vEveresting on Zwift
If you're looking for a virtual cycling challenge, conquering Mount Everest is a massive feat.
vEveresting, named after Mt Everest, is one of the toughest cycling challenges you can complete. To conquer this challenge you need to find a climb, ride up, then down, until you’ve reached the height of Mount Everest in vertical meters. On completion, you'll get your name added to the exclusive Hall of Fame.
- Climb the height of Mt Everest
- One Hill anywhere in the world
- One Activity, no time limit, no sleep
vEveresting was started by the Australian cycling club 'Hells 500', which has a website setting out the rules, a Hall of Fame, and a special kit for successful vEveresters.
The first-ever rider to complete a vEverest was Frank Garcia, In 2015 he road the 'Watopia Wall' on Zwift 315 times!
The Rules
You can find all of the rules for vEveresting at everesting.cc. Here are the basics:
- You must gain 8,848 meters of elevation.
- You must ride up and down a single hill, you cannot complete loops.
- There is no time limit, you're allowed to take breaks but not sleep.
- You need a controllable smart trainer with the gradient difficulty set to 100%.
- Record and save your activity data, taking screenshots along the way.
- Upload your finished ride to Strava and submit it to everesting.cc.
Routes
There are some important factors to consider when choosing your hill. Longer climbs will give longer breaks on the descent. Some will require some pedalling on the descent, giving less rest time, but offering more breaks on the climb. Elevation adds up faster on steep climbs and means you'll cover less distance compared to lesser gradients.
You'll need to calculate how many laps it will take, and the distance covered to find the right hill that suits you. Head over to The Everesting Calculator, which will calculate the maths for you.
This is how many laps it will take to vEverest some of Zwift’s biggest climbs:
- Alpe du Zwift: 8.5
- Watopia Epic KOM Forward*: 19
- Watopia Epic KOM Reverse*: 20.1
- Innsbruck KOM Forward: 22.1
- Innsbruck KOM Reverse: 22.3
- London, Leith Hill: 65.9
- London, Keith Hill: 38.7
*These include uphill parts of descents.
Planning
You'll need to also plan for a long day in the saddle, most Everests take 12 hours plus to complete. Plan out your food, drink, and support people to keep you motivated throughout.
Then you can bask in the glory and celebrate!
