Michal Ozogan

For the past 5 years, I was in pursuit of long bike journeys that allowed me to cross high mountains, deep forests and travel wide distances. I slept short, biked long and (in a way) enjoyed every moment. But this time I prepared for a different challenge myself. Riding up one hill, again and again, meter by meter, to achieve the highest mountain on Earth – 8848 meters. It’s lucky we’re not on Mars.

I was awake long before the alarm clock. But to have your eyes open is one thing and getting out of the sleeping bag is another. It took me half an hour of convincing to get the job done. It wasn’t easy to pack all my things, including the rescue blanket which changed from a small square to a huge piece of trash. The cold helped me with the speed.

Even though I slept 1200 metres above the sea level, I wasn’t cold. It was better than in a valley next to a river. I had four walls, with little holes, and it gave me enough isolation from the outside. I had a bird family that was protecting me from the danger outside. Or at least, I believed they were.

Seat bags are part of basic bikepacking equipment on longer journeys. But they aren’t necessary. Like everything they have advantages and disadvantages and it’s up to you how you will spread out your gear across the bags. Unlike the classic panniers, they don’t use the metal rack, so they don’t tend to be damaged in hard terrain.

I signed up for Carpatia Divide at the end of April. There wasn’t much information, because it was the first year of the event. For some time I was actually thinking it’s some kind of scam for too-enthusiastic bikers. From what I understood, there was a precedent race called Transparatia, which was more or less ordinary mountain bike stage race. But CD was going to be a classic bikepacking adventure in a remote location and without any kind of support – as I like it.

The simplest way how to track your speed is by GPS. It works with all vehicles even with human legs. Unfortunately, it doesn’t give always precise results. Sharp curves are not sharp and what if get inside a building or to the tunnel? For accurate results, you need a speed sensor.

I bought Fitbit Ionic last year in November. It took me a while to write this review. I hoped that during that time a few bugs will be fixed, Fitbit OS will be little bit tunned, I will learn to use all features and there will be more apps available. There was no use in waiting for most of the things.

On March 2012 I used Endomondo for the first time. It is now 6 years. I bought a premium app and then even a premium membership and keep it for several years. Since Endomondo was bought by Under Armour I have the feeling that platform is not evolving anymore. I cancelled my membership and thinking about searching different app.

Doarama is a great web app where you can upload your GPX file of your activity and you will get a beautifil visualization of your achievement. It is most impressive in hilly terrain when you can see how you climb to the top of mountains. It can also visualise air activities as paragliding.

If you run or bike, the ascendant is very important metrics. It is much easier to achieve 20 kilometres in flat terrain than climb high hills. Elevation can be measured by GPS or by the altimeter. Both options have disadvantages.