• Founded in 2017, 29029 is a new kind of ultra endurance event where participants ascend a mountain repeatedly until they reach the vertical height of Mount Everest (i.e. 29,029ft/8,848m).
• Chris Sywassink has experience of completing ultra endurance events but had never completed an Everesting challenge before and so he had a one-to-one call with the Precision Fuel & Hydration Athlete Support Team to refine his fueling strategy for this unique 29029 event in Utah, where he would hike up Snowbasin mountain and get a gondola down 13 times
• Chris planned to implement a relatively simple nutrition plan over the 36-hour event and aimed to use a combination of real foods and PF 30 Gels for fuel, as well as a mix of PH 1000 and plain water for his hydration
• The 34-year-old executed his entire race strategy perfectly as he completed 29029 in 25 hours, although he had to overcome a few challenges including two thunderstorms and a broken down gondola

Hydration

• Ahead of the event, Chris made sure to preload with PH 1500 to ensure that he was starting his first hike at 6am well hydrated before a long day of sweating
• Throughout the first four hikes, Chris’ strategy consisted of filling his 620ml/21oz soft flask with PH 1000 at aid stations which he drank to thirst alongside the occasional cup of plain water
• As conditions got hotter (the temperature pushed towards 27°C/81°F at its peak during the day), Chris’s sweat rate started to increase and he also felt some twinges of cramp in his quads. Consequently, Chris made the smart decision to increase the relative sodium concentration he was taking on board, by switching to our strongest electrolyte drink PH 1500, and to increase his fluid intake to account for his increased sweat losses
• Chris drank a total of approximately ~10.5L/355oz, which equates to ~415ml/14oz per hour on average across the 25 hours in which he completed the event. On the surface this seems like a sensible quantity of fluid, but this doesn’t show the whole picture as in reality Chris’s fluid intake varied greatly hour by hour. This is understandable in an event of this length where finding the balance between drinking to thirst but being mindful to drink enough is critical as individuals’ losses change throughout the day (i.e. temperatures overnight can get very cold on the mountain so sweat losses and fluid intake are therefore likely to be considerably lower than when the sun is out during the day)
• Chris trod this line reasonably well to avoid any further hydration-related issues and performed at a high level to be one of the first competitors to complete 29029 at Snowbasin. Reflecting on the day, Chris said that there were a few times where he had hoped to have been able to drink more but he never felt dehydrated and peed relatively frequently towards the second half of the event which illustrates that he didn’t under hydrate
• From the PH 1000, PH 1500 and plain water that Chris drank throughout, the relative sodium concentration of his intake was ~1,187mg/L. Prior to the event, Chris had undergone a Sweat Test which confirmed that his sweat sodium losses are in the ‘moderate’ range as he loses 757mg of sodium per litre of sweat
• Chris could have used the stronger relative sodium concentration of PH 1500 from the start and supplemented this with water as he did successfully from hike five onwards. He has a moderate sweat sodium concentration alongside a subjectively high sweat rate, and over an event of this length an athlete’s sweat sodium losses can build up, so it may have been more beneficial to use a more proactive sodium and fluid replacement strategy from the onset

Fueling

Conclusions

• Overall, Chris performed excellently at 29029 Snowbasin #1, despite some time delays as a result of storms
• He implemented a solid fuel and hydration strategy throughout that ensured he was able to keep pushing on for each of the 13 ascents. Some elements could have been refined, but Chris was rightly happy with his performance and his strategy