Failure is a just another term for "I'm not finished yet".

Failure on the Mountain

Well my Everesting days are finished for the time being (never say never). I tried and didn’t succeed. It was a case of “a hill too far”. Feeling pretty gutted today. 2 attempts, 2 x DNF’s. This is not an easy gig. Gives me even more respect for those who have attained such lofty heights (pun intended).

I got in almost 3000m and felt sick as a dog, asthma kicked in and I never recovered from there. The cold mountain air does nothing for my asthma and once that happened I quickly tired and lost any sense of completing this quest. It’s hard enough to try something like this when you can breathe, let alone when you can’t! Try climbing a 20% hill breathing through a straw and you’ll understand what people with asthma go through. But still, I’m not putting that forward as an excuse, there are none – I just wasn’t up to the task.

The first few laps were hard but not insurmountable and I felt that despite the effort, I could do it. However as my breathing got worse, so did the exponential increase in difficulty, particularly the first 200m of the segment which are pretty horrendous no matter how good a cyclist you may be.

So today I got to work and found it hard to focus on anything except my disappointment. That was until my brother in Sydney, who’s always been opposed to such a boring and repetitious activity (and could never understand my obsession with Everesting) told me I should try Bobbin Head West, a far, far easier climb (2.9k’s, 5%, 165m), with amenities at the bottom of the climb, set in a truly magnificent area. He even decided he might ride support or do an Everesting as well.

Now my brother rides with the “A” groups in Sydney, won the Mont 24hr Team Championship a couple years back, and is (in my opinion anyway) a superbly fit athlete. So having him along on my continued journey was a bit of a watershed moment. So maybe I’m not washed up after all. Motivation started seeping back into my brain.

For now though I’m going to put this Everesting business to bed, and “let sleeping dogs lie” for a while. Cycling for me has always been about just “being”, enjoying the scenery, the hills, the effort, new discoveries and the solitude. So I need to rediscover that before I can move forward again.

Thanks for reading this epic tale over the last few months. All the best to find your own “Everest”.

Jeff