This Might Be the Most Epic Climb in the World

this tiny path cutting through Bolivia's mountains is called Ruta de la muerte the death Road and yet 25 000 tourists visit each year most visitors ride down the road I was invited to ride up it how many people ride off the death Road each year so now instead of Simply avoiding a fall to my Doom I will also need to fight altitude sickness as I try to pedal to the summit 4 500 meters or 15 000 feet above sea level for my fellow Americans that's almost three times the elevation of Denver Colorado which we all know is a city that constantly brags about how high it is I live in Los Angeles at sea level and like a true YouTuber I didn't do any altitude training leading up to the ride so finally arrived in the pause uh I made it but my bike didn't my bike is still in Los Angeles the missing bike was provided by this video's sponsor the pros closet more on them later as long as the bike shows up while waiting a few of us decided to explore La Paz Nigel a former downhill world record holder Bruce a man currently taking off the hundred hardest claims in the U.S and Charlie who for reasons I don't totally understand turned down a poolside vacation in Mallorca for this suffer Fest I had two initial thoughts of the city number one wow this place is stunning and number two polish how am I winded just walking around fortunately I would soon be sitting in La paz's best seat way over there in the distance is La Cumbre that is the finish line for a climb up to death Road the ride is only 62 kilometers or 40 miles long but that's the least helpful metric found while researching the climb the experience is basically like riding up Mount Von 2 the infamous Tour de France climb twice that is if the first time was on a ragged narrow Gravel Road and the second time your ability to consume oxygen was reduced by 30 percent and the entire ride you have to consider as Nigel put it the 2000 foot Cliffs that marked the age of the narrow road one wrong turn or missed it would be unforgiving back at the hotel my bike had arrived there it is now normally I do these bike trips by myself but spending the day with Nigel Charlie and Bruce really brought me out of my shell pretty content yep the four of us were joined by Luke a doctor who has averaged 50 flights a year with his bike for the last three years and has an FTP that's nearer to philippo Ghana's than it is to mine we needed to drive to our hotel in the youngest Valley where we would start the climb the next day but since most of that trip is downhill we convince our guy Cello to let us descend on our bikes it was a long descent and my first time passing semi trucks instead of being passed by them there's a whole video on that full descent that's already on my channel but right now we're gonna jump cut to the next day early morning Before Sunrise already on the death Road Christmas [Laughter] that was the plan anyway this is John animal magnet founder of the cycling website pjam and The Mastermind behind this trip he and cello are the only two in our group who have ridden up the death road before and despite their words I'm still feeling a little apprehensive one last question yeah can you guarantee me that I'm going to make it to the top you're gonna make it no worries electrical bubbles all right [Music] The Climb begins in the little town of yolosa 1200 meters or 3 900 feet above sea level [Music] compared to Los Angeles the air is thin but it felt luxuriously Rich after spending a few days on pause John and cello plan to host trips up the death Road and throughout Bolivia this trip is kind of like a test run Javier are a talented cinematographer joined the group to capture footage for the PGM website all those cool drone shots I'm using those are his thanks Javi I set off with Nigel Bruce and Charlie and immediately we were met with stunning views at every corner it was so beautiful that it got to be a problem really fast we would turn a corner stop take a picture turn a corner stop again you get the picture we're less than an hour into the ride and I'm already worrying about how much space I have on my memory cards so far so good other than the fact that I'm sweating the death in this long sleeve kit um everybody seems in good spirits riding so slow we're at like 7 000 feet now I'm not worried about anything until we hit about 12 000 feet that's when my power just starts dropping precipitously precipitously that's what I get for trying to use a new vocabulary word I've never seen a butterfly that color this checkpoint is for tourists here's your map Bruce because of a new paved Road most local traffic including buses and large trucks no longer use the scrapple road which is very good for us obviously the exceptions are the minibuses that follow tour groups like ours going up and down the road biking up the death road is scary enough in my opinion but driving that's terrifying Michelle will probably tell me to pay attention to the road luckily John wasn't the one driving our support vehicle that day water food and an excuse to stop were all provided by our driver FICO he was the first one to wake up each day and the last one to bed after dropping us off at our hotel an absolute legendary Pico looking cool but as the saying goes all good things must come to an end that was came out wrong FICO is okay he just couldn't drive the car past this landslide [Music] it's kind of funny how even on this remote Road without any cars there was a decent amount of traffic [Music] by the time we hit the second Landslide there was a traffic jam I almost felt like I was at home on the five at rush hour a little La joke for you there that no ok anyway for some reason after crossing the landslide I felt emboldened and deliberately rode near the edge of the road for dramatic effect and then I remembered this is a YouTube video and not worth dying for so back to the left we're about halfway up the dirt part of the climb which means we're only about a fourth of the way up the entire climb but I figured I'd take this opportunity to rest a little bit under the guise of telling you about my bike so this is The BMC erz 011 I got it from the pros closet the gearing has been a lifesaver so far so I've got a 40 tooth chain ring up front I got a 52 in the back and I've just been living in the 52 this entire ride so far and after the last video a lot of you commented and you said I should not do Flats I wasn't going to listen to you but then my coach said I shouldn't do flats and I always listen to him so I've got some Shimano SPD cleats on there and I've got these sweet quack shoes 44 millimeter bars and then I've got uh 40 mil tires on here they're the Donnelly MSO explorers and they've held up wonderfully and I felt so spoiled riding that BMC everybody in the group loved it but especially cello when we went to Lake Titicaca later in the week he tried it out and absolutely fell in love even now like months later he still talks to me about it for a little moment I thought about losing the bike again on the flight home but I really like working with the pros closet so I didn't if you want more technical details on the bike you can check out this other video or I break down the whole buying process at the pros closet how it's a certified pre-owned bike so that means you're getting a bike in top condition at a great price if you think it's time for a new bike or a certified pre-owned bike or some components or accessories check out the link in the description foreign [Music] the views oh man the views throughout the climb were epic but the most famous Viewpoint is postcard corner from postcard corner on the death Road in Bolivia welcome to the GCA show if you Google images of the death Road the majority will be of this small section and like any other tourist group we spent plenty of time getting our pictures there in fact there was a bit of a cue just to get a shot the local tourism board has done a great job of turning the death Road into a popular destination and with all the cute signs and Lookout points it's easy to forget the history I'll admit I didn't give the road the respect it deserves at the start there was a large group of tourists who were writing down and and they were at Postcard Corner when we arrived I remember watching one of them dangle over the edge as their friends took pictures probably just for like Instagram I was standing next to their guide a friend of cellos while he yelled at them to get off the ledge but they just ignored him for tourists the death road is a fun adrenaline pumping experience but for a long time locals had a very different relationship with the road the road was built by paraguayan prisoners 1920s 1930s we had a war with Paraguay according to them they won according to us we won but we won the war okay anyways these guys were in the past in prison San Pedro this crazy dictatorship had idea to use these people for construction one of the constructions was this this road so they built the road in during a decade basically once they finish the the road the president decided to kill them how just pushing them to the cliff for 70 years this road was the only connection any of the towns in the region had to the capital of La Paz if you wanted to visit your family get supplies or if you had a medical emergency this road was the road you had to travel over there we have the other Wood Cross is from an accident that happened in 1985 basically two buses crushed you know once was going down the other one coming up that happened at night it was very foggy cloudy and both buses were without lights so both buses crashed and both fell down the cliff everyone died 120 people at the same time you know it's crazy I had a hard time finding exact numbers but most accounts I read said anywhere from 100 to 300 people died each year on the death road until the new paved Highway was completed around 2006. and after that death dropped dramatically but even on a paved Mountain Road driving is dangerous a few days after the death Road Luke and I were working to catch up with the rest of the group after completing a bonus climb during our Ride Along Lake Titicaca before we separated from the group cello warned us to be extra careful on their descent because there were a lot of broken sections of tarmac on this particular Road I didn't trust my descending skills to be sharp at high altitude so I kept a considerable distance from that semi truck in front of us oh the driver from what we can tell the driver wasn't wearing a seat belt and fell from one side of the cap to the other we did what we could which wasn't wasn't a lot because of the nature of the injuries and we contacted authorities but we're pretty far away from any major hospitals and it took a long time for them to arrive I've thought a lot about that driver in the last few months and that ride you know to be honest like I I just didn't enjoy riding my bike for a while after it you can see like in my right history I just kind of stopped like I feel guilty about even saying that like I'm not the one that was in the truck um I'm j i I was just a a stupid tourist there for fun you know for an adrenaline rush and over here we have this Memorial it's in Hebrew as you can see it's from another accident you know and this accident happened over there next to the yellow sign this girl was different she was uh holding a camera with the right hand and she was controlling and breaking with the front brake so she lost the control of the bike and fell down the cliff we normally put names after accidents we have an English Corner French Israeli Bolivian American Corner we have one according to statistics if we put a cross or a memorial for every person who died on the road in bikes cars buses you know we can have like a safety barrier along the road [Applause] it's going too fast to relate those buses in a song yeah man that's so sad re bikers yeah 50 years ago we were right in on the left okay going down with boxes with tracks you know and the road used to be narrow we used to have people working as a human traffic lights holding Flags red and green organizing the process in the corners you know and some of them died because they were hit by the trucks they don't see them and what did that change that changed since 2007. that was pretty recent yeah writing up the death row doesn't have to be dangerous anymore it is scary but as long as you stay away from the edge you'll be fine and despite Cello's flattery our little group isn't the only one to ride up the death row how many locals ride up every year um a few uh a few hundreds every October there's a local bike race called yolosa La Cumbre and they ride this exact route from yolosa all the way to the summit it took a little while but after a little prodding I found out chella's done way more than race up the death Road he's actually a former Bolivian National Champion as we all struggled up the climb he was moving up and down like a motivational speaker pacing the stage encouraging us to keep going riding with cello felt safe and for a moment it almost felt easy almost how you doing there Nigel oh no [Music] [Applause] does that help with cramps yeah yeah I've never tried it [Applause] you still have an hour or so of gravel to go and the ride was really beginning to take its toll greetings such passion for 9 000 feet I'm starting to sweat now because I'm working hard not because it's so hot outside and we're about to enter the clouds and it's it's beautiful [Music] [Applause] [Music] no no no no no [Music] uh [Music] spicy at the end there huh here they come John is working yeah John [Music] [Applause] my friend John got me into this hold on the good news and the bad news good we're halfway these guys are both cancer survivors who connected over their shared experiences and a lot of cycling they are two of the greatest humans I have ever met one by one all of us in our little group met John through his website pjam where he documents the biggest toughest most epic climbs in the world and he says of all the climes he's done the death road is the most [Music] ridiculous [Music] now on the new highway on a pavement far from The Edge and rejoined by [Music] joined by good news after all it should be easy to quickly smash the second half of the ride a 20 kilometer 13 Mile climb at 6.4 percent for me the normal Zone tube Pace that's about two hours of ride well before the sun goes down all right just got to 12 000 feet 8 600 feet ascended still got another 2500 feet ago definitely feeling the altitude now ah forgot about the altitude Dr Inigo San Milan aka the doctor who works with tare pagacha analyzed data from athletes around the world and concluded you lose two percent of your ability to consume oxygen every 300 meters or 1000 feet and your time to exhaustion in that same elevation is reduced by four percent that means by the time our little group reaches La Cumbre we will have lost 30 percent of our ability to consume oxygen and will potentially collapse from exhaustion 60 sooner than we would at sea level isn't science great poor Bruce had been suffering from heat exhaustion during the first half of the climb and ultimately had to pull the plug cello jumped in the car to keep an eye on him see ya and John John was already digging deep and Luke had zoomed ahead he would be the only one in our group to be Hey look that left Nigel Charlie and myself to write together how far in are we 31 miles to go eight to go eight uh seven I think seven that sounds good but we eventually split as we each found our own pace [Music] I just got chased by two dogs I wish the GoPro was on but at least my Wahoo was recording so you can see my little Sprint I'm 13 000 feet above sea level right now the last thing I wanted to do was put down some power and burn a match but uh here we are here's the data on that little Sprint that I was so proud of so much raw power all jokes aside that dog was right next to my cat I was terrified and I love dogs one member of our group who shall remain unnamed almost bought a machete just to bring on the ride with him just past ten thousand feet climbed I think I got like an hour to go struggling for breath at 4 300 meters or 14 000 feet I remember thinking this might be the most beautiful place in the world of course I was starting to suffer from hypoxia but looking at the footage now yeah that memory holds up it is gorgeous in the footage well there there was less and less footage happening because it was getting harder to turn the camera on my fingers were tingling and I was starting to see these twinkling stars around the edges of my vision Charlie had a pulse oximeter but I hadn't seen him for an hour or so at this point I had no idea how near or far he was so I wasn't going to get access to it anytime soon Charlie was the only one in our group to do altitude training in a reduced oxygen environment when I asked him the most valuable thing he learned he said that if his blood oxygen level dropped below a certain point he would stop pedaling and rest for a few minutes gradually as long as he controlled his breathing he would watch his blood oxygen level increase until it was high enough for him to begin again so I got off my bike and I waited for the tingling and the Halo Vision to go away I think I got about 20 minutes there's some blue sky up there believe it or not it's gonna be close the sun was setting and I had no light not a good scenario when there are semi trucks passing you on a winding Mountain Road should I have waited for FICO Bruce and cello to catch up with me in the van Maybe the last hour of the climb wasn't pretty it was this like ugly recursive dance of like diving into the ditch every time I heard a truck coming up behind and I saw their headlights on the road and ignoring the tingling in my hands and growing stars in my vision until it was like too much to ignore I was just trying to Summit before it was completely dark and I failed I can't believe I did it I also succeeded not in a glamorous way I actually like rode right past the sign for the summit because it was dark and then I had to turn around but I found it longest climb I've ever done by far after that I fumbled around in the dark a little bit like riding in circles looking for everyone else finally I had the genius idea to use my iPhone flashlight I wish I would have thought of that earlier and my fingers again are still tingling at this point so you can imagine my relief when I saw the van parked up ahead oh man Charlie and Nigel had just finished their rides too cello grabbed my phone to record my like immediate reaction and I just had the most profound Reflections I don't know we're at like 15 000 feet my brain's not working right now as you can see everything's still a haze climbed in the van to warm up with Bruce and Luke and we all made our way down to like a restaurant to eat after this ride John wasn't there he was still climbing the guy has so much grit it's insane we were all exhausted that was time I love things Matt best guide remember to check out the link to the pros closet in the description everybody on this ride all of their like Social Links and everything those are also in the description give them some Kudos because what a ride there he is thought you'd see me live again it was very hard did anybody else say that everybody thought it was easy yeah

Channel: Mitch Boyer

Views: 84,995

Keywords: cycling, bikes, road biking, mitch boyer, death road bolivia

Id: PZJ178CgoWw

Length: 25min 45sec (1545 seconds)

Published: Sun Sep 10 2023