By Pepper Parr

July 24, 2017

BURLINGTON, ON

The first ever Halton Everesting challenge Saturday along Kerns Road didn’t end the way organizers had hoped.

After beginning the one-day vertical ‘climb’ of Mount Everest at 4:30 a.m. Saturday, remaining riders George Orfanogiannis and Matt Zielinski had to call the event at lap 69 (just short of 73 laps of the 4.9-kilometre loop)) due to malfunctioning measuring equipment.

What are a bunch of cyclists doing on Kerns Road pretending they are climbing Mount Everest? They were “Everesting”.

George Orfanogiannis’s eight year old son Joey was diagnosed with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia in January of 2016 and has been battling the disease since then.

Joey is currently at a point where the disease is being maintained. His doctors hope to be able to say it is in remission if his current maintenance program goes well through to 2019.

Joey – ready to take on whatever comes his way.

Joey is now on daily chemotherapy medication and monthly visits to the hospital. He had to be homeschooled for a year but has returned to his school and is looking forward to getting back to class in September.

The “Everesting” was to raise funds and awareness of the cancer that has invaded Joey’s young body.

George was a cyclist with the Oakville Morning Glory cycling club; they took up the challenge of driving up and down Kerns Road in Burlington until they had ridden the equivalent of 29,029 feet in elevation – which is the height of Mount Everest from its base camp.

They did all the paper work and set up stuff with the Everest organization – they are the people who oversee the challenge for any group that wants to create a target they can work towards achieving.

The day of the “climb” turned out to be less than stellar, drizzly rain was an on and off thing throughout the day but that didn’t deter Joey for as much a minute. He was running all over the place serving people lemonade. His day took a huge surge when a Burlington Fire department truck rolled into the parking lot and Joey was made an honorary fire fighter and got to wear fire fighters clothing and have his picture taken. Big moment for Joey Orfanogiannis.

Non the worse for a stern lecture from a police officer fr blowing through stop signs one of the cyclists checks in with the family.

Half an hour earlier a police cruiser slide into the parking lot. The officer had pulled over a couple of the cyclists who were blowing through stop signs at speeds in the 60km range – on the downhill portion of Kern Road. No tickets – but stern warnings. All was forgiven when the police officer bought himself a tall lemonade.

Things weren’t going as smoothly for the “climb”

At the approximately 315-kilometres point, the cyclists were “feeling good and ready to go the distance” said Orfanogiannis.

But something didn’t seem right, the riders “did a quick recalculation” and found that the device that measured altitude had been affected by the day’s air pressure, and had “robbed us of 60’ for every climb we did.”

“That would have taken the ride to 88 laps and pushed us to 6 a.m. We were ready to go to 6 a.m., but the issue became was going to rain again and we thought if we get to 6 a.m., what happens if the rain robs us of more laps; does it become too dangerous to finish?”

“We stopped just short of what should have been 27,064’ but on the device doing the actual measurement was reading 23,000’ (Everest is 29,029’) The ride doesn’t count unless it is measured on by the software that takes all the data and calculates just how many feel of elevation the cyclists have completed.

What no one told the riders from Morning Glory was that atmospheric conditions were part of the calculation – lots of clouds meant a different barometric pressure reading on the measurement device.

But these riders wouldn’t be considered hard-core cyclists if they gave up after their first attempt.
“We gotta get up it. I won’t stop until I get it and neither will Matt,” said George

Orfanogiannis came up with Halton’s first Everesting attempt, not just as a challenge for himself, but to raise funds and awareness in support of research into pediatric oncology; his son Joey, 7, was diagnosed with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia in January of 2016.

George Orfanogiannis

“When my son was going through treatment I always told him I wouldn’t ask him to do what I wouldn’t do. I asked him to climb a mountain so I owe him a mountain,” said Dad.

Orfanogiannis said the event was incredible nonetheless based on the hundreds of people who came out to support the cyclists, not just fellow riders but members of the community and those touched by cancer. Two thousand dollars was also raised.

“Four young children came down at midnight with their parents to donate their allowance money,” said Orfanogiannis, a selfless act that moved him to tears.

The next day a small group of girls had set up their lemonade stand on Kerns Road, raised $130 and donated that to the cause as well.

The residents along Kerns Road were so moved by the effort that they said they will ask the city to close the road next year and make it a much bigger event.

Orfanogiannis and his team “knew what we were in for physically and emotionally, it was devastating when we realized we came this far only to be robbed by technology.”

Lap chart at 2:00 pm on a rainy Saturday afternoon. The challenge began at 4:30 am. They made it to lap 69

George Orfanogiannis isn’t all that good at giving up. He reports that “there is currently open dialogue with Strava the software that manages the data for rides and there may be a chance the realize the error in the technology and be willing to correct it – if that is the case I would need to climb the hill eight more times which I am prepared to do.”