Just speaking to a friend in the tri club. Claus and his wife are 2 of the top ultra runners in Switzerland. A group of ultra run organisers and part time triathletes have created a new mad triathlon. 10 people did it last year as a test, and it met with overwhelming feedback, so in 2020 it will be run as a proper event on Friday 24 Juky
Basically the objective is to complete a triathlon over the same elevation as Everest. I know the mountain passes very well, Susten, Furkur and Grimsel are amazing. The run up Pilatus scares the life out of me, but it is another amazing mountain.
Claus said that the cost will be very low, but the finishers shirt, even though low quality and cheap, will be the most valuable shirt you own. Accommodation in the military barracks before the start is included so is accommodation at the top of pilatus, but you need to supply your own sleeping bag and mat.
I will be entering, would be great to see anyone else silly enough to give this a go as well
Looks good Matt but it requires a support car and as I don’t even like asking someone to zip up my wetsuit I deffo can’t ask someone to drive a support vehicle for me good luck
I’d like to stay this up my strasse but right now my strasse is a cul de sac that has flooded, been dug up by every utility, has had a metric tonne of manure dumped on it and been renamed piece of shit street. Also im with Duckhen, getting Strava kudos is a big deal these days, getting some mug to follow me round in a car. ain’t going to happen.
Good luck to you though, it sounds amazing and I’m sure it will be a huge success. I will add it to my list of things I say I want to do but never actually do do.
I have to say, if I can get sign off, I’m in.
Also a part of the world I know well (for different reasons, I haven’t lived there but I have spent a lot of time skiing and biking in the area) and it’s fab. If I’m going to ride that sort of route I want it to be on Swiss roads.
Maybe a ‘last hurrah’ of silliness before I hang up the long distance boots.
Course is basically the Swissman on Steroids, with an extra 3400m climbing
I have ridden most of the routes and can confirm that the road surface is near perfect. The only slightly dodgy bit is the descent from Furkapass to Andermatt, it is a popular road and is very narrow, sometimes you get a bit of a bottleneck
Sustenpass is my favorite climb in the world (OK, I do have limited experience), descent is also great.
In order to get sign off, it is nice location for holiday afterwards
I think I’ve ridden pretty much all of it, although I’d have to check my files. Both for Swissman but also a couple of training ‘camps’ out of Engelberg. The 1st climb of the day from the swim is rather hard work IIRR. One for the road bike.
Tricksy. Extreme X is 7350m on 24H, and Triverest is 8848m on 26H.
Bike:
X: 4637m over 194km / Triverest: 6850m over 260km
The main bike difference being the gradient of the climbs I assume? (And the distance, of course)
Run:
X: 2546m over 45km / Triverest: 2000m over 27km
So the Triverest is primarily a monster bike ride, which would actually suit me better (sh!t runner).
Looks like a generous 2.5 hour swim cut-off, and then the rest is basically just about getting to the finish line with no official bike cut-off.
With 1:30 swim, and a 9 hour run (20min/k - it is rather steep) that leaves an average speed of 17kph for the bike and half an hour of faff. If it’s still light at 11pm to be able to descend with some speed it’s almost doable.
The bike ride has no big gradients, I think max is around 11%, however lots of kms at 7-8%
Having done a similar ride last week, 13-14 hours is about right (allows around an hour for stops), so finish around 9-10pm. Pilatus is fine at bottom but very steep top section, hopefully the finish line and lights at the top will be enough motivation
I have registered my interest, not sure when they will do the actual allocation I will speak to Claus on Thursday to see if he knows.
That was during my Triathlon hiatus, when I was big into mountaineering. I was on my way to Lauterbrunnen/Grindelwald to cheat death …which I literally did by falling into a crevasse on the Fiescher Glacier, in freefall like Joe Simpson. Luckily the two other guys on the rope held me!