Great idea, Chuck!
@Elise: hey, how you doing? ;-p
@Chuck/haskinsc:
I indeed climbed to l’Alpe d’Huez 3 times on a unicycle:
- In 2009, with a 29" unicycle (read this post if needed)
- In 2010, with a 26" geared unicycle (high gear does help for the return trip!)
- In 2013, with a 29" unicycle (picture #1, picture #2)
It is not a that hard climb for sure - yet, I still have to make it without stopping, or by stopping less often (I typically stop… 5 times)!
But if you are trained and you choose the right crank length, you might well do it without stopping!
The beginning of the climb is in fact kind of “killing you” (up until the location called “La Garde”), so you would better start the climb with some miles in your legs already, otherwise it might just compromise the success of your attempt.
Talking about the ideal length of the crank - well, as usual, it is kind of difficult to speak for others, but I would suggest you use 150mm cranks: that’s at least what I used myself for the 3 climbs, and it looks quite ideal to me.
Other than that: the road is quite exposed to the sun, so you should better avoid the hottest hours of the day, and do the climb either early in the morning, or late in the afternoon.
Good idea to try to do some Muni in the area: there are plenty of tracks everywhere (even though I don’t know very well the area)!
At least, I once participated to the Megavalanche event (in the 90’s, on a… hem… mountain-bike), which could be an inspiration for a similar thing on a unicycle. It is very unlikely though that you could start from the very top (Pic Blanc, 3300m), as I believe it is restricted to the Megavalanche participants??? But in the worst case, you could start from the altitude of l’Alpe d’Huez, and you would still have a lot of kilometers of Downhill Muni to go!
If I were you, I would select a slick tire for the road climb, and a regular Muni tire for the Muni: trying to do a trade-off at that level, with only 1 “average” tire, might not be a good idea! If needed, you could buy the tire you are missing from a LBS in e.g. Grenoble, if that’s more convenient for you.
Note that I’m based in Grenoble myself, and would be very happy to join you next year for the climb! Please keep me posted on your plans, as they will get more real over time… and, of course, I wish you to recover as fast as possible from your injury!
Cheers, MadC.