BEN HILDRED: JOURNEY TO A MILLION

Ben’s goal is to climb 1’000’000 feet in 100 days. Consecutive days.

The battle we all share with desire isn’t unique. Some of us chase comforts, some chase possessions, some chase community, some chase solitude, some chase ego and some chase time. Ben has a unique desire. He chases vertical. He chases time on the bike. Part of the maddening side of his journey is that he doesn’t necessarily chase quality time. He chases the slivers in time where quality riding and quantity intersect. The process by which he attains this so heavily regimented that any slight deviation in the process might topple the entire thing, breaking the path to completion.

It wasn’t so long ago that Ben was chasing the goal of an “Everest”, a now more common goal amongst cyclists to climb the height of the World’s largest peak using the same climb and descent inside of a 24-hour window. This did not satisfy Ben, it awakened something. After graduating from this he moved onto his next goal, the height of Earth’s stratosphere, then Olympus Mons, then Double Everest, then 1’000’000 feet in 200 days.

Halving that 200-day timeline, the average Ben will need to climb every day to make the goal is roughly a third of his Everest feat. An effort that not so long ago seemed Herculean.

Each goal, more drawn out, more repetitive and ultimately more dangerous than the last has funneled him into an existence of complete efficiency. With the earlier, shorter-term goals there was room for work, room for play, room for life. 1’000’000 feet in 100 days shatters those pillars of life in favor of being completely embedded in process. Each day repeating the last, learning, moving, riding but trapped inside of it.