Former Homer resident Todd Markelz completed the international Everesting Challenge on bike on Tuesday, July 2, on Homer’s West Hill Road.

The Everesting Challenge is an event in which athletes climb the equivalent vertical height of Mount Everest, 29,032 feet, through climbs repeated on the same hill on the same day.

Markelz completed 42 climbs of West Hill over 11 hours with a total elevation climb of a little over 30,000 feet. He explained that athletes always want to make sure they go slightly farther than the actual height, “to make sure you don’t come up short.” He started his efforts at the Sterling Highway base of the hill and rode to Jeffery Avenue.

The official Everesting website tracks and verifies the athlete’s accomplishment of the challenge. Athletes are allowed to stop for water and food breaks, but for each stop the timer remains running. Once the climb is completed, athletes are added to the Everesting website Hall of Fame. Markelz is listed there as the most recent successful climb. There are a total of 29,544 successful Everestings, according to the website.

This was the first time Markelz has participated in the event and was his longest bike ride. A day after the event, he said he was not as sore as he expected to be and felt the activity more in his back and neck than legs.

Markelz now lives in Mountain View, California, and has been working for Google for approximately 20 years. He has a Homer summer home where brings his family each year. He thought that the climate in Homer would be a better location for the ride rather than California.