Two Bend teens tackle tough Everest Challenge

Biked the amount of elevation equal to height of Mount Everest (29,029 feet)

(Update: adding video, new info,comments from both cyclists)

BEND, Ore. (KTVZ) -- The Everest Challenge, or Everesting, is an endurance test for athletes, climbing the amount of elevation equal to the height of Mount Everest, the tallest mountain in the world, reaching more than 29,000 feet. Within the last two weeks, two Bend teenagers tackled the tough feat.

Ian Brown, 15, and Parke Chapin, 16, have already been competitive cyclists for several years. They told NewsChannel 21 Thursday finishing the Everest Challenge was a completely different animal.

"It's less impressive on paper, but like, in my head, I know that that was probably one of the hardest challenges i've ever done," Brown said.

Chapin added, "It's probably one of the bigger things which is funny, because I never really thought of it as a bigger thing, it just -- now that I'm done it's like, 'Oh wow, yeah, there's not a lot of people that have done that. That's pretty big.'"

Brown and Chapin attempted and accomplished the feat on their bikes, which meant they had to stay on the same hill, regardless of how many miles it took.

Brown completed the Everest Challenge two weeks ago on Summit Drive in northwest Bend. Brown said he went up and down Summit Drive 85 times, traveling 150 total miles and finishing in 13 hours and 30 minutes.

Chapin, meanwhile, did his ride on Tuesday on Pilot Butte in northeast Bend. Chapin told NewsChannel 21 it took him 64 laps on the butte and 140 total miles to finish in 13 hours and 43 minutes.

Both Brown and Chapin went well beyond the 29,029-foot minimum, both climbing closer to 30,000 feet.

The times, distance and feet of elevation were tracked by GPS device attached to their bikes.

"Yeah, it's just really cool to know that you can achieve something like that big of a challenge," Brown said. "So that was the biggest thing for me."

Chapin said the accomplishment is still taking time to sink in. When he looks back on it, he credits part of his success to early encouragement from his friend.

"I started at 4 a.m., and (Ian) was there at 5:30 a.m., so only an hour and a half later. I was riding down and I saw him, and then when I started riding back up again he's like, 'Hey.' I'm like, 'Oh dude, thanks so much for showing up.' He's like, 'Yeah, I know personally for me the mornings were the hardest part.' That was just like, 'Oh wow.' It felt pretty supportive, and then it just kind of picked up from there."

Brown said he would be willing to try it again, but wants to explore other challenges first.

Chapin, on the other hand, said, “It might be interesting to actually try to climb the actual mountain, but not do it again."