2021 Winter Everesting on a Fat Bike

by Dean Anderson

Everesting statistics:

• Started at 11:34 AM, Thursday, 14 January 2021 on a carbon Trek Farley
• Ended at 6:39 PM, Friday, 15 January 2021 on a steel Surly Moonlander
• Total time: 31 hours 5 minutes
• 232 km total
• 36 laps
• 6.4 km per lap
• Elevation gain per lap ~251m
• -7 to -8 degrees Celsius at the coldest
• Moving time: 23:49:42
• Total elevation gain: 9032m
• Max speed 54 km/h
• Freewheel broke 3:40 AM Lap 22
• Started with Kristin’s steel bike at 5:51 AM
• 2 hour 11 minute delay to switch bikes
• $3345 raised of $2000 goal for the St. Albert Food Bank. To donate, please go to https://www.canadahelps.org/en/pages/everesting-on-a-fatbike/
• Strava link: https://www.strava.com/activities/4627120334 

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Everesting is a challenge where the same hill is ridden over and over again until the 8849m elevation of Everest is reached. Walking or sleeping is not allowed. 

My first successful attempt was on Signal Mountain in Jasper, AB in July of 2019. With bear spray in tow, I rode my single speed mountain bike 11 laps up the rocky, muddy, trail for 26 hours to complete my first Everest. The Strava link is below for that ride. https://www.strava.com/activities/2568639824

At the start of the Signal Everesting

At the end of the Signal Everesting

The winter following the Everesting on Signal Mountain, I had the bright idea of doing a Winter Everesting. I do most of my training on my trainer in the basement and I think I must have thought of it then while I was all warm watching Netflix. When you are all warm and cozy you forget about how challenging it is outside. 

So, the gears started turning (pun intended). I scoured the segments on Strava searching for a good route. I checked with the locals and the snow on the trail on Signal didn’t get packed much so that was out. I found Pyramid Lake Fire road and it is groomed for cross country skiing. Perfect, I thought! Kristin and I took a test ride in September to check the route and it looked great. We booked a room at the hotel at the bottom of the hill and waited for the date to come. 

We had it all planned. Kristin would set up basecamp at the hotel and take care of me as I rode all night. I knew riding a fat bike would take a long time due to their portliness and slow speed. There was one big factor that could throw a wrench in things and that was the weather. There could be really warm temperatures, really cold temperatures, lots of snow, or any number of other things. Either way, we picked December 18th, 2020 as our date and hoped for the best.

I wanted to raise money for the St. Albert Food Bank. Just as Everesting is a challenge, the Christmas season is a challenging time for those less fortunate. I chose to add Everesting in the snow as a symbol to the added stress of the COVID-19 pandemic during the holiday season. The St. Albert Food Bank provides much needed food for those in need and also provides other services such as counselling and mental health support, so they are a great organization to try to assist. 

With any challenge like Everesting, there are always hurdles and challenges to overcome. This one had a few big ones. 

Big hurdle one: December 18th approached and in Alberta COVID-19 surged. I spoke to some of the locals in Jasper and with Kristin and we decided it was not the best time to do the Everesting. Jasper had a number of cases and their hospital was in lockdown status. There was probably small risk in getting injured but if I did, I did not want to contribute to the strain the hospital was already under. 

So, we rescheduled for January 14th. It was tough to change plans, but not that big of a deal. The hotel had no problem moving our registration date and our schedule was pretty flexible. I was looking forward to going in December so I could stop training though. With the date moved up, I had to get back to training. The taper was over and I was back on the trainer in the basement.

Sweat production machine in the basement

January 14th approached and things were going according to plan. Training was going well and we were ready to go. COVID-19 was diminishing in Jasper and the hospital’s outbreak status was removed. With COVID-19 close contact is discouraged, so we planned on a solitary event. The Pyramid Fire road was in good condition so it was a go!

Pyramid Lake Resort. Basecamp…or so we thought.

Big hurdle two: The night before we were going to travel, we saw a snowfall warning for Jasper. We were going anyway regardless and hoped for the best. We got up early and started travelling to Jasper. I was messaging with the Jasper locals and they said there was a LOT of snow on the ground, so we were concerned about the condition of the Pyramid Lake Fire road. We got to the hotel and tried riding the fire road. No go! A friend in Jasper tried riding earlier and said it was too soft. After sweating and churning the 4.5” tires at 5psi on the first flat part of the trail, I knew there was no way it would work for the challenge. We had to find another hill - and fast!

Big snow at Pyramid! 
Yes, the bike is standing on it’s own because the snow is so deep.

More big snow!

I searched and searched. As I was churning and walking my bike back to the hotel, I was messaging Chris Peel asking advice on routes. We talked and determined the Jasper Skytram Hill would be the best choice. Low traffic and still snowy enough for a Winter Everest. Kristin suggested I test ride it first, so off we went… that night. We got there and it was not plowed, but there were tire tracks, so up I went. I was able to ride it all the way up! Challenging, but doable!

Scouting in the fresh tire tracks

It was decided. That was the hill! 36 laps! Now we had to convert from a hotel basecamp to basecamp in our SUV. We had to get some water carrying capacity and a warm sleeping bag for Kristin. We figured things out and bought a few things in town the next morning and set up camp at the parking lot at the top of the hill. Finally, about 6 hours later than I planned to start, I was off!

Bob Farley and me ready to go!

The first couple of laps went well. I wasn’t able to eat or drink as much as I usually do because of the running around we had to do in town, so I immediately started eating Clif bars and meat sticks (my usual go-to food). The left pogie was for Clif bars and the right was for meat sticks. We prechopped them and tossed them in the bottom of the pogies so I could munch on them when the biking allowed. The road surface was freshly plowed during the night after my test run and had about 2-3cm of packed snow and ice underneath, so that satisfied my desire to do an Everest on snow. The surface was hard, so after the second or third lap I increased my tire pressure to about 10psi.

The view on the way

The view was fantastic! All that snow that recently fell was piled up on the trees and it was a beautiful, sunny day.

The shiny part of the road is ice

Each lap was taking about 40 minutes to complete. I felt good the first 2-3 laps, but then started to feel sore and tired. It takes me a bit to get going sometimes so I wasn’t surprised. A few hours after dark I started to feel a bit better. In Canada at this time of year it gets dark at about 5pm. The long night was a challenge I expected for this attempt. I usually do these long rides or races in summer when the nights are short and for this ride the night was about 16 hours long. 

There were some workers cutting trees around the power lines and they would see me ride by repeatedly. One of them asked if I was Everesting. I said, “Yes,” and he said he heard about the attempt. The next lap we talked a bit more as he casually walked beside me as I slowly climbed the hill. Cool! These little exchanges are a great part of getting out there and doing things. Every lap, Kristin would take my picture, take a picture of my Garmin, and I would check off the box on the poster that my daughter made.

Face photo

Garmin photo. My son and daughter picked the stem cap.

Checking the box

 So, the daytime laps went by and I started the nighttime laps.

Nighttime descends

I had a pretty good light system, but was concerned about the batteries. They are getting a bit old and on some test rides they would just shut off. On the descent I was approaching 50km/hr at times, so I didn’t want them shutting off randomly. I had my headlight as a back up though. Good thing was they worked great! I used the big light on the handlebars and my headlight turned high for descending. After the turn around at the bottom, I would just use my headlight on low. All to conserve battery.

Light system check 

The first part of the night went well and I felt good. I got into a rhythm, determined the line I wanted to ride on the road, and knocked off a bunch of good laps. Kristin had pizza and oatmeal at the top if I wanted some more food and I would alternate with whatever I felt like eating at the time. 

I started naming the pitches on the hill too. When you ride the same hill this many times, you have to keep your mind occupied. At the start there was Rock Wall Hill. It was a moderately steep slope that was about a medium length. Right after Rock Wall Hill came Deception. Deception was a false horizon. Near the end of Rock Wall Hill, in the distance it looked like a flat spot was coming. But it wasn’t flat. It was another hill. Deception. After Deception was a flat spot I could reach the blistering speed of 7km/hr, and that led in to Whistler Hill. It was a short steep pitch with a sign that said “Whistler” at the top of it. Then there was a tiny downhill, a small hill to go past a hostel, a bit of a flat spot, then the big one. Tram Hill. This was the combination of steep and fairly long. The good thing was it ended with my loving wife at the top… and pizza. It helped to break the hill up into pitches and treat them as a “one step at a time” sort of thing.

Crushing the pizza

One issue with riding below freezing is the moisture. As I climbed, I would sweat. As I descended, I would freeze. About 6-8 hours in I started to find my outer layer would freeze by the end of the descent into a coat of armour. I felt the resistance when moving my arms. The sweat was wicking away and freezing the outer layer. Kinda neat!

8:17 pm and a frozen coat but doing good!

The water would freeze when almost empty

About 1am I thought I should change layers so changed out my upper base layer, added a thin fleece, put my wet, synthetic puffy back on, then a fresh outer fleece. The fatigue was starting to hit. I had been riding in the dark for about 8 hours and about 13 hours total. I was getting tired and getting into my usually low point at this time in these kinds of events. I have experienced it before, so expected it and waited for it to pass like it always does. This extra time in the dark was a challenge though.

New warm clothes but feeling low

Since it was the middle of the night traffic basically stopped. During the “daytime” hours (it’s still actually dark for many of these hours), I stayed to the right side of the road in case a car came by. Now I had the freedom to go anywhere. I noted some good ice on the left side of the road so I picked that for quite a while. I had studded tires, so had good traction on the ice. Ice is hard so it provides lower rolling resistance and is a tiny bit easier to ride on. You’ve got to take all you can during these long rides.

If you remember, earlier I was taking about three big hurdles. So far, I have only mentioned two. 

Big hurdle three: About 3:40am I was spinning up Whistler Hill, heard what I thought was my chain skipping, then it felt like my chain came off. I got off my bike and to my horror, the chain was on but the freewheel was not catching. Busted. I called Kristin to come help. She had the tools in the SUV. 

Sometimes in the cold, the pawls in the free hub get stuck open so I wanted to see if that was the case. As I took off the cassette I saw that this hub was not going to be easy to take apart. I’m not that experienced in these and it had a bunch of lock rings I didn’t want to mess around with. Kristin suggested we call Chris Peel. He offered earlier we could call him anytime, even 3am. I doubt he expected it would actually happen. We talked on the phone and we tried squirting some dry lube into the hub in case they were just frozen. No go. He did some research online and found it was probably a blown hub. The wheel was done and there was no way to fix it.

Bob Farley's busted! 

The good thing was we had a solution to this big hurdle. We had Kristin’s bike! When I got the Trek, she inherited my seven-year-old Surly Moonlander. The steel beast. So, we marked our spot on the road and drove back to the hotel to set up her newly christened steed, “Fatniss Everdeen”. I moved over the pogies, various mounts, frame bag, and Garmin to Fatniss and we got back to Whistler Hill. One thing I skipped was the grips. Fatniss had some pretty pink grips that were not compatible with the pogies, so they had to come off. The grips on Bob Farley were fixed firmly in position and I didn’t want to fight with them, so I just didn’t put them on. I guess I would be gripping bare steel bar for the rest of the ride. About two hours later and we were back in business. 

Gripless bars (picture taken the next day)

Fatniss is about 10 pounds heavier and didn’t have the same climbing ratio as Bob Farley, but had some great pink accents to make up the difference. Kristin recently bought some studded Dillingers too, so it was a solid bike to finish this thing off. 14 laps to go! 

This pink rim tape really pops 

Back in action! 

Fatniss and I will tear this up!! 

After the drama of the bike change, it was back to crunching along the icy road in the dark. Some light snow started to fall and I started to feel the sleep monster. If you have never felt this feeling before, it’s an overpowering need to sleep. On bikepacking races whenever I felt this, I would stop and take a 5-10 minute nap to fight the monster off. The problem is, naps are not allowed in Everesting. It was tough. I was having trouble riding in a straight line and had to stop often to try to regain my focus. 

Fighting the sleep monster in the snow 

As I was in a state of delirium, a car approached from behind. He came to see how I was doing, and we chatted. That snapped me out of my delirium and I felt good again.

After a lap of delirium 

Daylight came and that was a big lift that helped keep the sleep monster at bay. I was, however, fondly remembering Bob Farley’s nice big climbing gear. Riding Fatniss was equivalent to one or two speeds higher… or lower… I can never remember which way that goes, but harder, whatever that is. Then I thought to myself, “Don’t be such a wimp! Don’t you usually ride a single speed mountain bike? Stop being a wuss and just grind the hills away like when you ride a single speed!” So that’s what I did. I changed my mentality from focusing on what I did not have to accepting what I did have. I decided to ride the pitches like a single speed. Grind hard on the steep parts, then cruise easy on the flatter parts. Don’t gear up. Use that time as recovery…just like I do when riding single speed. That change in the brain really helped. 

I feel better but it's still hard

So, I started grinding away laps. No longer spinning but grinding, and that’s okay. Every lap I was feeling the sleep monster creeping in on the edges of my eyes and I was doing all I could to fight off the drowsiness. Talking to myself helped. If you were by me at these times, I would sound like a raving lunatic. Talking full voice to myself, singing, playing word games, whatever to keep relatively alert. It was getting a bit warmer too. So far through the ride it floated around -6 to -8C. Now it was getting close to freezing…about -1C. It was nice that it was warmer, but that softened up the surface and gave a bit more rolling resistance. I was also having a hard time dealing with the amount of riding I had to do. Kristin would encourage me by telling me, “There’s only 10 more laps to go!” In my mind though, grinding though the soft snow I was thinking, “Oh man, I have 10 laps to go.” 

Challenging day in the sun 

The sun was beautiful, daylight was great, and it was still a challenge. It was hard, but it was also good! As morning led into afternoon, I had a few random surprise visitors. Word was getting out on social media and people would drive by and shout encouragement from their vehicles. That was just what I needed right now! Kristin was reading comments of people encouraging me on and that helped so much. I did my best to focus on just getting up the next pitch. I also started seeing how fast I could get down to the bottom. Fatniss handled great on the descents! I was picking lines and only braking when I needed to. I didn’t want to crash so I didn’t push it too far, but got some good speeds. Fun! 

Almost there...almost there... 

So, I came to five laps to go. I knew I would finish but was not looking forward to five more times up that hill. Lucky for me a couple of locals surprised me and rode with me the next three laps. It was nice traffic was basically nonexistent so we could spread out and keep our distance from each other while we rode. I don’t think they planned on riding with me that much, but sympathized with my state of mind. Laps 5, 4 and 3 to go went by fast! It was great! It started to get dark and they didn’t have lights so they took off to go home. Those guys saved my bacon big time! Such a good surprise! 

Only a couple laps to go! 

I put on my lights and cranked out the last two laps. I was going pretty slow during these daytime laps and was preparing to ride more in the dark, but riding with those guys the previous three laps kept my pace up, so I only had a bit of dark to ride in. 

Last one!! 

The final descent of Fatniss

I blasted down my last hill and did the final turn around at the bottom and was elated! Only one more time! I started naming off the pitches as I finished them. No more Rock Wall Hill. No more Deception. No more Whistler Hill. No more Tram Hill. I crested the final hill and heard cheering from my wife and a couple of socially distanced locals. I crossed off the final box on the poster and was so happy I was done climbing! 

Please take the picture, this thing weighs 40 pounds!

The Winter Everest was complete! At the time of writing this we raised $3345 for the St. Albert Food Bank! Way past my $2000 goal! Thanks to everyone who donated and thanks for all the positive messages and encouragement along the way! These kinds of events are a mental game and that’s what got me though! So much gratitude to you all!

Some notes on gear:

Bob Farley is a carbon Trek Farley 9.6 with 4.5” studded 27.5” Gnarwhal tubeless tires.

Fatniss Everdeen is a steel Surly Moonlander with 4.6” studded 26” 45NRTH Dillinger tires with tubes.

My boots are simple WindRiver brand that I got on sale years ago at Mark’s Work Warehouse. Nothing special, but they had boot liners and lots of room inside for big socks. I had a thin liner sock, then plastic grocery bags, then medium weight wool socks. My feet started to get cold, so after a few laps I put on some chemical toe warmers, then I put a fresh pair of toe warmers on later in the ride. The plastic bags worked well in preventing the wool socks and boot liners from getting wet.

On my hands I had 45NRTH Cobrafist pogies. They were great! I was able to wear some lightweight gloves so I had enough dexterity to easily feed myself and do other things. I stored food in the pogies too which kept the food from freezing. I put on vinyl gloves as a vapour barrier so my thin gloves did not get wet. That worked too. My hands were warm basically the whole time. At the end of a fast descent they would get a bit cold, but warmed up quick when I started climbing again. One thing I must note about the vinyl gloves: when I took them off at the end of the ride, my hands had a slimy texture and emitted the most horrific smell my body ever produced! It’s a warning to those who try this. It worked well to stay warm but prepare to wash your hands several times to rid yourself of that pungent entity that will linger on your hands for hours.

I changed upper layers once during the ride. I had one long sleeve base layer, a thin fleece (for the second change only), a North Face Thermoball puffy, then a Fleece outer layer. I had a buff and a thin toque (this is what Canadians call a warm beanie hat).

On my lower body I had some Nike Pro synthetic shorts, a thin base layer, then a pair of Columbia shell pants. I felt good “down there” the whole ride. There was no chafing or pain in the saddle, but with the lack of breathability some time was required to air things out. Whew!

I had a frame bag with some basic tools like pump and extra tube. I put a couple of hand warmers in there (just in case) and put my big light battery in there too.

I had two Revelate Feedbags. One held some extra batteries and a power bank for my Garmin. The power bank kept my Garmin at 97% to 100% the whole ride. The other was for my water bottle. I learned from a friend I ride with (thanks Josh!) that if you put your bottle in spout down it would keep it from freezing for a longer time.

I had a Fenix LD22 flashlight strapped to my helmet. This thing is awesome! I have used it for all of my bikepacking races, including Tour Divide and AZT750, and use it consistently for commuting. Bombproof! I had it on a lower power when climbing and put it one notch brighter when descending. On my handlebars I had a big Serfas light. I think it is 1000 lumens at it’s brightest. I was having issues with it stopping without warning during testing but it worked well during this ride. I only used it when descending. It’s getting pretty old so maybe a big light is my next present to myself.

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Winter Everesting: Support Crew Edition 

by Kristin Anderson

This Winter Everesting was nuts, but Dean got it done in 31 hours. The route we scouted out in the summer, Pyramid Fire Road, was unrideable from a winter storm that dumped 6-8" of snow the night before we arrived. We tried riding the 7 km segment as soon as we got there, a day before his scheduled start, but it was mostly hike-a-bike. He plowed through the fresh snow through a combination of riding and mostly walking, while I ran over his bike tracks trying to pack the trail down. The snow was still too deep with no traction. We turned around at the 2.5 km mark and discussed alternatives. He mentioned Jasper SkyTram Road, which I really liked because with SkyTram closed for winter, traffic would be minimal. I suggested we head right over there so he could test it out. The road hadn't been plowed yet, but the test ride was successful. He could still start as planned the next day.

Hike-a-bike

Pyramid Mountain

My cozy hotel basecamp at Pyramid Lake Resort was no longer in play. It was a 20-minute drive away from SkyTram. Logistic considerations for the new basecamp in our vehicle were access to washrooms, the ability to boil water, and recharging electronics. None of this was available nearby. I booked a room at Mount Robson Inn, which was a 9-minute drive away. I could get there and back before Dean completed a lap. On the morning of the big day, we stopped in town to get a water jug and a sleeping bag rated -12C so I could stay warm in the vehicle. Then we headed to the SkyTram parking lot.

There was a worker plowing the parking lot and a couple of other workers going back and forth from the SkyTram building to their vehicles. Dean got his bike set up then descended down the mountain. The rest of the event was pretty routine. I’d record lap start and stop times on my clipboard, calculate the next arrival time and double check elevation gain totals to make sure he was on track. I’d premix electrolyte drinks and coffee, then post his progress on social media. Then I would cover up with the sleeping bag and try to get a few minutes of sleep. About 5 to 10 minutes before his arrival, I’d run the vehicle not only to warm myself up, but also to “warm” the pizza up on the other seat warmer. It was more room temperature than warm, but at least it wasn’t cold. I’d cover up the food and water with blankets to keep them from freezing, and then Dean would arrive. I’d take pictures of him and his bike computer, have him mark the progress poster, and then run to get whatever food or tools he needed. Then he’d take off and the whole thing went on repeat for the next 35 laps.

Seat warmer pizza

I was surprised at how quickly he returned from the 1^st lap – 34 minutes to be exact. He didn’t want any food or drink for the first few laps, so he just turned around and continued. A couple of the workers were getting into a vehicle when the plowing guy came by and told them to watch out for the cyclist on the road. One of the guys joked about what he would get if he “got him” meaning Dean. The plow guy looked away and didn’t reply knowing that I was in my vehicle and could hear them. The guy repeated his joke again to no response, so he got in his vehicle and drove away. Upon their return, I stared at him as he walked back to the SkyTram building.

I was also surprised at the traffic coming by because there was nothing up there. A truck crested into the parking lot, immediately turned around and left. When Dean arrived from that lap, he asked, “Did you see Loni?” I said I saw a truck turn around and he said, “Yeah, that was her. She drove by and said hi and took pictures.” That was awesome! Loni was a big advocate for Dean with the Parks Canada trail groomers for Pyramid Fire Road and it was nice that they got to meet in passing. A few more trucks would come and go just circling the parking lot then leaving. One flashy blue truck came by fishtailing and revving. The guy probably would have pulled donuts if the lot was empty. I made eye contact with that guy too, dreading the fact that he was going to be driving past Dean.

The last of the workers was leaving during one of Dean’s stops. It was the same guy joking earlier. He wished Dean well and took off. The mountain was mostly vacant after that. Around 11 PM I saw lights coming up the hill, so I hopped out of the vehicle running with my phone and the poster, but it wasn’t him. It was a vehicle full of passengers. I ran back to my vehicle and locked the door. I wondered what they were doing there this time of night. The locals all seemed to have the same answer, “It’s probably people smoking weed.” Ugh. High people about to drive by Dean. I took comfort in knowing that he could hear cars coming from a good distance away, could see their lights from even further, and that he would just get off the road completely if necessary. After they left, I had the lot to myself for the night.

My only issue staying in the vehicle was that my feet would get cold. They say diamonds are a girl's best friend, but chemical toe warmers are mine. I recently got big, warm boots for fat biking with extra room for toe warmers if needed. I ended up using more of them than Dean did – 3 packs for me and 2 for him. He changed into some dry layers before starting the second half of his ride. It was startling how wet his clothes were. He had a really good puffer jacket that retains heat in wet conditions. If we ever did this again, I would make sure he had another one to change into. I was too keyed up to sleep. I needed to know how well his new layers worked out with that wet puffer coat. On his return he said he was almost too warm. I was satisfied. After he left, I celebrated that he was warm by getting out some gluten-free tuxedo cake. I laughed to myself. I was eating cake alone in the dark and it wasn’t sad.

Celebratory Night Cake

I charged his phone during laps 20 and 21, and even though it wasn’t fully charged, I insisted he take it for the next one. He put it in his pocket and took off for lap 22. At 3:40 AM, he called and asked me to drive over because he had a mechanical issue. I found him trying to take the cassette off his back wheel. He realized he wasn’t familiar with how to repair this particular model of hub, so I suggested we call Chris Peel. We met Chris at the end of Dean’s 2019 Everesting at Signal Mountain. Days before this winter attempt, Chris, a former bike shop owner, gave us his contact info and insisted that if we needed anything, even if it was 3 in the morning, to give him a call. It was nearly 4 AM and without hesitation he helped us. He told us the freewheel was toast and that if we had a backup bike, we should get it.

Freewheel is toast

We packed up Dean’s broken bike and went back to our first hotel to pick up mine. The night manager rapid fired question after question about my girly Surly bike aka Fatniss Everdeen, as he got it out of storage. Dean transferred his cycling gear onto Fatniss while I boiled water in our room and filled up the thermoses (thermosi?). Then we headed back to SkyTram.

I dropped him off at the point where his bike broke down and he was rolling again at 5:51 AM. I watched to make sure he took off okay, then rolled down the window and shouted, “Woo hoo!” as I passed. 

Dean and Fatniss Everdeen get going

Dean arrived at the top with Fatniss and said it worked well. The lap after that, he seemed a bit more demoralized. My bike doesn’t have the big climbing gears that his Farley does, and he found the climbing harder. He was spinning up the climbs with his bike, but with mine, he had to grind and there were 13 laps to go.

Upon his next arrival, he had come to terms with those big climbing gears being gone. Dean is a singlespeeder, so he decided that he was going to shift back into the singlespeeder mindset where he’s stuck with the gears he’s got, and he’s just going to keep grinding like he would as if he were on a singlespeed. A local drove by cheering for Dean and seeing how he was doing on the new bike. It seemed like a welcome distraction from the grind.

We thought that when the sun came up, he’d feel much better as he always does, but he still had difficulty shaking the sleepiness and the low. I suspected that the extra demands on his body from the cold had taken their toll. We put out a call for encouraging messages in the official Everesting group and the messages came flooding in. I read him messages from his Dean on Wheels Facebook page and updated him on new donations as he ate and drank, and little by little, the low began to lift.

Climbing like a goat

A friendly couple in a car came by and pulled up a few spots away. We rolled our windows down and I asked what brought them by. They said they’d been following Dean’s Everesting on Facebook and wanted to cheer him on before they went skiing. I was so moved by their gesture, fought back tears of gratitude, and tried to keep my voice steady as I replied, “He’s been struggling these last few laps and your cheering is exactly what he needs. Thank you guys so much!” We chatted and then cheered when Dean arrived. He was all smiles and thankful for them cheering him on. They took his picture, wished him well and took off. They really were just what the doctor ordered.

As the laps began to dwindle down, I made more of an effort to sleep. I’d set my alarms for 10 minutes before his expected arrival. Around 3:17 PM I was startled upon waking up to see him cresting into the parking lot. He was 8 minutes early and he wasn’t alone. Someone was coming up the hill with him and taking pictures. What? Confused, I greeted Dean with my usual hello and asked the guy where he came from. He rode up with Dean. Cool. Then he started taking pictures of the both of us. I could barely think. I was so self conscious. I was disheveled in my dirty but warm puffy cycling coat over my long winter coat. I was fixated on the fact that I had recently eaten chocolate cake while I was smiling for the camera. I remembered to take a picture of Dean’s bike computer, but I forgot to take a picture of Dean.

The good thing was that the presence of another cyclist helped Dean pick up the pace. He started off the Everesting with 34 minute laps and by the time he reached 30 laps, he came in at around 45-48 minutes. I was surprised and scrambling when he clocked in at 40 minutes with the other cyclist. Another good thing was that he was going to join Dean for another lap, which meant it would be another fast one. They arrived at the top with yet another cyclist who was out for a training ride. This guy was hardcore! He was riding a bike with skinny, studless tires on the ice. Wow! That lap took 38 minutes.

Another vehicle drove by and they wished Dean well. It was touching that people took time out of their day to support him. It was starting to get dark and the other cyclists didn’t have lights, so they headed home. Safety first! Dean rode the last two laps on his own, but pushed hard and kept up the pace coming in at 38 minutes for both.

Done... or is he?

A couple of socially distanced locals cheered with me as Dean rode in from the final climb. Smiles, congratulations, and thanks went around in addition to disbelief that Dean was going to ride down the mountain to continue his Strava riding streak of 404 days in a row. Even though Dean’s Everesting took place over two days, Strava only counts it as one daily event, so Dean needed to get a 15 minute ride in to continue his daily streak. I picked him up on Highway 93A. We went back to the hotel and celebrated over mediocre burgers and poutine.