Cyclists complete 'Everesting' challenge, riding Greenfield's Winterburn 154 times

Scott Koerber and Dan Ross know what it’s like to ride a bicycle up Mt. Everest.

The two friends rode the equivalent of 29,029 feet up and down Greenfield’s Winterburn Street last week.

It took the pair about 20 hours with only a few stops for breaks.

“We had neighbors cheering us on,” Koerber, 44, of Edgewood, said. “We had people showing up who had heard about it somehow and bringing us food. We had a couple dozen Pittsburgh cyclists joining us for a couple laps. It was a pretty wonderful day all around.”

They became the only known Pittsburghers to complete a grueling bicycling feat known as “Everesting.” They earned a spot in the Everesting Hall Fame hosted by a group of Australian cyclists.

It took 154 round trips, about 153.5 miles, to complete the ride. They started Thursday at 9 p.m. and ended around 5 p.m. on Friday, according to Koerber. They actually rode 30,994 feet to be sure they eclipsed the equivalent of Mt. Everest.

“We didn’t want to have to come back out and do it next Thursday night,” Koerber said.

The pair, both hill climbing aficionados, had talked about doing an Everesting trip, but it only happened last week because Koerber wanted an epic way to finish bicycling 1 million vertical feet in 2019. He originally planned to cap that mark during Pittsburgh’s annual Dirty Dozen race later this month, where cyclists climb the steepest city streets.

“I was on target to hit it a few weeks early,” Koerber said. “Since it wasn’t going to be the Dirty Dozen, I was looking to do something to put it in that sort of epic category.”

They chose Winterburn Avenue because Ross, 37, who lives on Winterburn, is well versed in traveling the street.

“The biggest thing in choosing that road was my familiarity with it and all the other routes we were looking at were just too flat,” Ross said.

Winterburn has a 7.74% gradient, according to the pair’s post in the Everesting Hall of Fame.

Under Everesting rules, riders can choose any hill in the world to climb 29,029 feet, the equivalent of Mt. Everest, and document it by using a GPS device with an altimeter and barometer. Riders are entered into the Everesting Hall of Fame after a panel validates the information they submit.

To date, 4,223 riders have completed the challenge in 94 different countries, according to the Everesting website.

Koerber celebrated by eating two large vegan pizzas. Ross said he had a couple of beers with his brother-in-law.

The pair said they finished the trip with no lasting aches and pains and would be ready for the Dirty Dozen race scheduled for Oct. 26.