The Definitive Guide to Everesting | Top Tips & Expert Advice

Quick facts

Focus: Outdoor / IRL Everesting for cyclists

Audience: Global – first‑timers through to experienced endurance riders

Last updated: April 2026

Length: Long‑form, comprehensive guide If you are thinking about attempting an Everesting, this long‑form guide is designed to help you plan properly, avoid common mistakes and significantly increase your chances of success. It is based on multiple successful attempts in different formats and is written for a global audience.

Why I wrote this guide
What is Everesting?
Who this guide is for
The disclaimer
Everesting in 10 steps
- Step 1: Understanding the rules
- Step 2: Picking your climb or route
- Step 3: Safety
- Step 4: Ride solo, or with others?
- Step 5: Picking a date and start time
- Step 6: Bike prep and training
- Step 7: Base camp location and kit list
- Step 8: Nutrition and hydration
- Step 9: Recording the ride, lights and recharging
- Step 10: Mind games and chimp management

Additional topics covered:

Other Everesting formats
The SSSS challenges
What happens after you submit?
How Everesting started
What is HELLS 500?
Frequently asked questions

Why I wrote this guide

This guide is intended to be a definitive, practical source of advice for any cyclist contemplating an Everesting attempt. Since my first successful Everesting in 2015, I have repeatedly been asked for tips, so I decided to put everything I have learned in one place and keep it updated. When I first heard about Everesting in late 2014, the concept was still new and high‑quality advice was hard to find. I failed my first attempt not because my legs were bad, but because my planning was flawed. On the long drive home I analysed every mistake and resolved to be more analytical and methodical next time. A week later, I tried again and succeeded. Since then, I have completed a wide range of Everesting rides (34 successful rides to date) – steep, gravel, altitude, roaming, virtual, half, 10k and more – and this guide distils that experience into practical steps. If you prefer audio, there is also a two‑part podcast version of this guide on The Everesting Podcast.

10 Tips for Everesting with Sir Guy Litespeed – Part 1
10 Tips for Everesting with Sir Guy Litespeed – Part 2

What is Everesting?

Everesting means climbing the vertical height of Mount Everest – 8,848 metres – in a single, continuous activity without sleep. In cycling, the classic format is to ride a single climb repeatedly until you reach the required elevation gain. There are now two main ways to complete an Everesting by bike:

Repeats: Riding repeat ascents of a single climb or segment. Official challenges include quarter Everesting (2,212 m), half Everesting (4,424 m) and full Everesting (8,848 m).
Roaming: Riding any route you choose while accumulating the required vertical, moving from climb to climb. This format now exists officially on the Everesting platform.

In both cases:

You can stop briefly and repeatedly to eat, drink or sort kit.
You cannot sleep.
The full challenge must be completed in a single, continuous effort.

For most amateur cyclists, an Everesting is likely to be a 15 to 24‑hour ride and the hardest day they have ever spent on a bike. There is no formal time limit, provided you do not sleep. Just keep turning the pedals. A successful attempt, validated through your recorded activity and submission, earns you a place in the Everesting Hall of Fame alongside riders from all over the world.

Who this guide is for

This guide is written primarily for cyclists planning an outdoor / real‑life Everesting. It is especially relevant if you:

Are planning your first Everesting and want to get it right.
Have attempted and failed and want to understand how to improve your odds.
Are thinking about more demanding variants such as gravel, altitude, roaming or 10k.
Prefer practical, experience‑based advice to generic “ride report” blogs.

If you are planning an indoor virtual Everesting (vEveresting), I recommend reading my separate vEveresting guide instead, as the logistics and strategy are different. You should also keep the official Everesting website open while you plan; you will need it for rule details, route/climb tools and, hopefully, to submit your successful ride.

The disclaimer

It goes without saying that cycling is inherently dangerous, as is any extreme endurance event. Combining the two, usually on public roads, involves genuine risk. I am not trying to encourage you to undertake an Everesting – you do that entirely at your own bidding. I’m simply trying to prepare you better and make you more likely to succeed, safely. So, just to repeat, you undertake an Everesting entirely at your own risk and I, this website and its contents accept no liability for your actions, your safety, or your sanity. The fact that you’re even reading this guide means the last point is already in doubt.

Everesting in 10 steps

The core of this guide is a 10‑step framework:

Understanding the rules
Picking your climb or route
Safety
Ride solo, or with others?
Picking a date and start time
Bike prep and training
Base camp location and kit list
Nutrition and hydration
Recording the ride, lights and recharging
Mind games and chimp management

If your time is limited, focus on these 10 sections first; the later sections on history and variants are for those who want a deeper dive.

Step 1: Understanding the rules

Start by reading – properly – the official Everesting rules on the Everesting website. Skimming them or relying on second‑hand summaries is a recipe for heartbreak. For Repeats (the original format), the key principles include:

No sleep during the attempt.
You must ride the full climb / segment on every ascent.
The required elevation (quarter, half or full) must be achieved in a single, continuous ride.
Record the entire elapsed-time activity.
You must upload via Strava and submit your activity correctly for verification via the Everesting website.

For Roaming, the rules are adapted to the more flexible route format (i.e. repeats are allowed, but not required), but otherwise they are still clearly defined and enforced. Rules change over time, so always check the latest version on the official site rather than relying on memory or old blog posts. If you are still unsure, the official Everesting channels and community are usually the quickest way to get a definitive answer. This is a great place to ask a question: https://www.facebook.com/groups/everesting

Step 2: Picking your climb or route

Once you understand the rules, you can choose your climb or route – one of the most enjoyable parts of planning.

Repeats

For a Repeats Everesting, you are going to spend many hours on the same hill, so choose a climb you genuinely like and that suits you as a rider. For first‑time Everesters, I would look for a climb that is:

Close to home (local knowledge helps hugely).
Fairly constant in gradient (ideally without steep ramps that could really hurt late on).
Around 8–10% for most riders – steep enough to gain height efficiently, but still sustainable.
Well surfaced and safe to descend repeatedly.
Reasonably free of traffic.
Easy to turn at both top and bottom, ideally without complex junctions.
Practical for base camp (space for a car, shelter and food).
Aligned as far as possible with prevailing winds.
Somewhere you feel motivated to keep riding when things get hard.

You also need to calculate the exact number of laps required. Do not rely on hearsay or someone else’s old file; use the official tools, ride the climb in advance and do the maths yourself. Double‑check everything.

Roaming

For some riders, the idea of repeats is mentally unbearable. If that sounds like you, the Roaming format allows you to design a very hilly route that accumulates the required vertical gain while moving from climb to climb. Be aware, though:

Roaming usually means more distance and therefore more time, because repeats are the most efficient way to gain altitude.
With no sleep allowed, longer elapsed time makes the challenge harder, not easier.

In my view, Roaming removes some of the mental grind of repetition, but often makes the overall ride more difficult.

Step 3: Safety

There is no such thing as a perfectly safe Everesting, just as there is no such thing as a completely safe bike ride. You are combining long duration, fatigue, repeated descending and often public roads, so safety needs its own careful plan. For Repeats Everestings in particular, think hard about:

Turning points: The top and bottom of the climb are often the trickiest points, especially if there are junctions, driveways or blind corners. Drivers will not expect you to be repeatedly turning in the road all day and night.
Traffic: How busy is the road at different times of day? Have you ridden it at those times? If not, you should.
Visibility: Are there sections where you are hard to see? How will they feel in the dark and when you are tired?
Phone coverage: Is there reception if you need help?
Remoteness: On very remote climbs, consider the benefit of having a friend there even if they only ride a few laps and keep an eye on you.
Weather: What happens if it rains, gets windy or temperature drops sharply? Is your chosen route still safe and realistic?

I am a strong advocate of daytime running lights front and rear for the entire ride, not just at night. Everesting involves unusual patterns of movement on the road; anything that increases your visibility is worth it. Also think about what happens after you finish. Driving home when you are exhausted can be more dangerous than the ride itself, so sometimes it is smarter to sleep at or near base camp and head home the next day.

Step 4: Ride solo, or with others?

Riding an Everesting solo has a certain elegance to it and gives you full control over pacing, stops and decisions. It does, however, require a particular mindset and good “chimp management” (more on that in Step 10). The advantages of a solo attempt include:

You can pace entirely for your own physiology.
You are not dragged into riding someone else’s tempo.
You can adjust plans without needing consensus.

On the other hand, company can be incredibly valuable, especially late in the ride and through dark sections. A friend at base camp, or “Sherpas” joining you for certain blocks, can transform your mental state and help keep you moving when things get bleak. If you do ride as a pair or group, decide in advance:

What happens if one rider abandons?
What happens after a crash or major mechanical?
Will others continue, or stop?
How will you handle different pacing and lap times?

If you ride “solo with Sherpas”, try to stagger people across the day so you get support and distraction at different points rather than all at once.

Step 5: Picking a date and start time

Weather and daylight have a huge impact on Everesting. If you can, I suggest identifying several possible dates over a 2–3 week window and keeping them as clear as life allows, so you can pick the one with the best conditions. You are aiming for:

Decent temperatures.
As little rain as possible.
Wind that is as favourable as you can get it.
Long daylight hours.

In many parts of the world, late spring and early summer are ideal. Even then, most riders will still spend some of the ride in the dark. Start time The classic “science” answer is to start after a full night’s sleep, but in practice a 7–9 am start can leave you riding through the entire second night when you are at your most tired and often alone. My strong preference is usually to:

Get an early night.
Start around 2–3 am.
Ride into sunrise with several hours of climbing already banked.
Aim to finish late evening or around midnight.

I think two shorter dark periods are far more manageable than one long one. On total duration i.e. elapsed time, I would mentally prepare for a 20–24 hour effort for a full Everesting, even if your mathematics suggests something shorter. Late laps slow down and stoppage time adds up.

Step 6: Bike prep and training

Your bike and training plan can be the difference between success and failure, especially later in the day when small issues become big ones. Bike prep Key questions to ask yourself:

Gearing: Do you have a genuinely low, sustainable gear? A 34×34 versus a 36×28 can be the difference between spinning and grinding. Modern gravel gearing opens up much better options for steep climbs.
Weight: Can you reasonably reduce weight (e.g. wheels, excess accessories) without compromising reliability? Lighter is good, but not if it means fragile.
Brakes: Fit fresh pads and ensure your braking is powerful and predictable. You will descend a lot.
Tyres: Fit appropriate, reliable tyres for your surface (road or gravel) and make sure they are in good condition.
Electronics: Fully charge all devices (shifting systems, computers, lights, phones, power banks) and test everything in the weeks before.
Mounts: Fit secure mounts for your computers and lights and check beam alignment before the day.

Training Training for Everesting deserves a full guide on its own, but my core principles are:

Volume: Ride plenty. Consistent weeks of 10–20 hours on the bike build the base you need.
Climbing: Spend a lot of time climbing; practise repeats, ideally on your chosen hill if possible.
Big days: In the build‑up, I like at least one very long ride and one very hilly ride to prove to myself I can handle the time and vertical. As a rule of thumb, being comfortable with something like 200 km / 4,000 m and then 350 km / 5,000 m is a good sign.
Base Camp: Doing an Everesting Base Camp (4,424 m) is excellent preparation and a confidence boost.

For tapering, I favour a short taper of around 10–14 days: reduced volume, some intensity, and enough rest to arrive fresh but not flat.

Step 7: Base camp location and kit list

For Repeats Everestings, your base camp can make or break your day. In most cases, I recommend putting it at the bottom of the climb. Why the bottom?

After a descent, your heart rate and breathing are lower, so it is easier to eat, drink and make good decisions.
The bottom is often warmer and more sheltered than the top.
It is simpler to step off the bike, refuel and roll straight back into the next climb.

Your base camp might be just a car, a car plus gazebo, or a tent – the crucial thing is organisation. As fatigue builds, your ability to find things will get worse, so your setup must be simple and well structured. I like to:

Turn the car boot into a tidy “kitchen / workshop / wardrobe”.
Use bags or boxes where everything is visible at a glance (e.g. a compartmented box for small items).
Group kit into logical categories: spares/tools, electronics, clothing, food, first aid/personal.

Toilet access near base camp is a luxury worth planning for. For Roaming Everestings, you may not have a fixed base camp in the same way, but planned resupply points can still be very helpful.

Step 8: Nutrition and hydration

Nutrition is where many Everesting attempts unravel. The challenge is not just to eat enough, but to absorb what you are eating whilst riding relatively hard for a very long time. During intense, prolonged efforts, blood flow is diverted towards working muscles and away from your digestive system. If you keep eating more than you can absorb, especially later in the ride, you are likely to experience:

Bloating.
Nausea.
Vomiting.
Diarrhoea.
A general collapse of appetite.

I keep my approach relatively simple:

Test everything in training: foods, drinks, electrolytes – do not experiment on Everesting day.
Eat consistently: small amounts, regularly, rather than huge hits at erratic intervals.
Aim for a sensible carb intake per hour: enough to fuel you, but not so much that it overwhelms your digestion.
Prioritise practical foods: simple, low‑fibre, easily digestible options that you know work for you.
Hydration: drink enough to match your approximate sweat loss, as estimated in training, and adjust for conditions.
Electrolytes: replace sodium sensibly, but do not overload on strong mixes or untested brands.

I typically prefer:

Plain water in bottles.
Food for calories (rather than high‑calorie drinks).
Limited use of gels and bars, especially early on, saving them for when chewing becomes difficult.

Be cautious with fizzy drinks; bloating is unhelpful and uncomfortable and for me they cause nausea.

Step 9: Recording the ride, lights and recharging

Everesting lives and dies on your recorded activity. If your device fails and you cannot reconstruct the ride, you may have done the work without the official result.

Recording

I strongly recommend:

Using a dedicated cycling computer as your primary recorder.
Running a second device in parallel if possible (borrow one if you need to).
Testing battery life and recharging methods in advance.
Simplifying your data screens and back light to preserve power.
Snapping occasional photos of your devices as backup evidence.

Do not rely solely on the ascent figure shown on your computer in real time. Elevation data is imperfect; your pre‑calculated lap or route plan should be your primary reference.

Lights and recharging

Lighting is both a safety and a logistics issue. My preferences:

Daytime running lights front and rear for the entire ride.
A powerful, reliable main front light for night descents.
Redundancy: spare batteries or a second light.
A tested recharging setup (battery packs, cables, mounts) that you know works on the move or at base camp.

Do not underestimate how easily a poorly tested recharging plan can undermine an otherwise solid attempt.

Step 10: Mind games and chimp management

This may be the last step, but it might be the most important. Everesting is as much a psychological challenge as a physical one, especially beyond the halfway mark. The urge to quit is central to the experience. Because Everesting is self‑designed, there is usually no external barrier stopping you from getting in the car, going home and writing the day off as a “good try”. My approach is heavily influenced by Professor Steve Peters’ concept of the “chimp” from The Chimp Paradox. In simple terms:

The chimp is the emotional, self‑protective voice that wants you to stop when things get hard.
You cannot eliminate it, but you can learn to anticipate and manage it.

I use four main strategies:

Break the ride into blocks: Never think of “100 laps”; think of 10 blocks of 10 or 20 blocks of 5. Your immediate job is always “just one more block”.
Reframe as an Everest ascent: Map your progress onto the altitudes of the real Everest – Kathmandu, Lukla, Namche, Base Camp, Camp 1, Camp 2, Camp 3, South Col, Hillary Step, summit – and tick them off.
Controlled distraction: Use audiobooks or podcasts for some of the ride (one ear only, low volume, paused for descents) to help manage monotony without compromising safety.
The “cookie jar”: Draw on memories of previous hard rides where you kept going, and focus on the reward – the jersey, the Hall of Fame entry, the knowledge that you did it.

Above all, you have to genuinely want to finish. Shallow motivation rarely survives the second half of the ride.

Other Everesting formats

The original cycling Everesting has grown into a family of related challenges, all administered via the official Everesting platform. These include:

Everesting Base Camp: Half the vertical (4,424 m), same core rules. A perfect stepping stone and serious challenge in itself.
Everesting 10k: Push beyond 8,848 m to at least 10,000 m in one ride.
Everesting Roam 10k: A Roaming format 10,000 m challenge, with additional distance and time criteria.
vEveresting / vEveresting Base Camp: Indoor Everesting on a smart trainer (often via Zwift).
Run / Hike Everesting and other discipline‑specific formats: For those who prefer running, hiking or other disciplines, with tailored rules.

Each format has its own rule page on the official site; check these carefully before planning.

The SSSS challenges

For those who get hooked, Everesting also created a small set of “SSSS” challenge variants to add extra spice. They stand for:

Steep: Everest a climb in under 200 km of total distance (implying an average gradient of roughly 10% or more).
Soil: Off‑road Everesting – gravel, dirt, or similar surfaces. These are rare and hard, with well‑earned extra kudos.
Suburban: Urban or suburban Everesting, blending the challenge with a more built‑up environment. Personally, I am cautious about mixing heavy traffic and Everesting.
Significant: A climb with genuine significance – iconic mountains or legendary climbs that most cyclists recognise.

One of the rides must go to at least 10,000 m, effectively combining an SSSS ride with Everesting 10k.

What happens after you submit?

Once you have completed your ride, you submit it to Strava and then upload the activity url via the official Everesting platform. The team reviews your activity, checks that it meets the rules and, if all is well, adds your attempt to the Everesting Hall of Fame. Important points:

Be patient – verification can take a little time.
Make sure your activity is publicly visible or accessible as required.
Respond promptly if the Everesting team asks for clarification.

Once accepted, your Everesting is official and part of the global record.

How Everesting started

The origin story of Everesting is one of the reasons the challenge is so compelling. In the mid‑1990s, George Mallory II – grandson of the famous George Mallory who disappeared high on Everest in 1924 – began riding repeated ascents of Mount Donna Buang near Melbourne as training for a real Everest expedition. Those rides, which pre‑dated Strava and modern GPS tracking, laid the conceptual groundwork for Everesting as we know it. Years later, Andy van Bergen and the HELLS 500 community took inspiration from Mallory’s efforts, set 8,848 m as the target, formalised the basic rules and used GPS data and online platforms to turn Everesting into a verifiable global challenge. What began as a training stunt for one climber has become an iconic goal for cyclists and endurance athletes worldwide.

What is HELLS 500?

HELLS 500 was a small, Melbourne‑based endurance cycling collective whose riders became known for doing very tough rides – long distances, big vertical, bad weather. When Andy van Bergen, its founder, read about George Mallory II’s Donna Buang efforts, he connected the dots:

Set 8,848 m (Everest’s height) as a target.
Create simple, strict rules.
Use GPS recording and online platforms to verify attempts.
Give the challenge a name: “Everesting”.

From there, Everesting evolved from a local concept to a global phenomenon, with the official Everesting website now acting as the home for rules, verification and the Hall of Fame.

Frequently asked questions

How fit do I need to be to Everest?

You do not need to be a pro or a pure climber, but you do need solid endurance. If you can comfortably ride long, hilly days and have completed rides around 200–350 km and 4,000–5,000 m of climbing, you are broadly in the right territory.

How long will an Everesting take?

For most amateur cyclists, a full Everesting will take somewhere between 15 and 24 hours elapsed time, depending on gradient, route choice, weather, pacing and stoppage discipline.

Is Repeats or Roaming easier?

Repeats are more efficient and usually shorter, but mentally harder due to the monotony. Roaming reduces monotony, but is almost always longer and therefore often harder overall.

What is the best time of year to Everest?

In many parts of the world, late spring and early summer are ideal because of longer daylight, milder temperatures and generally better conditions. However, local climate matters more than the calendar; choose your window accordingly.

Do I have to use a specific app or device?

Official rules focus on recorded, verifiable ascent data. Most riders use cycling computers and the ride MUST be uploaded to Strava first and then to the Everesting website. Always check the latest guidance on the Everesting site before your attempt.

Is an indoor vEveresting easier?

It is different rather than simply easier or harder. Indoors you avoid weather, traffic and descents, but you trade that for the psychological challenge of a very long turbo session and a different kind of physical load. I cover this in a separate vEveresting guide.

If you’re going to spend c.24 hours on a single climb, pick somewhere you really want to spend time: The Agnello, Cottian Alps.

My third Everesting and a real battle with my chimp: Mynydd Graean, a 10.3km gravel climb in the Cambrian Mountains, Wales, UK.

Eyes on the prize. I’ve only ever seen one other HELLS 500 jersey while out on the road!

Predictably, this road – the Stelvio – has now been Everested. It must have been a tough one to complete, given the impact of altitude.

Tom Townsend’s infographic for the Cime de la Bonette. At just 17 years of age and for his first Everesting, this was quite some ride! France’s highest road climb.

Stwlan Dam: #5 and by some margin one of the very best climbs in the UK

Everesting #3: Gravel Mountain – this was very remote, with associated safety concerns. The solution was to have a friend with me on the mountain at all times.

It only counts if you get off the mountain safely… Kev Mellalieu descends the Cime de la Bonette.

D.A. and Rich rode the entire Cime de la Bonette Everesting and 10k combination, together. The power of friendship and shared suffering. When this picture was taken, the shadows were lengthening and by the time they’d descended to the valley floor, it was dark. They still had 3,000m more to climb at this point.

Some of your ride will inevitably be in the dark, but ideally you want this to be as short as possible. Everesting #2, Whiteleaf, July 2016.

My ‘bike suitcase’. Being organised will really help you find things when your mind’s no longer capable of knowing where they are!

The Open U.P. that I used on Everesting #3. It was flawless. Thank you Jonny Bell of Noble Wheels and CycleFit.

That moment when you’ve been riding your bike for 18 hours and your support team drives a 50km round trip to bring you pizza! Even better, the road is blocked by sheep, so you have time to savour it!!! Two Tyred Tours – undoubtedly the best bespoke cycle guides in the world! Cime de la Bonette, July 2017: Everesting #4.

Note the Gomadic charger, taped to the top tube, with the wires carefully taped safely away too.

Take regular photos of your cycle computer. And fit a great light for safely descending in darkness.

Everesting #2: my lap counter failed, so I reverted to old-school on the lid of my cool box at Base Camp!

An early start on the Bonette meant we arrived at the summit for sunrise at 5.00am

People are motivated in different ways. Whether it’s the HELLS 500 jersey, or the Everesting infographic by Veloviewer, or even just the personal satisfaction of knowing that you did it – it doesn’t matter which – but you need to really want to do this, badly!

Advanced Chimp Management: fool him into thinking it’s not such a big ride by breaking it down into parts, linked to real places on Everest.

Manageable chunks, or just really scary? My top tube sticker on my first Everesting: Bradenham Wood Lane in the Chiltern Hills, UK.

The Magic Numbers