I'll have a bunch of posts this week about 2026 as well as what I'm focusing on in Nov/Dec to get ready. In the interim, here are monthly volume charts that summarize my training so far in 2025:
Sunday, November 2, 2025
Tuesday, September 30, 2025
Starting to think about 2026
So now that 2025's two main goals (29029/Everesting and Hadrian's Wall) are in the rear-view, it's now time to think about the future!
First off, you'll note I removed goals 3 and 4 from above. One of those goals was to defend my DE Sprint Triathlon State Championship. Unfortunately I had to let that go as the event was the same day as the second day of my 29029 event (8/2). I also dropped the cumulative events entered goal as my schedule became very complicated with a new grandson, work, and the requirements of training for my top two goals.
Since, the 29029 event in early August I've been basically working out and maintaining. I did a little bit of swimming but decided that 2025 would ultimately be an off-year for my swimming. I'm currently beginning to jump back into the water and I want to carefully and modestly ramp over the course of the rest of 2025. I want to avoid the shoulder set-back I suffered in the fall of 2024 and spring of 2025. If I can do so, I've tentatively set a goal of competing in 3 or long-course swim events in 2026.
I'm continuing to just maintain my bike base level fitness and I am generally doing around 200 miles/week on my indoor trainer. My plan is to begin a Zwift-centric build beginning in December 2025.
I've had a bit of a set-back with my right (not replaced) knee. However, the X-rays look good and seems to be just an overuse/soft-tissue inflammation issue. My ortho gave me some high powered anti-inflammatory meds and that combined with red-light therapy seems to have calmed things down. I took a week off of any walking and just started yesterday again with an easy 1-mile walk. I plan to guild back up from here to around 30 miles/week and am thinking about a week-long hike next year (similar to Hadrian's Wall) as well as perhaps another 29029.
I'm now back in the gym and plan to spend the rest of the fall rebuilding my strength and flexibility--which both need a lot of work.
Onwards and upwards!
Friday, September 5, 2025
2025 Snow Basin 29029 Detailed Report
2025 Snow Basin 29029
29029 Background
“29029” is a relatively new ultra-endurance event that was created by Jesse Itzler and some of his colleagues. 29029 refers to the altitude, in feet, above sea level of Mount Everest (although, I think the “official” altitude is now thought to be 29,035 feet. There is some debate about this, and Everest’s height is slowly increasing (2mm/year) due to tectonic forces and the amount of snow on the summit varies at any point in time. Even with this debate on its exact height, everyone seems to agree that Everest is pretty high!). The challenge in this event is to walk up a mountain/hill enough times to cumulatively achieve 29,029 vertical feet or more. This is also known as “Everesting”.
Having said that, the community (and I choose that word on purpose) that gathers for one of these is very much encouraged to “seek your own Everest” and many people do in-fact come with that exact intent—trying to climb 1 or 4 or 8 climbs. In most cases, their stories are more compelling!
The 29029 Everesting event that Itzler and partners created was first held in 2017 at Stratton Mountain. It is currently held at six separate ski resorts/mountains in North America: Sun Valley, Jackson Hole, Snow Basin, Whistler, Mount Tremblant, and Stratton. At each location, the 29029 team rents out part of the facilities including a gondola and each event involves hiking/climbing up the mountain trail, taking the gondola down and repeating enough times to exceed the 29029 cumulative vertical feet. Here is a table summarizing the six 29029 events:
This is a report on my eldest son, Anders, and my participation in the 2025 edition at Snow Basin on August 1st and 2nd. This would turn out to be the 29th 29029 event in the group’s history. A whole of lot 29s for sure. The Snow Basin event involves hiking straight up the mountain leaving from the Base area and generally following under or relatively close to the gondola, above you. It’s not a completely straight shot of course with many twists and turns as you wind up the natural contours of the mountain. It is almost all up-climbing with less than 5 feet of down-climbing in total per lap.
The official statistics of each climb are 2.3 miles/climb with 2,310 of vertical feet/climb. Given that, it takes 13 such ascents to accumulate enough vertical to officially Everest at Snow Basin. Running the math, this totals to 30,030 feet of vertical (about 3.4% more than 29,029) that one covers over 29.9 miles of hiking. Your results will of course vary, or at least as reported by your Garmin! The base altitude of each climb was 6,391 feet and the summit topped out at 8,701 feet. Also, the average slope is about 19% with a peak slope of 48.2%. Everyone starts at 6am on a Friday and you have until 6pm on Saturday, a total of 36 hours, to complete your climbs.
My pace on a typical non-mountain terrain (like my neighborhood in Delaware) is about 3 1/3rd mph. So, walking the 30 miles of this event would generally take about 9-hours. For example, 6-7 years ago, I did the Great Saunter, a 32-mile walk around Manhattan in just under 10 hours. I estimated each transition between climbs would take about 30 minutes—6 hours in total. Generally, I’ve found that when I hike, that 1,000 vertical feet in mountain terrain adds about 30 minutes for each 1,000 feet gained. This implies another 15 hours, which brings me to an estimate of 30 (9+6+15) hours or so to do this event. Here is the elevation profile from one of our ascents:
AC/RC Background
So, first off, I want to apologize if any of this comes across as “back-door bragging”. I do provide a bit of detail on the two of us and the things that we have done in the endurance world as well as some data on our training. The primary intent of this recounting is to give a more detailed, data-enabled, review of our experience at this event. For those that just want to see summary data and general observations, just skip down towards the bottom. The next, extended section, of text and pictures is a more detailed description of what this event felt like as we attempted to do it.
I had the pleasure of participating in this event with my 39 YO son Anders. My name is Randy, but I go by “RC” and I am 68 years old. I’ve long had an endurance background. I ran a 4:34 mile as a schoolboy in Michigan and did my first marathon as a 23 YO during the height of the running boom. I did many, many 10ks, half-marathons and marathons in my 20s eventually running a 2:48 marathon and a 35-minute 10k.
Life intervened and I met my wife (now of 41 years) and we lived the American dream of raising 4 great kids--2 sons and 2 daughters. Anders was our first. As I entered my early 40s and our kids were well on their way to adulthood, I begin to jump back into the endurance world, mostly via triathlons. Sprint Triathlons were my gateway drug, and it wasn’t long before I had moved up to the Ironman distance, fulfilling a bucket list item that had been there since I saw Julie Moss do her thing at Ironman in 1982. I now have completed about 180 Triathlons, including 15 Ironman races.
After my first IM in Florida in 2004, Anders, then a freshman at George Washington, expressed interest in having a go himself. We subsequently embarked on a mostly shared journey as he climbed the same triathlon distance ladder, and we did the 2005 IM Western Australia together. In total, through the years, we have done in excess of 40 triathlons together.
In 2009, we decided to branch out and climbed our first “real” mountain, Mount Rainier. This turned out to be another gateway drug, and soon enough Anders was onto his “Seven Summits Project”, which he completed, with our whole family of 6 on the climb together, on Mount Kosciuszko in Australia on Christmas Day in 2017. We’ve climbed many mountains together through the years and along the way, we made side trips into other Endurance events such as Anders doing the North Face 50-mile run and I doing RAAM as part of a relay-team.
In late 2022, after many years of slow deterioration (and literally over 100 Synvisc and similar injections), I had a total knee replacement of my left knee. I slowly worked my way back into long-course swim races, sprint Tris, 5ks and lots of hiking but as 2024 rolled around I was once again on the lookout for what I call a “BAG” (Big Ass Goal).
My wife, being a Jessie Itzler fan, told me about 29029 (which I warmed to immediately) and I tried to sign-up in November when the registration opened, but I guess I was off my game as registration was closed by the time I got around to it—and it was early that morning! I put my name on all the waiting lists and in early February (on our way down to New Orleans to watch our beloved Eagles in the Super Bowl) we learned that two spots had opened up for us at Snow Basin. It was on!
In the late Spring, Anders tore his shoulder labrum playing hockey (he had surgery 10-days after the 29029 event) and about 10-days before the event I came down with Shingles. After consulting with our respective doctors, we were both given the go ahead to give Snow Basin a shot and as such we found our respective ways to Utah the day before the event (July 31st, 2025). Before jumping into what happened, I’ll briefly summarize my training leading up to it.
RC Training Background
Before we learned in early February that Snow Basin was on the menu, my wife and I and another couple had signed up to hike across England in early May along a route known as the Hadrian’s Wall Path. We had a fantastic time covering the 93 miles over 7 great days. In training for that hike, I had already begun stacking longer hikes/treks prior to learning about Snow Basin 29029 and so the training for the Hadrian Wall trek was also excellent for my 29029.
I also made 5 trips down to Shenandoah National Park, which is about 4 hours south of where I live in Delaware. Each of these trips focused on something I called a VAST (vertical ascent speed test) where I went pretty hard up a 1,210 foot/15-degree slope that is part of the Appalachian Trail. I did that 4 or 5 times on each trip (of course I had to down-climb as well) and 22 of those climbs in total. On my first attempt I averaged about 1,350 vertical ft/hour and as my fitness progressed, I eventually was able to climb above 1,900 vertical feet/hour. On each 3-day trip I’d also do a couple more hikes of 5-7 hours with a bunch of vertical as well.
However, the last of these trips was in early June, as we spend a lot of time in the summer at the Jersey Shore, where my 29029-training evolved into up to 8-hour hikes (with about 100 feet of vertical) and periodic Stairmaster and 15-degree treadmill sessions. I also did a LOT of cross training, typically 200+ mile biking weeks, 5-10k of open water swim yards, and 3-5 hours in the gym working on strength, flexibility and balance.
Below are the hours training I did by month. Now, I recognize this is an atypical and unusually large amount of training for anyone, especially for an old dinosaur like me, but in reality, endurance training after all these years is fully baked into my lifestyle, so in a way, this was business as usual:
Month | Hours Training |
January | 129.2 |
February | 113.6 |
March | 142.6 |
April | 132.1 |
May | 120.4 |
June | 112.0 |
July | 101.0 |
My volume in July was impacted by my pre-Event taper and some forced recovery time in the week prior to the event due to my Shingles. My peak trekking/hiking week was 72 miles, which occurred during the first part of my Hadrian Wall trek (also, I had a 7-day stretch, across two calendar weeks of 93 miles on that trek).
As an aside, Anders’ longest workout was “only” 4.5-hours (22-mile run with 5,000+ feet of vertical) as he has a very demanding job and had to fit in 1-hour Stairmaster/15-degree treadmill sessions here and there. Probably, if you averaged his and my workout hours together, you’d get something approaching a typical training load for one of these events!
My “Equipment”
Pretty minimal. I hiked in HOKA Speed Goat 6 GTX-mids. A nice, light trail shoe with a small built-in gator to keep stones and such out. I had two pairs of thin technical socks (from one of my triathlons) that I changed out after 6 laps. I applied Vaseline to my feet and between my toes. I had a two pairs of technical gym shorts and two 50 spf hoodies (one made by Kuhl and one by Smartwool), which I also changed, with the shorts after lap 6. Mostly, I just used the hood of my shirts to cover my head, but I also hiked a bit with a baseball cap and a thin wool hat (at night). I had sunglasses, a headlamp and trekking poles, as well as a small fanny pack with my phone and a couple of smaller items. There are 5 aid stations for each hike—one at the bottom and the top and three along the way, so one really doesn’t need to carry much weight at all. Also, lots of porta-potties and real nice bathrooms at the Base make the logistics of this event a breeze!
OK, enough on this background stuff. Below is how the event unfolded for us!
Ascent 1: 1 hour 27 minutes/0:19 Transition (2,310 cumulative vertical/2.3 miles cumulative distance)
We all gathered at the Base of the Mountain and after some inspiring words from the 29029 folks (as an aside, the 29029 TEAM does a superb job of hosting and running these things, including providing you with a lot of inspiration, at all hours of the Event!) we were off promptly at 6am on 8/1/25. It was a pleasant morning with temps near 60 degrees and a light breeze.
My doctor approved game plan was to take it one lap at a time and then to honestly assess if my body was up for another lap or if the Shingles thing had weakened me enough that I should pull the plug. Anders, also had to monitor the soreness in his shoulder given the need to use trekking poles.
The first hike seemed very reasonable. We tried to keep it relatively slow and indeed many folks were quite a bit faster than us. Still, this first lap actually ended up being our fastest at 1 hour and 27 minutes. I clocked it at 2.27-miles with 2,300 feet of vertical. (A note here: I stopped my Garmin where the Red Carpet (for the last lap) started and there was still a couple hundred feet to walk with about 10-20 feet more elevation to get to where you boarded the gondola, so in practice, you end up walking more than 30 miles (especially if you decide to go to the tents for a nap) and more than 30,000 vertical feet here at Snow Basin 29029.)
There were a couple of challenging sections for sure—the hardest maybe being the first 500-800 feet of vertical, which approaches a 30-degree slope over extended distances. There is also a climb coming out of the last aid station that we dubbed the “6-minute hill” that while short, is very steep—this is where the 48-degree slope can be found. My average HR for the first climb was 138bpm—towards the upper end of my Z2/aerobic zone. This was definitely higher than I expected and wanted. In retrospect, my HR was elevated a bit throughout the event which may have been related to residual fatigue from my bout with Shingles.
All that said, we both felt great and readily agreed we were go for Lap 2! Here are some pics from the start, during the first climb, as well as the two of us at the top of Lap 1:
After ascending and sampling the various treats at the top, we soon hopped on the gondola for about a 12-minute ride down. At the bottom, you attend to several tasks including “branding” the 29029 symbol on the Ascent Board to mark your progress and maybe adjust your equipment choices or take a restroom break. Our total transition time from when we stopped our clocks at the top of lap 1 and when we started lap 2 was 19 minutes (we started lap 2 at 7:46am. Note, all of the climb stats are detailed below, near the end, in a spreadsheet).
Ascent 2—1 hour 29 minutes/0:20 and Ascent 3—1 hour 38 minutes/0:22 (6,930 ft vertical/6.9 miles)
The next two ascents were pretty similar as we continued to steadily move upward at what seemed like a very doable/sustainable pace. We finished the 3rd lap around 11:13am and by then it was quite warm. Well, it was hot and getting hotter. There is very little shade on the course and the bright sun in the thin air was blasting down. My guess is the temp got up into the low 80s, but it sure felt much more like a 90+ degree day. Towards the top there was a bit of a breeze that helped but make no doubt, body thermal-regulation was critical here.
We were struggling with what to do about my HR. Later we learned than without my reading glasses (and a relatively new Garmin) I was quoting my MAX HR for each lap and not my average HR. So, I reported my first 3 laps to Anders as: 155, 155, 153 bpm. This was quite alarming to both of us as that is clearly Z4/threshold for me and absolutely not sustainable over this distance.
However, it didn’t map to how I actually felt, and I kept telling Anders that it didn’t feel like a threshold effort at all (my actual average HR for the first 3 laps were: 138, 141, 136, which isn’t as low as I would like but much more reasonable). It’s laughable that someone with my experience would make such a basic mistake, but there you go. We struggled to interpret it and thought it might be some type of a post-Shingles thing, but we ultimately decided to trust how it felt as opposed to what we thought my Garmin was saying. I felt very strong at this point.
The good news about this mistake is that we decided to get a bit more conservative and consciously dialed back our pace during Lap 3. Also, I began pouring 6-8 16-ounce bottles of ice-water on my head each lap to keep my core temperature down (and by extension my HR). Anders graciously carried a couple of bottles out of each aid station for me to use in that regard.
Another thing that happened is I sub-consciously fell into a habit of mostly following behind Anders and he essentially assumed the role of my lead guide on this trek. I have followed Anders up many a mountain through the years and we seemed to naturally fall into this pattern. Of course, I led on a few pitches as well and when things shallowed out a bit, especially over the last third of each climb, we tended to walk side by side.
Our second “transition” took 20 minutes, and the 3rd took 22 minutes (including the gondola) and we started Lap 4 at 11:35am.
Ascent 4: 1 hour 40 minutes/0:51 (9,240 ft vertical/9.2 miles)
We departed the Base for Ascent 4 at 11:35am and it was now very hot. We continued to throttle back a bit. I was becoming more deliberate in my climbing as I was getting locked in on my rest-stepping when the pitch went up.
Anders continued to help me with my many bottles of ice water on the head routine and ultimately Lap 4 was very similar to Lap 3. We were about 2 minutes slower, and my average HR was 135 vs 136 in Lap 3. My Max HR was 150, which was the number I thought was my average, and while still concerning, at least it was heading in the right direction.
I’d also make the observation that by the 4th lap we had learned quite a bit about the path and had improved our efficiency a bit (for instance on the 6-minute hill, I found that side-stepping about 2/3rds of it was the way to go. On the lower part it was right over left, and it reversed to left over right on the upper part).
So, we reached the top at 1:15pm after climbing 2,290 vertical over 2.33 miles. We had decided that after the 4th lap we’d take a bit longer break and get some of the hot lunch they were serving at the Base. We had a bunch of chicken, rice and guacamole plus probably 30 ounces of Dr. Pepper and water.
We ended up taking 51 minutes for our 4th transition which brought us to 2:06pm as we started climbing Ascent 5. At this point, we were about 30% finished and we had averaged 1:33:49 for our 4 climbs. Our average transition was 27:30. If you multiply the average lap by 13 and the average transition by 12, this indicated that we were on a 25-hour and 50-minute pace. We didn’t expect to hold that pace but (with the exception of my errant HR metrics) were pleased with how our bodies felt and the progress we had made. Also, note this pacing does not count any rest/napping time.
Ascent 5: I hour 50 minutes/0:24 (11,550 ft vertical/11.5 miles)
We departed on Lap 5 at 2:06 PM. It was even warmer (it seemed to ultimately peak between 3 and 6 pm). At some point in lap 5 I began to attract a bit of a following—just 1 or 2 people at first would tuck in behind me but it would become a thing in and of itself in lap 6, as we will soon see.
We reached the top in 1 hour and 50 minutes, which was 10 minutes slower than any of our first four laps, but we were both happy with the effort as we purposefully throttled back with the heat (and still trying to get my HR lower). I read 148bpm (this was my MAX) and this was the lowest of any lap to date and I felt much better than I typically feel with a 148 HR. Of course, in reality my average HR for this lap was 132, and while this was still higher than what I might normally expect to see, the effort still seemed very manageable.
We both readily agreed we were a “go” for 6 and while outwardly, I was still projecting “1 lap at a time”, inwardly I was growing more confident that my prior tussle with Shingles would not derail my shot at getting to 29029. Anders was climbing really strong, and his HR was typically near 100bpm.
We clocked 2,316 feet of vertical over 2.36 miles. We finished the 5th Ascent at 3:56 pm and executed a pretty quick transition of 25 minutes.
Ascent 6: 2 hours 1 minute/0:37 (13,860 ft vertical/13.9 miles)
We were off at 4:21 pm. We were hoping to get some respite from the heat and the sun but very little was evident. After climbing about 500 feet of vertical I began to notice a growing crowd matching my pace behind me. This would soon reach 6-7 folks, and I could hear them talking behind me about how this steady pace was the key to getting the job done. It was kind of humorous to have all these folks (all younger than I) tracking my pace. It didn’t bother me (in-fact appealed to my ego of course) and I certainly understood why they were doing it as I had spent a great deal of the climb so far pacing off of Anders!
After about an hour and change of climbing we reached the final mid-mountain aid station (this is at 1,500 feet vertical into the climb) and I announced I was going to take a five-minute break in the shade and make sure I got some solids and liquids down. My “followers” decided to wait and after 5 minutes I went to grab my trekking poles only to discover they were missing. There were two other sets of poles where I had left mine and I walked around and found the owner of one but not the other. I concluded that the owner of the other poles had most likely took mine by mistake and I decided to use hers and hope we could exchange them either at the top or back down at the bottom.
This all turned my 5-minute break into a 10-minute break and my “team” decided to head off without me. We didn’t reconnect after that, but I did see that a couple of them ultimately made it through 8 climbs before calling it quits. With the extra 10 minutes, our 6th lap turned out to be our slowest at that point. We measured 2,303 feet of vertical over 2.40 miles. With the extra rest we both felt quite strong during the lap and my average HR was again 132bpm with a MAX of 148bpm. I also discovered at the top that I had been mis-reading my HR metrics and we both laughed at my mistake and were relieved that my HR was settling in near the upper end of my target zone.
It was 6:22 pm when we finished lap 6 and we decided to not stop at the bottom for the hot dinner but rather stock up at the top and eat our dinners in the gondola on the way down. So, it was Ramen Noodles and M&Ms for dinner and when we reached the bottom, we both decided to change our clothes, both to get a fresh (and drier) set and to prepare for the coming nightfall. In addition to changing my shirt and shorts, I “Vaselined” my toes and feet and put on a pair of fresh socks. I also brought my headlamp, a baseball cap and a thin wool hat and light wind-breaker jacket in anticipation of the cold. Anders and I also drank a small bottle of ketones as well in hopes of getting a bit of an energy boost. Even with all of this, we managed to hold our transition time to 37 minutes and just before 7pm, we were off for lap 7.
Ascent 7: 1 hour 45 minutes/0:18 (16,170 ft vertical/16.2 miles)
The 7th was a beautiful climb. The sun began to drop below the ridgeline and while it wouldn’t set until 8pm, it was noticeably cooler quite quickly. The shadows and the light were beautiful given the time of day and we spent more of this climb commenting on how beautiful everything was.
The weather was great, and we both felt much stronger on this lap. It might have been the “dinner” or the ketones (or both) but we both had a great lap. Also, at the beginning of the lap I was reunited with my poles (were left down at the Ascent Board) and everything went just right on this lap.
Even though we consciously kept a tight reign on our pace and I continued to rest step for significant portions of the lap, we still finished it in 1 hour and 45 minutes—almost 16 minutes faster than lap 6. We measured 2,293 feet of vertical over 2.30 miles. My average HR was once again 132bpm, but at a much faster pace.
It was now 8:44 and we had been at it for almost 15 hours at this point. We felt great and agreed to move quickly through transition and get right back out for lap 8. We were committed now to just climb straight through and not stop and rest (as the vast majority elect to do). We had our fastest transition at 18 minutes, and it was now 9:03pm and we snapped on our headlamps as night was rapidly approaching.
Ascent 8: 2 hours 10 minutes/0:40 (18,480 ft vertical/18.6 miles)
We got our first real nighttime climb on Lap 8 as the first lap was near dawn and headlamps really weren’t necessary after 10 minutes or so. This proved to be more challenging than I would have predicted, especially on the steeper sections. It was much more difficult to be precise with one’s foot placements and this led to a bunch of sliding/slipping down the slope and many times when I felt a bit out of balance. I wasn’t in danger of falling for the most part, but it definitely made my climbing less efficient and therefore more taxing.
If lap 7 was our best (or at least one of our best), lap 8 certainly was the hardest (at that point—lap 10 would change that however!) We were about 8 minutes slower than lap 6, which was our previous longest. We gained 2,293 feet of vertical according to my Garmin over 2.34 miles and my average heart rate was just 124bpm, probably reflecting both the slower pace and lower heat stress. At the top, we decided that while this was tough, we were still going to keep going and we got some more ramen noodles for the gondola ride down. In the video that Anders took in the gondola on the way down you can see how challenged we were on this lap. My head was a bit foggy, and I expressed concern about our “buffer”. I know we still had some but also felt that we really had to stay on it.
The facts were that we finished the climb at 11:13pm so we had done 8 of the 13 laps in less than half the time. Even, if you throw in the longish transition at the bottom of lap 8, we were on a projected finishing time of 29 hours, and while we expected to be slower than our first 8-lap average, we still had a 7-hour buffer and actually were not in any real danger of running out of time—especially since we were committed to going straight through without sleeping.
We took extra time in transition as I went into the Base lodge and drank about 20 ounces of Dr. Pepper and a bit of coffee. Anders suggested we try something a bit different with our hiking plan for lap 9 and suggested we hike for 10 minutes and then stop for a full minute to keep my HR down and to keep the perceived effort more under control. He was also very optimistic that we were about to have a much better climb than in lap 8. I was a bit skeptical but was hoping he would be right, and it was now 11:53pm when we headed out for lap 9.
Ascent 9: 2 hours 12 minutes/0:43 (20,790 ft vertical/20.9 miles)
We were still within earshot of the Base when Friday turned to Saturday, and we did our first 1-minute break. We stayed on the 10-on/1-off pattern throughout the hike and it really did seem to help. Perhaps also, with this lap the 2nd go-around in the dark, we were probably also learning how to climb in the dark a bit better.
Anders was right as we had a much better climb for Lap 9! Beyond the 1-minute rests, we pretty much had the mountain to ourselves on a gorgeous night. My guess is that most people decided to get a few hours of sleep after completing 8-10 laps. There were long stretches on this lap when we were by ourselves with no other headlamps visible. It was clear and probably in the 50s at the top—great hiking conditions. The moon dropped below the mountains nearby and it was quite dark, save for every so often the “party gondola” cruising by!
We were deliberate and entirely in control on lap 9, and even with all the stops, we were only 3 minutes slower at 2:12. More importantly, my HR average had dropped to 119bpm with a max of 134! My max was now less than the average HR of each of my first 4 laps. We recorded 2,297 vertical over 2.31 miles. There was a great EDM tune blasting at the top and in the video that Anders shot you can see how great we felt about this lap! We took our time (43 minutes) transitioning as I added a layer as it was getting quite chilly.
Ascent 10: 2 hours 29 minutes/0:58 (23,100 vertical/23.2 miles)
We started our 10th ascent at 2:48am and didn’t finish until 5:17am in what would prove to be our slowest and what we both thought was the hardest lap of the 13. We continued to follow the 10 on/1 rest strategy but despite this, this lap seemed so much more difficult than the 9th lap did. The mountain was mostly empty although towards the end and then coming down the gondola we noticed a bunch of climbers returning to the mountain after getting some rest.
I’m not sure why this lap hit us both so hard. Perhaps the lack of sleep and our biorhythms telling us to slow down and rest. We stopped at the aid stations for 4-5 minutes in part because they had some nice heaters in the tents. Still, it was a real slog. But we did persevere, which really was all this lap ultimately had going for it. We clocked 2,270 vertical over 2.30 miles. My HR averaged 116 with a peak of 130bpm. My body’s clock seemed to be set to slow. The picture below is telling—my fatigue and Anders’ ever-present smile!
In total, we spent 58 minutes transitioning from lap 10 to 11. This was our slowest transition and combined with lap 10, which was also our slowest lap, we spent a total of 3 hours 27 minutes on lap 10. In contrast, Lap 1 was 1 hour 46 minutes—we were almost twice as long.
Ascent 11: 2 hours 12 minutes/0:27 (25,410 vertical/25.6 miles)
We left at 6:15am, now officially over 24 hours. The big breakfast break and the return of daylight (goodbye headlamp) seemed to be what the doctor ordered, and we both felt much better on this lap. The daylight made everything considerably easier, and I no longer felt like I was struggling with my footing all the time, as I had seemed to for stretches in the dark.
It was very pleasant, and we generally followed the 10 on 1 rest pattern except over the last 0.8 miles at the top which has the most modest slopes. My average HR was 122 with a peak of 139, which seemed like the perfect level of exertion for this event. We clocked another 2,313 feet of vertical over 2.36 miles (I think I measured to the gondola entrance on this lap).
It was now 8:28am and we could both begin to sense the finish line (so to speak). We were very efficient in transition as we took just 27 minutes and at 8:55am we were off to lap 12!
And yes, at this point a shower would have come in handy:
Ascent 12: 2 hours 10 minutes/0:33 (27,720 vertical/27.9 miles)
We pretty much picked lap 12 right back up were we finished lap 11. We both felt pretty strong and were climbing efficiently and well in control. It was considerably hotter now, especially towards the end of the lap and I once again began pouring 6-8 bottles of ice water on my head each lap to stay as cool as possible.
We both had a real sense of the growing inevitability that we were going to get this thing done. We climbed and chatted with other climbers and people became increasingly aware of the end drawing close as we began to see red bibs (last ascent) and everyone had lots of check marks on the backs of their bibs.
Despite the heat, we were two minutes faster on lap 12 than 11 and my average HR stayed the same at 122bpm with a max that was down to 135 bpm. We logged 2,306 feet of vertical over 2.36 miles. It was now 11:05am and we just had one more gondola down before we put our red bibs on and go for the final lap!
Ascent 13: 2 hours 22 minutes (30,030 vertical/30.2 miles)
Transition took a bit longer at 33 minutes, as the great 29029 team helped us with our red bibs, which we put on over the white ones. We hit the climb at 11:38am, almost 30 hours after we started. It was considerably hotter on this final lap. The good wishes from our fellow climbers and the fact that this was the last lap helped but I still found the last lap to be pretty challenging. My body was definitely telling me it was about time to wrap this thing up. I whined a little bit and Anders once again jumped in and cheered me up. Ultimately, although it seemed longer and we didn’t feel a need to push, we really weren’t that much slower on the last climb.
I had imagined that I would cry at the finish, but I didn’t. I felt really satisfied with our effort and teamwork. It was wonderful to do this with Anders, and we walked down the final red carpeted area together and hugged at the end. We were beaming at the finish and were really happy to be able to don the Red Hat! Oh, and I for one was quite tired and beginning to think about getting off of my feet for a while. In the end, it took us 32 hours and 0 minutes as we finished right at 2pm.
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But first there was one last gondola ride down. We then went and put our 13th and final brand on the Ascent Board, indicating that our work was done. We each checked off the Everest square on the back of our white bibs with a red pen. We were officially done!
Post Event/Observations
After collecting all of our gear from transition, we shuffled down the hill to our tent (about ½ mile) only to find it just too hot to stay in. We both opted to climb back up the hill for some very much needed showers. Then back to the tent and back up the hill again to the Base lodge area. We decided to go for a beer as it was clear we weren’t going to get any sleep until it got dark. Soon there was a great dinner and then an award ceremony/celebration outside, where we sat in the grass. We received our Everest medals.
We went to bed pretty early, as you might imagine, and we both actually slept pretty well and woke up with our legs feeling pretty good despite the massive amount of vertical over the prior couple of days. I think that avoiding the eccentric contraction of down-climbing makes all the difference in the world. If one had to both climb and descend the vertical of this event it would be an entirely different beast—much more difficult—probably would need three days to do it.
Here is a summary of the 13 ascents and the totals/averages of the key statistics:
You can see the entire event took 32 hours of which 25:29 was climbing and 6:31 was transition. Our 13 ascents (laps) averaged 1:57:37 and our 12 transitions average about 33 minutes. My HR averaged 128bpm over those 13 ascents and my Garmin clocked me at burning 13,211 calories over the 32 hours.
I also took a look at “moving” and “not moving” time during each lap as recorded by my Garmin. I’m not sure how accurate this data is as it had the split roughly 60% of each lap moving and 40% not moving. My guess is that this data overstates our “not moving” but none-the-less, it probably does give a relative comparison of the proportion of “resting” that took place within each lap. Anyways, if you believe that breakdown, then in the total of 1,920 minutes (32 hours) that this took, 868 minutes or about 45% was “moving”, 661 minutes (35%) was “not moving”, and 391 minutes (20%) was spent riding the gondola and doing the other activities transitioning from one climb to the next. Here is how this data looks across the 13 ascents:
For the Snow Basin Event, there were 337 entrants of which 182 completed all 13 climbs. This works out to a 54% success rate, although this may be understated a bit due to some of the entrants not actually starting. The average age for Snow Basin was 48 years old with a range from 16 to 73. The M/F split was almost exactly 50/50.
This is what the distribution by number of completed climbs looks like for the 337 entrants:
The comparative Everesting data for the four 2025 29029 events completed so far does seem to support that Snow Basin might be the most challenging of the current crop of 29029 events. This was the conventional wisdom that we heard during the event:
General Observations
Firstly, this is an extremely well-run event. The 29029 team has the four-day experience fully dialed in-from arrival to departure--they have thought of just about everything you might need and have it readily available. The staff is knowledgeable, supportive and relentlessly upbeat and helpful!
2. The 29029 event is definitely a worthy endurance challenge—at least from my point-of-view and all the endurance events I’ve participated in through the years. It doesn’t have the intensity of a long-course triathlon (cranking for 5 hours on the bike at 85% of threshold is more painful that what you are likely to experience here) but I certainly didn’t finish my 13th climb wishing that there was still more to do. 29,000+ vertical is an insane amount of climbing to undertake in a 36-hour period.
3. Having made point 2, I’m also of the opinion that any reasonably fit and motivated person who does a 16/20-week training block like the 29029 folks recommend, would have a pretty good probability of Everesting in this event. With no bike and especially no swim, this event is much more readily accessible than an Ironman for most folks that are new to significant Endurance events. 91% of the entrants at Snow Basin (including Anders and I) were doing their first 29029 event and even here, the success rate was above 50%. Unlike Anders and I, my sense was that there were many there who were entering their first big Endurance event with a 29029.
4. As I pointed out at the outset, I’m not your typical Endurance athlete given my experience and my typical training load and while it wasn’t easy and I could see how one could get in physical trouble in something like this, I felt this event was well within my capabilities. I’m fairly confident that my body was not fully recovered from Shingles as about 10 days after the event I went climbing in Colorado and at similar elevation, grade, and heat stress, my HR was averaging in the mid 110s—a good 10+ bpm below my experience at Snow Basin. My guess is that without Shingles, I would have probably finished about 10% faster—maybe 29-30 hours. Anders, on his own, I’m pretty confident could go sub-24 hours and I think maybe a few folks did just that at Snow Basin this year.
5. The biggest “muscle” that this event challenges resides between your ears. If you are an experienced endurance athlete, then you’re somewhat used to the grind and have probably put yourself through 12+ hour days already. This certainly prepares you for the mental challenge but 29029 is likely to be longer than any event most folks have done and as such, the mental discipline to stay in the moment and on your game should not be underestimated. When I characterize the 29029 event is hard, it’s primarily the mental challenge that I’m talking about (even more so than all that vertical!)
6. The biggest mistake I saw people making was to go way too fast on the initial few laps. We ran into one guy who said his HR was over 180bpm on the 1st lap and he had to quit and rest after 3 laps due to nausea. I think the right approach is to establish your “all-day” HR (for me this is probably 120bpm or so) during training and stick to that, at least for the first 80% of the event.
7. The gondola rides down are a game changer for sure. Avoiding the eccentric contractions of down-climbing made all the difference. I was shocked at how good my legs felt that next day.
8. My Garmin had my caloric burn at 13,211 calories. I asked ChatGPT to also estimate my caloric burn. It came back with 1,849 calories of mechanical work, which at normal human efficiency of 20-25%, translates into 7,400-9,200 calories of metabolic impact. It also estimated the cost of walking over the 30 miles at about 5,250 calories. So, this is roughly 12,000-15,000 calories. It also added 5-10% for heat stress and came up with a 13,000-16,000 calorie estimate. I asked it to refine the estimate based on my age and HR data and it came back with 16,000-19,000 calories. It also noted that HR-based estimates tend to run high and wearable algorithm-based estimates tend to run low. No matter how you slice it, it’s a lot of calories that’s required to do this event!
9. On the other side of the equation, and this is a rough estimate for sure, I estimate that I got somewhere between 250-350 calories/hour down. Lots of coke, bananas, peanut butter sandwiches, Ramen noodles, M&Ms, chips and pretzels, etc. That plus two bigger meals (a lunch and a breakfast). This translates into 8,000-11,000 calories consumed. I’m pretty certain that I ran somewhere around a 5,000-calorie deficit for the event. The good news is the intensity of the climbing was relatively low and as such I didn’t hit the wall or really suffer an energy bonk.
10. While there were certainly a fair number of solo climbers, one of the best pieces of advice I can give is to do this with someone else, or better yet a group of friends. It was wonderful for me to do it with my son, but more than that, I’d say there would have been a much higher chance that I didn’t Everest if he wasn’t there as my partner and wingman. And yes, I will do it again (in 2026 at a different venue) and I hope to put together a bigger band of merry crazies to 29029 together!
Thanks for taking the time to read this lengthy missive! Onwards and Upwards!
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