James Thinks

Everesting.cc graphic showing first known ascent of Bowden Hill

Preparation for Everesting

A couple of years ago I everested Bowden hill in Wiltshire and found it a good challenge. I was the first person daft enough to do it. Since then I've been thinking about another hill to Everest.

For a long time I had my eye on Bwlch-y-groes aka Hellfire pass in North Wales, but last year Ian Barrington did it before me. More recently I've been thinking seriously about The Burway in Shropshire, but a couple of weeks ago Chris Winn did that one. Huge kudos to both these guys for amazing efforts on these famous climbs. However, I was a bit annoyed that I couldn't be the first up either of these, which is what the Everesting.cc hall of fame focuses on.

Why?

I started wondering about whether I really needed to be the first to Everest a particular hill and for that matter why I do it at all - something which I feel I often have to explain to puzzled friends and family. Last time I was doing it for charity, but this time I'd rather do it for me. Partly because I don't like asking people for money.

One reason I do these kind of challenging rides is that it adds a definite goal to aim for. Whether I'm training or modifying my bike or working out the route and logistics, it's all more enjoyable with an aim in mind. If you don't have a goal you can't fail, but success is also rather meaningless. There's no sense of anticipation or achievement. Some cyclists use racing or aiming for KOMs on Strava segments as goals, but I've never been much of a racer. I've assumed that, having only started cycling seriously in my thirties I was a bit old to be really fast over a short distance. But I feel I might be better suited to these longer and quite frankly, weirder challenges. If I really feel the need to get the "first ascent" on the hall of fame, am I doing it for bragging rights? A lot of people I know find my challenges more eccentric than impressive, so perhaps I am doing it for my own satisfaction. I've said before that everyone's challenges are individual and in some ways hard to compare. I've judged that Everesting will be a challenge for me. Despite having done something similar before, I'm not sure I'll be able to complete it with my current level of fitness, a different hill, different conditions, etc. That's part of what makes it interesting.

So I'm still undecided about redoing a famous climb or trying to be first on a new one. Either way, I'll need to prepare my bike.