebooting would get it going again) but fortunately I’d had a backup unit in my back pocket the whole time and that (just about) held out for the full 15 hours it took me when I did an Everest.

I’d have cried for a week if I hadn’t had a backup GPS!

I’ll ask him, not sure if he’s even GPSing it, do you have to? The ‘rules’ site is blocked for me at work.

And thank so much to those who’ve donated to a total stranger doing something totally pointless. 8)

I’ll ask him, not sure if he’s even GPSing it, do you have to? The ‘rules’ site is blocked for me at work.

From the Everesting website:

Recording the ride

– Our preference is for the ride to be recorded with a dedicated GPS device which has an altimeter or barometer (i.e. not a Garmin Forerunner). If you absolutely positively must use a phone or non-barometric device then please keep in mind these rides receive special scrutiny to ensure the 8,848m target was reached. We know why, and you know why. You will need to verify the height gained by the number of repeats of the segment climbed.

– In the event that barometric pressure affects the height recorded leave the ride in the original state and we can verify the height by the repeats of the segment that has been climbed.

– We suggest you take pictures of your stats throughout the ride. History has shown that data can fail, either on the bike or in the upload. Data is important, but we understand shit happens. So long as you can sufficiently prove the ride we’ll accept it. We’ll decide on a case-by-case basis and may include the requirement to ‘pinky swear’.

– Batteries have a tendency to die after around 15 hours of recording. A portable battery pack is a cheap solution for charging on the fly. Please note that units such as the Garmin Edge 500 will reset if plugged in mid-ride. Not cool. The workaround is to find an OTG (On The Go) micro USB cable (look it up, they only cost a few bucks). This cable has a pin removed which ‘tricks’ the unit into ‘thinking’ that it isn’t actually plugged in. Test it beforehand, but trust us – it works. Also good for charging your phone on alternate laps (#protips).

Strava

– All rides must be publicly verifiable via Strava (i.e not set to private).

– Once the 8,848m is complete the current lap can be abandoned or completed at the rider’s discretion. The ride must be more than 8,848m on Strava so use a little bit of common sense and log some extra vertical metres just to be safe.

– Don’t forget to join the Hells 500 Strava Club. We like to watch.

Submission

– Submit your ride through our good mates at Veloviewer. You’ll need to connect your Strava profile (if you don’t have one, create one) and a link to your ride.

– All Everesting submissions must be verified by our panel prior to being accepted as valid. We’re usually pretty quick with the turnaround, but give it 48 hours.

I’ve just chatted to him, he rode it twice this morning just to check it, they’ve gravelled the tarmac on the middle corner and there’s a gravel ‘bar’ in the middle of the corner.

I think he’s being optimistic on the timing, well not just the timing 😯 but you get my drift.

He has 2 batteries and is registered on the official site…

Can we presume that Mark WON’T be doing the SCCU 50 the following day?

Cos if he does, he’ll be forked! 😆

Chap in East Grinstead Everested Kidds Hill back in April. Knowing both hills well, I’m not sure which would be worse.

Not looking too bad for someone who’s just climbed the Bostal 45 times. I’ve passed on the bad news that he needs 74 reps not 72….

Climbing from 6am into the night. I can’t conceive of being in a place where I’d even want to do this challenge.

Said Hi to bikebouy, contemplating stealing his bike tbh…

Yay Hi again !!!

I rode over from Beacon Hill and thought about doing a lap with him, but on reflection stopped, turned around said Hi, and headed into Stenying for a bottle fill and a large pack of egg sarnies then promptly turned back and bounced on the downs again.
Chilling with my feet up with a large mug of Tea now 😆

You can tell you mad mate that, you know that I’m chilling with Tea 😆

But have to say he did look remarkably clean and fresh, clearly not putting enough effort in 😆

Great cause, great effort. Top Man.

Annnnnnnd ?

Did he do it ?

😀

Bloody hell, I find it a struggle to get up once! Lunatic. +1 to did he do it?

Nope.

I’m stuck looking after the kids so I haven’t got the full story. It got seriously hot here in the afternoon and stayed warm until late on, somewhere around 25000ft he couldn’t go on.

He had to be taken home, he is however out there now doing the next 17 ascents to complete the challenge for everyone who sponsored him.