Summit day of my climb will be the most difficult. We will leave Kibo Hut at 15,500 feet for the summit at 19,340 feet, almost 4000 feet of vertical distance in only 5 kilometers of actual distance. Needless to say, it’s steep, and it’s loose and rocky. Bomba, my vehicle, is powered by the two back wheels. On the steep, loose terrain, it won’t power as much as it will dig trenches, so we need an alternative method of climbing the mountain.

Today, we’re testing and putting the finishing touches on the winch—a self-tailing sailing winch that will allow me to climb a fixed rope. An alternate chain will attach my cranks to the winch. Through pedaling, I will pull the rope towards me, effectively moving myself up the mountain. The loose surface will matter less as I roll along the top instead of digging in with the back wheels.

When we did our scouting mission in June, we used a winch really effectively. We hope that this winch will be more effective, but at the moment we’re still putting all the pieces together. I’ll let you know tomorrow how the winch testing went, and I’ll let you know how optimistic we are about that final summit day.

Big wheels were the term of the day yesterday. My climbing vehicle looked like something out of a Batman movie. Each of the four wheels was four inches in width—larger than a motocross wheel. The larger profile grew the wheels from 26” to closer to 29”. When my old wheels sat next to them they looked like toys—ridiculously small.

So we took Bomba, with the new Batman style wheels out for a test ride, and they worked great. I climbed up a steep pitch on rocks that were often bigger than basketballs. While it wasn’t easy, it was possible. The clock is ticking on us. Sunday is coming quickly, but we’re still working to improve the vehicles. Dave Penney has assembled a great team. A lot needs to come together in the next few days. It seems like a crazy situation, but I have a strange confidence that it will all work.