In the vein of the highest speed personal records, I thought I’d start a thread for most unicycle climbing (vert. feet, or meters, if you’d prefer) in one day.
The heavy hitters are AspenMike (obviously), a lot of the uni-tour folks, several crazy Brits (Steve Colligan comes to mind) and Kiwis, and well, let’s see who put in their ascent totals…
I’ve done some really big hill climb races (Whiteface was my biggest), and I don’t think I’ve ever had a bigger total day than those. Include relevant info for extra gnarliness (off-road, high altitude, etc). My relevant info - it’s a continuous 8-mile uphill, done it a few times since 2005, and twice without dismounting.
Steve Relles - 3522’ vertical ascent - Adirondacks, NY, USA, - 2005/06
Cool thread idea. I was surprised when I checked my records…I was sure that my biggest stat would have been the day during Uninam tour that included Hai Van Pass, but at 4361 vf that came in second. Biggest for me was Day 1 of last year’s Bike MS ride. No big continuous like Whiteface, just up and down all day long for 63 miles, punctuated by a few big (300-500 vf) climbs. Cleaned them all which was cool, but my son Miles did too, which was cooler.
Steve Relles - 3522’ vertical ascent - Adirondacks, NY, USA, - 2005/06
Tom Blackwood - 6083’ vertical ascent - Fidalgo Island, WA, USA - Sept. 13, 2008
Probably the biggest I’ve done is an RTL training ride, where we rode from my house out to Mount Diablo, which is one of our big local hill climbs. According to mapmyride, it’s 52 miles and 4754 feet of climbing (83.8 km, 1449 m).
I read an article of AspenMike’s climb of that Hawaii mountain a while ago. If I remember correctly, they said he had been keeping track of his miles and vf over the years.
W/ Mike living & riding in the Rockies, I bet he would have the lifetime vf record
Steve Relles - 3522’ (1073m) vertical ascent - Adirondacks, NY, USA, - 2005/06
Tom Blackwood - 6083’ (1854m) vertical ascent - Fidalgo Island, WA, USA - Sept. 13, 2008
Tom Holub - 4754’ (1449m) ascent - Mount Diablo -
Joe Marshall - 6069’ (1849m) ascent (muni obviously!) - Derbyshire, UK - 30/05/2009
Now with added international standard units.
I think that ride last week was more than my RTL qualifying ride, but not sure. I may have done more in Scotland a few years back, but I don’t have a gps record of the route, so I’m not sure. I have to admit though, being muni, I pushed some of it. Longest 100% ridden is probably just over 1000m, in New Zealand.
I think I have done more descent though - we had a 3000m+ descent day in the Alps or something ridiculous like that (which still had a ridiculous amount of ascent too).
Blimey, what a loon. Pretty impressive endurance, that.
I had a phase of being into clocking up big climbs and seeking out silly hills - before I got into unicycling though, so not valid (although probably the biggest one was on a tandem, so only one wheel each!)
Hey Steveyo,
Whiteface looks like fun. If you ever want to do it again I’d really like to be part of it. I’ll totally make the trip from Texas to be there.
Steve Relles - 3522’ (1073m) vertical ascent - Adirondacks, NY, USA, - 2005/06
Tom Blackwood - 6083’ (1854m) vertical ascent - Fidalgo Island, WA, USA - Sept. 13, 2008
Corbin Dunn - 4755’ (1449m) ascent - Mount Diablo -
Tom Holub - 4754’ (1449m) ascent - Mount Diablo -
Joe Marshall - 6069’ (1849m) ascent (muni obviously!) - Derbyshire, UK - 30/05/2009
Steve Colligan - 6233’ (1900m) ascent - Ride across Tibet, Oct 2008
Funny thing was, the 1900m (6233’) ascent wasn’t the hard bit - it was the fact that it was at 5150m (16900ft), so breathing was a problem - also the ferocious head winds, the sub-zero temperatures for the whole of the 13.5 hour day and the fact that it was all off-road!!! I couldn’t stop there though, as I had to descend 2740m (8989’) under the same conditions… The hardest day of my life…, so far!
The Belgian unicyclist Lode de Paepe climbed Mt Ventoux four times in a single day on 16 May 2007. The second ascent was on an unpaved trail, of which he walked 4 - 5 km because of the trail condition. On the last ascent he got into a thunderstorm, he climbed the last 1500 meters (along-road meters, not sure how much vertical that was) on foot, with the unicycle in hand, because of gusty winds estimated to go up to 100 km/h. Total ascent was 6000 m, including two stretches on foot (which together were maybe 500 - 600 vertical meters). He did all the descents by car. His website with more details (in Dutch) is here: http://www.lopa.be/index/4xMV/2007-05-16_4xMV.html
Steve Relles - 3522’ (1073m) vertical ascent - Adirondacks, NY, USA, - 2005/06
Tom Blackwood - 6083’ (1854m) vertical ascent - Fidalgo Island, WA, USA - Sept. 13, 2008
Corbin Dunn - 4755’ (1449m) ascent - Mount Diablo -
Tom Holub - 4754’ (1449m) ascent - Mount Diablo -
Joe Marshall - 6069’ (1849m) ascent (muni obviously!) - Derbyshire, UK - 30/05/2009
Steve Colligan - 6233’ (1900m) ascent - Ride across Tibet, Oct 2008
Lode de Paepe - 6000 m ascent - four times Mt. Ventoux, 16-May-2007
I climbed Lake Mountain the other week, clocked up about 1000 vertical metres of ascent. If you click on the Show button (top left) and select elevation it shows the profile of the climb.
A pretty steady climb, it was easier than many of the other big climbs I have done. The gradient has a lot to do with the difficulty rather than the sheer number of vertical metres. I don’t have to worry about altitude, this is Australia:)
I rode back down to the start after reaching the top.
Well Eric (from the RTL Mojo team) is doing it this year. Max is rumored to be wanting another shot at it, too. I had the record until Roland beat me by 24 seconds.
I may do it next year, but RTL fell on our anniversary last year, and Whiteface is on our anniversary this year. I can’t miss it two years in a row, so I’m not in for Whiteface. They have another race there in September, which is spectacular because it’s right in the brightest autumn foliage time. Maybe we’'ll think about that one, eh?
Of course, Mt Washington is the Big Kahuna in the NE US (7.6 miles, 4700’ vert.), but they charge $350 to enter! I never hacked up the cash for that race, but Eric’s signed up for that one, too. AspenMike holds the uni record there.
@Steve Colligan: I read the whole UNI mag writeup. Dude, you are one sick mother.
