The J&J Dance
- Daming shan Satellite Station Hill Climb Challenge
- 370km, 9300m, 26h.
- everesting.cc attempt for Daming Shan Climb
- Zhejiang / Anhui Border, China
- JensW & JustinJ
Without much planning or thought we both felt like we needed a challenge so a hill was selected and a date a week or so later was set.
Basic provisions bought, along with some lights (many thanks Marcin for the suggestions) and the plan was for Jens to turn up at Justins country place near the climb on Friday night for a late start. The G20 had other ideas, Jens battled 4 hours of driving only to be turned back. Justin also tried to leave his area but could not move out of his hill hut as everyone, car and driver was off for the pecan picking season. Stuck at our homes we have to reschedule to the next day. Jens arrived nice and early to Justins, car packed and 45 minutes drive to Daming Mountain climb.
One stroke of intelligence was for a drive up the hill in the car, stopping to clean landslide rocks / gravel off the road and hide a secrete stash at the top. Car parked 4km from the start of the climb at a locals house, food and gear organised, hot meals planned.
At 3pm’ish we set off. On the whole a very good course and road. Nothing too extreme. A few gravel landslides
5 percent average, 25 percent of the road maybe 8 percent. 1st 4km to our base camp was the toughest part followed my some equally steep stuff 2km post the houses. Then flattens out a bit to steadier climb. Camp 1 was made at 10 km which helped with a lot of stretching on the way down, care was taken at 10.2km gravel section and a very nice summit view from around 15km to the end at 20.5km. Basically the road covered what felt like was 4 hills / sections. Not only where we lucky with the road but also weather. Winds good, no rain and generally not too hot.
Climb 1 start well. Parked the car, rolled down to start, fast easy 2.10h total time up / down. Both of us confident on a good time.
Climb 2 Jens verbal diarrhoea started which kept Justins wondering mind off how many more Ks we had. Both felt good, sun set was amazing and at the top lights went on. First time proper night riding for both of us which was kind of stupid of us but good to get the experience. Very glad to have cleared the roads. Temperature starts to drop and slow downhill getting used to doing it in the dark and not being able to bend light around corners to see.
Climb 3 Down to bottom, 4km up to base for a dinner of fried rice, fatty pork and vegetables. Probably too oily a meal when doing climbs. Jens starts to get heavy legs, Justin starts to feel sea sick from lights bouncing around with no horizon to focus on. Arrive at top and Justin frozen on the downhill with extra layers. Justin ended up wearing 6 top layers for the downhills so if your planning similar stupidity, plan for more layers and extra lights.
Climb 4 Felt fu**** and we would not make it. Justin starting to think of excuses to stop. Jens having to take stops on the downhill to keep awake and get blood flowing around upper body. Jens stops all forms of verbal diarrhoea and conversation and Justin tries talking lots of crap to keep awake but both brains inactive. Lasted till end. Stomach starts to churn from sea sickness, oily burps and generally not feeling happy. Time to man up and stop feeling sorry for oneself!
Climb 5 Stopped for coffee, which woke Justin up, great but stomach feeling crampy from it, cliff bars down. Jens consuming his red ball which helps to keep his eyes open so off we went. Justin felt strong and good. Sun rise on down hill was very welcomed indeed.
Climb 6 the lights went off and sun out but we both seriously bonked. Wanting to give up Justin started to think of every possible excuse to do so but luckily was too tired to verbally express it. It was nice to have light, great early morning light.
Climb 7 breakfast of great, warm, digestible rice porridge (shefan). Super fabulous other than Jens adding canned tuna and spicy vegetables to his. Jens knocked that down with a little left over fried rice and Justin a after dinner sweetener energy bar. Justin powers up his mp3 and powers up the hill, Jens starting to feel bit better and we start to make a fast downhill which Jens has serious trouble keeping awake on. Snicker power to the rescue. Near the little town the boys in blue flash their lights and stop us. First it was, show us your passports (while being video’d), then radio in, then off we set downhill only to be stopped by them again. This time it was – NO MORE CYCLING ON THE HILL – YOU MUST LEAVE NOW – IF YOU CYCLE UP AGAIN WE ARE GOING TO KNOW AND GET YOU. We ask why we are not allowed and we get the classic answer of “this is China” which translate to, dont ask bloody questions which we dont even know the answer to but which my boss has told me to follow and i need to cover my stupid ass. As one can imagine with 20 plus hours already ridden and two laps to go our german, english american sense of humor managed to prevail along with some gentleman pleading with them. No help. Strict get out of Dodge was issued and they drove off. We coasted down to start. Thought for 10 seconds about what to do and then cycled back up the hill. The idea for the last two laps was to really relax and take it even more easy however no chance of that having to hid from the police. Now it turned into a bit of a race (with no power) and searching out for security cameras etc.
Climb 8 was focused and both of us pissed with the police so moods not high. Another bowl of rice porridge, don’t give up without fight spirt and Justin powering up the hill again but Jens starting to fell shit on the Climb. At the top it was a duck under a wall so no security could see us from the Satellite station and a quick down hill.
Climb 9 was also quickly up with Jens super bonking. A brake fight of ……. takes him up. We arrive at top. Take a picture, collect our stash rubbish and head down asap keeping our fingers crossed we dont get caught by the police. We dont and we finish. We pack up, pay the locals for the food and off we go for a job done.
A good 26 hour effort and team work. Jens much faster on the downhill / Justin a little stronger (and better gearing) on the ups evened things out and pleased we have previous long distance cycling together.
JJ Notes post ride
- Another light and extra battery would have helped a little on the turns.
- No sleep and light practice is a good idea. I felt trying to keep awake and keep eyes open the hardest thing by far.
- No sports drinks, fried stuff to upset stomach. More rice porridge / bland food.
- Felt fine & strong other than gut & what felt like sea sickness I think due to lights.
- Cold weather clothes would have been a good idea.
- Better way to charge old GPS unit so he does not stop ride and delete data half way. Stupid i know.
JW Notes post ride
- Compact cassette would have been a good idea. However Jens always like to cause himself extra pain so maybe not.
- A hat to keep poor Jens brain warm so he can talk later on during rides.
- Rice cakes so Jens can eat more small quantities on the go.
Our Firsts / PBs
- > Above 3500m in single day ride without sleep.
- > Jens longest km in single ride.
- > Longest time riding a single ride.
- > First proper night ride.
- > everesting.cc
Also
- Very lucky to have no mechanicals or flats. Guess cleaning the road helped.
- Lungs / breathing felt a bit strange. Neither are sure why and we’ve been of the fags for some time.
- Got off and stretched which was a great idea and much nicer than riding a 400km non stop race.
- Lucky Jens brought 3 pairs of Jiakina cycling bibs to cover his bony ass
- Very pleased not to have done by oneself. Would not want big group either or supporters. We felt this help us get into the zone.
- We generally stopped for 15 minutes with longer food stops every two laps for 30 minutes.
- Plan in place to complain to local government about the stupid police behaviour.
JW Ride
JJ Ride (data issues)
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