Everesting Pedra Selada
Bike climbing a sierra to sum up 8,848m of elevation gain and the testimony by a cyclist and photographer.
Bike climbing a sierra to sum up 8,848m of elevation gain and the testimony by a cyclist and photographer.
Fred is an university professor. A fit guy in his 40s that takes cycling as a hobby.
If you see him on any São Paulo street, you would call him average. Nothing special.
But the bastard is damn tough.
In mid May, he would take his Merida road bike and do the Hells 500’s Everesting challenge for his 2nd time.
The place chosen was the RJ-163, a brazilian road that snakes through the Serra da Mantiqueira in the protected area of Parque Estadual da Pedra Selada.
I photographed the challenge happening, so follow the story below.
That Everesting thing
The Everesting challenge is not for faint-hearted people.
It was created by the Hells 500, a bunch of aussie cyclists that likes to climb hills and the rides gotta be hard to be memorable. The Everesting is one of their challenges, that consists in riding any climb in the world, repeating it until you reach the accumulated altimetry gain of 8,848m (29,028ft). That’s the Everest elevation as you may have noted.
8,848 blood-sweat-and-tears climbed meters. In one ride. With no sleep.
They got exclusive cycling apparel for those who completed Everesting at least once. Only those guys are allowed to wear the grey stripe or the blood-sweat-and-tears logo.
“When you see the grey stripe out on the road you know you are looking at one hard bastard.”
2nd Everesting attempt
So Fred would bring his grey striped jersey for a 2nd time attempt. His 1st Everesting was completed inside the university campus where he teaches in. A small segment, hundreds of repetitions, controlled (if existent) car traffic.
For his 2nd attempt, in late April he opened up a public call on his Facebook profile, inviting friends to climb along or just to hang out and make some company when he was enduring the whole shet.
A friend of his liked the idea. Bruno Rosa. Later he would become a key part in Fred’s Everesting attempt. Bruno has driven the car from São Paulo to Visconde de Mauá and back, rode with the car up the sierra a couple of times and helped in diverse tasks during that weekend.
As I already knew about Fred’s succesful 1st Everesting, I thought it would be a nice chance to make some pictures to fatten up my portfolio. So I also accepted the invite.
But that time would be harder. Fred has chosen a sierra.
Serra da Pedra Selada. A f*cking sierra.
The Pedra Selada is a mountain range in the western portion of Rio de Janeiro state, bordering with states of São Paulo and Minas Gerais. The highest peak is the Pico da Pedra Selada, at right in the photo above*, reaching 1,755m of altitude (5757 ft). The region is a part of Serra da Mantiqueira, a parent mountain range.
Fred has chosen the RJ-163, a 24 km (15 mi) long road that connects the cities of Resende to Visconde de Mauá. He picked up a 12 km (7,5 mi)Strava segment as shown below, that goes from 525m (1,722 ft) to 1,288m (4225 ft) of altitude. It sums up 763m (2,503 ft) of vertical gain.
Note: the Pedra Selada Peak, from the photo above, is northeast of our road and close to the second road that goes uphill, drawn on the right in the map below.
The segment crosses the green belt from southeast to northwest and reaches the mountain range crest.
So, to complete the Everesting challenge of 8,848m climb, he would have to repeat this segment for twelve times.
It’s a twelve-time repetition on a 12 km segment that climbs 763m on each leg. Average grade of 6%, with parts that go over 12%.
And, according to our math, he would finish the 8,848m in the middle of the 12nd climb. But on Everesting rules he must finish climbing the segment and stop the counter where he started at, the bottom of that mountain. Or the green point on the map above (Estação Capelinha, a lunchonette/restaurant we will talk about later).
All things packed. Let’s go!
I studied the road on Google Street View. It’s a two-way road with simple lanes and no shoulders. The 12 km segment we would work in got a half dozen parking areas where we could stop the car. So I planned to take my bike along and make some climbs with him.
Saturday just after the noon. The 280 km (174 mi) trip took 4h to complete with a stop for a snack.
Our bases
We’ve rented a two-suite cozy chalet 1,6 km (1 mi) close to the start of the segment, that coincidentally and strategically was a lunchonette/restaurant, the Estação Capelinha. No better place to set up our stuff. It’s in the base of the climb, next to a place to eat and grab some beer and Fred could make use of the chalet structure in between loops.
The machine & the cyclist
On his 1st Everesting, Fred had a problem with his Garmin 800 and almost lost his tracking activity. And as the saying goes “If it’s not on Strava, it didn’t happen”, this time he brought and extra Garmin 500 as a backup.
My stuff & workflow
Photographing &publishing
I took Fred’s Instagram (@fredcostapinto) account over, so I could kept his followers (and wife) tuned in of what was going on.
Most of the pictures were taken with a 5D Mark II, retouched on a Macbook Pro and sent to mobile phone to upload to his Instagram via 4G. Then, I reposted each picture to my account (@leocavallini), that also get replicated to my Facebook fanpage and personal profile, as we got a ton of cycling friends in common that would enjoy take part of the story.
Some pictures were taken with my LG G4 and retouched on Snapseed.
I was using a 16 GB Sandisk CF card that was almost enough for the whole weekend, despite of having to delete some trash pictures on Sunday afternoon. I didn’t format the card, so I would end up having two copies. Later I thought I could also bring a external hard drive or copy everything on another CF card to have a 3rd copy.
Lighting up
I lit up most of the pics at night, when there was no available artificial light, using a Canon Speedlite 600 EX and a bounce reflector. I also brought a brazilian-made Digiflash 400W (the best national brand) studio head and a parabolic reflector powered up with a Paul C. Buff Vagabond Mini, but it was sorta bulky and I only used it once, for the portrait below.
The conversation camera-to-flash was made via a good ‘ol Cactus V4 kit.
Bike setup
I got a Scott Speedster S40 with a shoulder camera bag adapted to the handlebar, so I could take around my camera with the Speedlite and the RFs. It had a rain cover to protect it all from the humidity of the forest and possibly rain.
It also had a rear bike rack where I could strap a tripod on. I didn’t shot this bike setup unfortunately.
Saturday, May 14th, 5:45 PM. Game on!
Let the game begins.
We jumped into the car and Fred rode from our chalet to the Estação Capelinha, the start per se.
He already climbed this sierra months earlier, but once. So he already knew the path up, that has few to none descends when climbing. I mean… it’s a hell of a straight climb.
We followed him up, going ahead of him in some parts and stopping on the road parking areas, so I could meet the places and try to make photos happen. It was dark already, so I had to use available light from poles or light him & stuffs up with a portable flash.
Fred rode the 12 km uphill in 0:59 minutes, as he expected. First of twelve climbs. Spinning and trying to control heart rate (he found out later his heart monitor wasn’t working due to battery).
And the glory of the climb was descend it all back, which he did much faster then us with the car, reaching Estação Capelinha in 20 mins.
We met Fred at Estação Capelinha, where he stopped to eat some snacks from the car, grab a bread-n-cheese at the restaurant and depart.
Bruno and me sat at a table along with a bottle of beer to upload the first batch of pictures and spread the news about his first loop. Then we got some extra cans and headed back to the chalet. I uploaded some pics and prepared myself and my bike to chase Fred.
Graced by soup and coffee
The chalet keeper, nextdoors, was kind enough to knock our door and gift us with a pan of pumpkin with blue cheese soup and ground coffee.
Fred arrived from his 2nd loop and felt graced in that cold night. The forest goes along the road in almost all of its extension, so humidity and fog was already present with temps reaching 11º C (52º F). The curious is that the bottom of the mountain was at 20° C (68 F)°.
So he went to his 3rd climb and I started to get my bike prepared and find him somewhere on the road. That’s when we started…
Night shots
So I set up my bike with the handlebar camera bag, tripod attached to the rear bike rack. It started getting colder and colder as I pedaled uphill, the fog got denser with every kilometer pedaled until the point I couldn’t see a hell beyond a meter in front of me.
No other light beside my bike’s, just absolute darkness, fog humidity soaking me and the sound of animals in the dense forest.
With my bike way heavier and the f*cking flu making me company, I wouldn’t reach Fred at the top of the climb for nothing in this world. To be honest, I packed up my things and was expecting to climb the whole segment to feel it, to see what I could get photographically and for the joy of cycling, of course. Maybe set up the portable flash in any cool corner and wait for him.
I got half of the climb behind me already, car traffic was almost inexistent at that time and I saw the white light of Fred through the fog.
He got 3:54 hours ridden, 61 km pedaled with 2,284m climbed already.
I made an u-turn and started to descend with him, chatting about the weather, the climbs and how it could be nicer for him at certain point to have someone to talk with.
That’s when I made the photo above in a curve. I tried to click with my LG G4 but the ISO wasn’t enough to capture our bike lights, even considering that this phone’s camera is awesome in terms of light capture and control. No miracle could be made at ISO 2700. So I asked him to stop and grabbed the Mark II. His bike lighting up the road and mine lighting him up, no flash.
We finished the loop making the turn at Estação Capelinha, which was closed already and stopped at the chalet. We drank some coffee, chatted a little with Bruno and started his 4th climb together. And at certain point I felt my bike was really too heavy, I was too sick and not trained and I felt I couldn’t keep up the pace. So I dismissed him or I would cause a delay. And kept up with the plan of finding a key point to stop and set up some light.
The road has three of those bridges made for animals to cross and avoid traffic. Mostly monkeys. During the climbs we called this passa-macaco (monkey lane).
So I dismissed Fred between the first and the second passa-macaco and Whatsapp’ed that I would wait for him on the second, that one on the pics above. He would receive the message somewhere on the way to the summit.
Then I started to study the structure, light it up but fog was too dense. The photos above are at maximum ISO and overexposed digitally on Lightroom. I wasn’t happy with this, so I set up the flash on the road where I could light him from behind and illuminate the road with his bike light. Backlight that would bring me nice silhouette.
Then he came and we made some shots. The light turned out to what I was expecting. I’d like to have the passa-macaco structure framed but was extremely excited with this cinematic light, the fog dense enough to draw some lines through it. Ten minutes of shots and we’ve finished descending the mountain to the chalet.
It was 1:30 AM already. Fred went to his 5th lap.
I took a f*cking long hot shower. Spent time until 3 AM making posts and organizing photos on the notebook. Fred’s friends, fans, her wife and the Hells 500 guys were liking the pics and commenting, giving him a cool moral support. I’ve posted a photo on his Instagram saying I couldn’t keep up with Fred’s pace and would take a nap until sunrise, for his wife’s desperation.
“How are you going to sleep? You are keeping me from having a gastric ulcer! Nice shots, congrats!”
Daylight, finally
or I should name this part of the story like:
Fred’s analyst session
Barely 6 AM. My alarm rang and I woke up with a conversation at the living room. Found Fred like this.
He was too tired and a bit depressed, thinking about quitting the challenge. Long cold night, the fog was stopping him from fast descend that mountain, sharp bends, wet floor, super humid atmosphere and let me talk about the cold temps again.
We kept talking, I advertising the deliciousness of the chalet’s shower
Bruno and me convinced him to take a hot shower and we all go have a breakfast at Estação Capelinha. At first bites of another bread-n-cheese, hewrote on his Facebook:
“I feel most of what I assumed to be feeling (tired and depressed) was actually hypothermia”
Problem solved. Hot shower taken, switched the wet kit for a dry one, stomach warm and happy. Even his bike was gifted a shot of lube and they went for a fresh restart.
Fresh restart for me too. My flu was playing cool with me, rested a bit and had sunlight available, things could be seen. Curves, forest, sceneries.
Daylight, finally.
8 AM. 5,000m climbed already. It was his 7th climb and we followed him by car. Same as last night, stopping on park areas to wait for him.
Sunday, May 15th, 8 AM. Rebooting…
9 AM. 7 of 12 climbs done. 10h in the saddle. 15h elapsed. 156 km ridden. 5341m climbed.
Now it was time for his 7th descend. I and Bruno took the car and went down the mountain ahead of him. Bruno dropped me at the first passa-macaco and went away. I left Fred warned that I would photograph him descending at that spot.
I crossed the neckstrap on my chest and rested the camera on my back. Started to climb the iron structure of the passa-macaco. It was a giant Y holding that bridge, three of these on each side of the road. The intersection of the three segments of this wye was tall enough. What, 5m maybe? Tall enough. I tilted my body forward and hugged one of the upper segments of the Y, camera on hand and waiting for Fred.
Soon he made a fast and beautiful curve and I shot the scene as I was expecting.
He braked at the end of the curve and made an u-turn, laughing at the situation. Then approached the structure, grabbed my camera and took some shots of me.
Funny story, for the sake of a good photo.
Flora & landscapes
I walked the rest of the way from the passa-macaco to the chalet on foot to make some landscape and flora shots. That part of the road crosses the Atlantic rainforest, rich in biodiversity manifested in plants, flowers, insects and animals.
Some species of plants there exist since the dinosaurs ruled our planet.
Sunday noon & afternoon
At 11 and something in the morning, Bruno and I headed to Estação Capelinha to lunch. Fred arrived from his 8th lap close to 200 km ridden and 6,000m climbed. In his own words on Instagram:
“Six fucking thousand #verhurtical meters”
At the restaurant, he ordered the usual.
Fred is certainly the record holder of bread-n-cheese and latte consumed within a weekend at the place.
I and Bruno stayed at the placed during Fred’s 9th lap and at 2 PM we chased him by car to make some support for the 10th lap.
At the summit, Fred laid down on an yoga mat. No sleep allowed. No nap. No micro nap. Just some stretch and rest.
Sunday night, last lap
Fred rested a bit and departed for his 10th descend at 3:40 PM. He made the 11st lap with no support from us as we headed back the chalet to pack up things to leave, take a shower and be available for his 12nd and final lap.
Now the sky was clearer and I could play a bit with stars.
Almost 8 PM. At certain point of the climb, he reached 8,848m and stopped to make a photo of the Garmin with his phone. Some kilometers ahead, we stopped the car to celebrate it.
We reached the summit 25 minutes later.
He did it.
Three cans of beer to make the official photo. Of course, Bruno just held the can to be awesome for the photo but couldn’t drink it as he would drive for the next 4 hours.
Final part was to descend the mountain, close the two Garmin activities, put the bike on the roof rack and go home.
Epilogue
16:43 hours ridden on 27:20 hours spent.
286 km pedaled.
9,109m climbed from the 8,848m goal.
Temperatures from 9º C to 24º C, with increases from 11º C to 20º C within a single 20 minutes descent. Good recipe to catch some cold, which our tough guy didn’t (and mine didn’t evolve much, I recovered within the next days).
The place is magic, as he wrote on a text (portuguese) in his Facebook. You can also rest an eye in his Veloviewer and Strava records.
Bruno was super collaborative and Fred is an admirable person. As he said one of the times I climbed with him:
“I would love to quit right now, get back to my family and sit in the couch with a beer can. But I can do that tomorrow. And I will.”
As a photographer, it was indeed a nice opportunity to capture awesome images. I got fog, all the range of daylight and starry sky. Wish I wasn’t sick and well trained to climb the sierra at least once. Wish I had a motorcycle and a driver available as I had on two other cycling jobs. But I ended up very happy with the final images.
As a cyclist, Fred convinced me to train and go in search of up.
Leo Cavallini is photographer and cyclist.
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