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A CANNONDALE PROJECT
4 2 . 624 5 °
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8 5 . 5 133°
W ES T
High elevations — no matter what culture or what part of the world — have always been spiritual places. It’s where temples h a v e b e e n . I t ’ s w h e r e p e o p l e g o t o p r a y. It’s where people go to die. It clearly affects us. Our senses are different at high elevation. It’s very easy to understand that you’re experiencing a different world. - Brian Vernor
Riders Eric Brunt, @bearthebrunt Jonathan Neve, @jkneve Brian Vernor, @vernor Special Thanks Smith Optics, @smithoptics Search and State, @searchandstate Izzy Cohan, @izzy_cohan Kenny Sule, @kennysule Photographers Brian Vernor, @vernor Jonathan Neve, @jkneve
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R I D E R S Brian Vernor Height: 5’10” Weight: 160 lbs Hair Color: Brown Eye Color: Blue Birthplace: Santa Cruz, CA Currently Resides: Los Angeles, CA Bike: Cannondale Slate, Medium
Eric Brunt Height: 5’10” Weight: 165 lbs Hair Color: Natural Blonde Eye Color: Brown Birthplace: Twentynine Palms, CA Currently Resides: Los Angeles, CA Bike: Cannondale Slate, Medium
Jonathan Neve Height: 6’1” Weight: 152 lbs Hair Color: Brown Eye Color: Blue Birthplace: Plano, TX Currently Resides: Austin, TX Bike: Cannondale SuperX SE, 58cm
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BADWATER BASIN TO WHITE MOUNTAIN PEAK
1 92 .9 MILES
24, 613 F T EL EVATI O N GAI N I
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White Mountain Peak Elev. 14,252’ (FINISH)
Bishop
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Big Pine
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Kings Canyon National Park Teakettle Junction Stovepipe Wells
Lone Pine Sequoia National Park
Death Valley National Park
Badwater Basin Elev. -278.9’ (START)
he boys take off, late afternoon, in the land of the godforsaken: BADWATER BASIN.
Quotes are from interviews conducted post-ride. Individual conversations have been condensed and reordered for storytelling purposes.
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Eric
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There’s no other ride that incorporates so many
there was finally some relief from being in the burn of
different feelings, because there’s so many different
the sunlight.
zones — desert basin to a high-altitude peak. Eric Brian
We all had our lights off and we all rode together.
The distance, when you’re totally off the leash, is so
There was a blue hue in the sky. The moon was
surreal.
bouncing off white sand gravel. It was pretty special. We rode the entire time with no lights.
Jonathan Brian
There is a lot of time to feel a lot of different things. Brian
It was such a unique physical experience, cruising
How do we do the ride? That’s the bottom line. Making
through cool desert night air; shapes around you;
it beautiful is secondary to making it real.
enough moonlight to throw our shadows. That was amazing.
Brian
They ride through a valley of death, out and over a long dusty road.
Temperature drops.
When we were on the washboard sandy area it was
Brian
Because we were going to 14,000 feet, we were
very real to us how far we were from any type of help.
thinking, “At 7,000 feet, it won’t be that bad.” But
We only saw one car on a seventy-five mile stretch
actually, it was twenty-nine degrees.
that we were on for nine hours. Eric Eric
Brian
The weather smacks you around and teaches you
That road is terrible; it’s tough to pick a line. And
who’s boss. You get humbled a bit by the weather.
these guys, they were feeling it pretty good.
You just have to learn from it. Jonathan
Mentally, you’re just like, “Fuck, I just have to get
warm pockets of air.
through this.” Eric
It was freezing cold but we kept going through these
Eric
It’s pure suffering. You’re shelled. You’re constantly
We would check in with each other; it’s always good to hear someone talking to make sure they’re doing
expending energy.
good, they’re staying awake. Brian
Most of the time, there was active denial. If I allowed Jonathan
my mind to figure out something to do in that case,
I’ve dozed off while driving a car, but I’ve never been
then I’d probably accept it. If you don’t see anything
so fatigued that I’ve fallen asleep on a bike. You’re
other than making it, you just keep going.
just staring down the road and getting tripped out by the moving lines. It’s hard to keep your eyes open.
The mountains appear as daylight fades. They enter into the
We were descending and there was no engagement;
shadows. The cool of night; moonlight.
it was just, “Hold onto the handlebars and turn the bike through the twisty stuff.” At one point, I realized
Jonathan
In the afternoon we hit a wall of shadows behind the
I closed my eyes for more than five seconds. I think I
mountain. That was huge for me, because I knew
was swerving pretty far across the road.
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Brian
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Jonathan Once, when we saw the gate [near the summit], I
It’s very vivid. Our memories of nighttime, especially.
cried a little. Like, “Oh my god, I’m so happy to use the Jonathan
We stopped at the bottom. That was about 2:00 a.m.?
bathroom, to drink some Coke, to sit down for a few
3:00 a.m.? Something like that. We set a timer for
seconds and then just have that final six-mile push up
an hour. We all slept on the gravel, under the space
to the peak.”
blankets. After that we were in a much better place. The mountaintop reveals itself in the distance. Bald rock.
Eric
Three grown men huddling like little piglets.
Burnt black. The destination. The summit.
Brian
We had hit the wall and needed sleep. We got a
Eric
Those are like no miles you’ve ever seen.
Brian
You are very aware of how far you have to go. And
decent amount of sleep. And we felt a lot sharper after that and more capable. Pedaling again, I was much stronger than I had been at that end of the
how slow you’re going. At that point, after 160 miles,
last climb. That only lasted so long, but it lasted long
I was walking most of the uphills. You’re up over
enough to get us past.
10,000 feet and your legs are done and the going is quite slow.
They ride on, dreaming of a rising sun. They ride up, up, up. Eric
Eric
Everything was super rough, super rocky. It was slow
That climb is difficult. There are so many grade
going. Temperature was good. It was clear. Probably
changes. It’s hard to get into a rhythm.
forty-five degrees. Just warm enough.
Jonathan Once you start sowing seeds of doubt or pointing
Jonathan
I think maybe we were facing a bit of sleep deprivation.
out certain things about the situation that are facts —
Because we would stop and I would find myself
like the details of whatever difficulty we were facing
closing my eyes and almost forgetting I was on the
— you enter into unwise territory, because we were
ride. I was going someplace else entirely.
hanging on by a thread. Brian Eric
We were pushing our bikes up the peak. It was just
You’re stripped of everything to your core. And the
walking. And I was actually falling asleep on my feet as
simplest things — warmth, food, shelter — those
we were walking. I needed to stop and close my eyes
essentials mean so much more.
for a minute, but I didn’t want to fall asleep for an hour — until my body got cold enough to wake up; I wasn’t
Then, from the dark of night comes the light of day.
Eric
There was a banger of a sunrise. Pretty powerful. It was
close my eyes, because I don’t want to not make it. Or
good for the head. You’ve just come from the evening.
fall asleep for too long. But I can’t keep walking right
You feel like an animal of the night. And then the sun
now.” I don’t know how long we were there for, but
rises and you’re like, “Okay, vampire season is over.” It’s
he finally tapped me and was like, “We should keep
wild, man. The sun comes over a set of mountains and
going,” and we did. I had never been in that position
you get a renewed effort. It’s a new beginning.
before. I had never had that while being physically
even sure if I would wake up. So I tapped Jonathan and was like, “I just need you to sit with me while I
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active. It’s so weird to be mechanically putting one
Your brain is constantly sending you these fucked-
foot in front of the other but also falling asleep.
up messages, telling you to stop doing what you’re doing. And you get these bouts of self doubt and fear
Eric
Then you get your first real glimpse of White, and it
and you’re like, “I should quit. This isn’t happening.
looks so far away. You’re just like, “Oh. Fuck.” But you
This isn’t good for me.”
can see it and it looks out of this world. Brian
Brian
It was a tough one. I had a few cries along the way.
Eric
When you come down from a thing like that, you
The top is in sight, but the effort to get there is still unreal. You’re thinking, “How is it so hard to go that distance?”
Jonathan
Brian
don’t realize how shelled you are. Brian
One pedal stroke at a time. One footstep at a time.
When you’re exposed to the elements and using your
Eventually enough time will pass that this day will be
own body to transport yourself; the way that the light
over. That was the physical threshold that we were
and landscape changes, it extends everything. As a
trying to push into. Or push through.
personal experience out there, it was very beautiful.
I wanted to take it in as much as possible, while also needing to just get off my bike and sleep.
Eric
It’s definitely a day like no other.
A sunset on the mountaintop. The end of the journey.
Brian
There was a sunset-type light for 360 degrees. Everywhere was pink in the clouds. From the east side of White Mountain there were sun rays filtering through the clouds from below. I didn’t know what was happening. It was so alien. I thought we were on an off-planet moon with two suns. It actually seemed like sunrise and sunset were happening at the same time.
Jonathan
It was eye opening seeing how many times you go through psychological highs and lows. Your brain is telling you that you can’t do it anymore and you have to quit. And your body is like, “No, it’s fine.” Then your body says, “You have to quit.” And your brain is convincing you that it’s time to keep going. That’s something I’ve come to expect on hard rides.
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