Where Will We Do the Ride?

The Location - Ojos del Salado

Where is the ideal place to try and break an altitude record for motorcycles?  A read through our articles on the history of people riding high has shown that historically most high rides have been in the Himalaya.  Over the past 5-6 years, however, there has been an equally strong drive to look to South America and the Andes.  We agree with the South American logic and intend to head there for our attempt, and one mountain in particular, Ojos del Salado.

The idea of riding high has been in my head for several years.  Initially I was interested in the Indian Himalaya.  There are loads of regular roads and passes up above 5,000 metres high.  Those passes are obviously a base to attempt to ride higher, if the ground surrounding the pass is rideable.  The idea was developed further in the Pamir in 2009, when I rode a pass at 4,665 metres, but noticed much of the surrounding terrain was not particularly steep and was in fact quite gentle and rounded.

I spoke at length with Indian biker and fantastic moto photographer Mani Babbar, who had himself ridden to Marsimik La, and looking at his pics, the possibilities were clearly there to ride higher, provided the bikes had more power than they typical Indian 15 hp, 150cc carb’d bikes that rode up there.   This theory was conclusively proved by the current world record, which was a bunch of Indian guys who rode up to Marsimik La and then made their way up the hillsides another 600 metres of vertical.

But the more we looked into it and discussed it, the more the Andes made sense.  While the Andes are not as high as the Himalaya, that additional height is pretty much a moot point, since no-one is riding high enough to challenge the summits of the Andes, let alone the Himalaya.  And the Andes have one huge advantage … the slopes of the mountains are often less steep. 

The clincher for us, around June last year, was studying the assorted videos and stories of the last two world records for cars.  Both drives were in 2007, both were over 400 metres higher than any bike has ever gone, and one of the drives was in a near stock Jeep Wrangler.  Importantly, both drives were on one particular mountain … Ojos del Salado … Eyes of Salt.

Ojos del Salado is the second highest mountain in the Andes, and indeed in all of South America.  Perhaps most importantly, it is the world’s highest volcano.  Volcanoes tend not to be extremely steep, and their slopes tend to be very even, compared with regular mountains.  This is because volcanoes are formed by ash and molten lava flowing down from the top, rather than the earth violently heaving upwards, as is the case with regular mountains. Ojos del Salado will, however, not be a cakewalk.  Being a volcano, the slopes feature significant amounts of sand like ash.   There are glaciers to cross on our route; and fields of ice javelins called penitentes.  The area is remote.  The nearest town, including fuel and water, is 300 km (190 miles) away.  It’s one of the windiest areas on the planet, and even in summer temperatures can drop to -25C.  The remoteness means we must be 100% self contained, and very careful.  Injury either from accident or from altitude will spell the end of the project for at least one of us.

Despite the remoteness, it will be to Ojos del Salado that we head in less than 4 weeks time, to begin the process of acclimatisation and ultimately, to take on the world’s highest volcano itself. 

The Altitude Review - Part 3

In this third and final part of this series, we take a look at the most recent high rides, and of course the highest rides of all.  While a few of these rides have taken place in the usual suspect range, the Himalaya, you will note quite a bit of recent attention moving towards the Andes mountains in South America.  We see the logic of this, which is why we too will be heading to the Andes mountains in South America for our little altitude ride.  And on that note, let’s start off in the Andes:

Miles McEwing, a Canadian race car driver and his wife Tracey took on a different speed when they headed to South America with a 2WD Ural sidecar rig in 2011.  Always up for a challenge, the mercurial McEwing took his Ural sidecar rig up to an impressive 5,300 metres (17,388 ft) in Peru / Chile.  We reckon that’s possibly a sidecar altitude record ... unless someone has gone over Khardung La in a sidecar.

Joe Pichler:  KTM’s legendary “Ambassador of Adventure” rode a regular garden variety, touring equipped, hard metal boxed 990 Adventure up to 5,796 metres (19,016 feet) in 2007 on the sides of a volcano in the Bolivian Andes, while on a 2-up tour of the continent with his wife Renate.   Renate only jumped off at 5,600 m, which in itself has to be a record for 2-up riding at altitude.  Overall we reckon Joe's 990 is the biggest bike to ever make it up to the rarefied air of 19,000 feet. (http://josef-pichler.at/)

Globebusters:  The BMW affiliated UK based motorcycle tour company regularly guides its clients through Tibet on a route that takes the clients, including their female Expediton Guide Tiffany Coates, as well as several female clients, up to a pass along normal roads at 5,386 metres (17,670 feet).  We reckon this is quite possibly a women’s motorcycle altitude record.

Craig Bounds / Tamsin Jones:  British Dakar rider Craig Bounds and his Dakar riding girlfriend Tamsin Jones set out in November 2011 to attack the world altitude record for bikes.  They target was Everest, and like Kazama’s record ride (6,005m), tried the Northern side.  They made it about 150 metres above Everest Base Camp, to 5,359 metres (17,581 feet) and Tamsin claimed a women’s “Everest record”.  Which I guess means the highest a woman has been on a bike specifically on the slopes of Mt Everest.  It’s actually exactly the same height as the number of women who have ridden bikes to Khardung La, and 27 metres lower than the Tiff Coates and the other women riding in Tibet with Globebusters.   

There is an incredible story out there about some Catalan riders who flew to South America in 1977 to try to ride their Bultaco bikes up Aconcagua, the highest mountain in South America, and indeed the highest mountain outside of Asia.  Their story is a great read but it is peppered with factual inconsistencies and inaccuracies that ultimately make their claim to have reached somewhere around 6,820 metres (22,375 ft) very difficult to believe.  The jist of their story is that they got to the Berlin Refugio which they claimed to be at 6,800 metres. then scrambled another 20 metres or so higher before weather beat them back.  The biggest problem with the story is that the Berlin Refugio is at 5,850 m (19,194 ft), approximately 1,000 metres (over 3,000 ft) lower than their claim.  We reckon they made it to somewhere about 5,875m (19,275 ft) which would still have been a record ride for that time, if they had got some even vaguely accurate altitude measurements.  Stories like this do justify Guinness having quite strict verification standards.

Chilean / Swiss / Austrian Motorecord project: In early 2008, a well organised multinational team took trials bikes with sand tyres to Ojos del Salado in Chile, managed to get up to 6,220 metres, (20,406 feet) and in doing so scored a new Guinness World Record and overtook the unofficial record of Juhasz (by about 40 metres) which had stood for over a decade.  The fuelling was an issue on the trials bikes, and there was talk the project would one day return to Ojos del Salado for a second project, this time with fuel injection.   We have a few reservations about using unregistered bikes for a project like this.  Every other ride we have detailed in this series, including the world record Indian ride below, has used registered, number plated, regular street legal motorcycles.  We feel the spirit of adventure motorcycling implies that the bikes should be registered and plated, even if it isn't a requirement of the Guinness verification process.

North Kolkata Disha:  A motorcycle club from Calcutta, India; we take our hats off to these guys.  Six guys set off from steamy Calcutta in late 2008 to take the Guinness World altitude Record for bikes away from the Motorecord project and bring it back to the Indian Himalaya: and indeed they did it, topping them by just 25 metres, and it is the record that stands to this day.  These guys got to 20,488 feet (6,245 metres) on 29^th August 2008, by first heading to Marsimik La and then making their own trail over 600 metres higher, above the pass.  Sadly I am unaware of any write up of this ride, nor of any photos.

Nationalism: It's worth mentioning how much nationalism is involved in some of the rides.  In earlier reports we mentioned how altitudes on signs have been inflated so that India can claim (incorrectly) the highest this and the highest that. And some of the nationalism visible in some of the rides is quite overtly apparent (see pic below - with a sign inflated by a ridiculous 1300 feet!).  The Chinese Guinness World Record was similarly obviously a nationalistic project - an attempt to somehow illustrate the superiority of the Chinese  over all others.  We are very pleased to say that as a multinational team, we are clearly NOT involved in a futile attempt to prove the superiority of one group of people over others based on the type of passport we happen to hold.  We are just a group of friends who just want to have fun and try to ride higher than anyone else has before.

And that basically takes us to where we are today ... with a multinational trio from the US, Austria and the UK, about to ship 3 Husaberg motorcycles to South America ... to take on this mountain ... and the existing motorcycle record of 6,245 metres (20,488 ft).

A final note ... by way of comparison, the car record is a lot higher than the motorcycle record (by about 450m / 1500 feet).  That record is 6,688 metres (21,942 ft) set on the slopes of Ojos del Salado, in Chile

The Altitude Review - Part 1

How high can motorcycles go? Who has been where, how high and when? Over the coming week we will provide a little background to motorcycles at altitude, and the altitude record in a 3 part blog post. Let's kick off part one with some of the more well known locations for riding high!

The highest motorable road in the world … at least that’s what it claims of itself, is Khardung La, a pass on the Manali – Leh road in the Northern Indian region of Ladakh. The road has been ridden by thousands of motorcyclists over the years. The sign at the pass (see below) says 18,380 feet (5,602 metres). Now we don’t know how you precisely define “motorable”, but defining feet and metres is a much simpler game. The reality is Khardung La is actually 5,359 metres (17,582 feet) as defined by GPS surveys, satellite mapping, etc. That's 800 feet below what is claimed on the sign. So if Khardung La is only 5,359 metres, then the first thing that is apparent is that altitude claims on signs are of particularly limited value (apart from for the sake of glory photos), especially when anecdotal evidence from locals tells of how the altitudes were deliberately falsified on the signs for the sake of providing superlatives … such as the “highest motorable road” on the planet. Certainly there are other higher, just as motorable roads across the border in Tibet, such as Semo La, which is verified at 5,565m (18,258 feet). So in reality, Khardung La is neither the highest motorable road in the world, nor is it 18,380 feet above sea level. The sign at the pass is false in every sense, and deliberately so.

Also in the Indian Himalaya, Marsimik La is claimed by others (Indian local authorities) to be the location of the highest road / track in the world though it’s certainly less “motorable” than Khardung La. It’s a military road that is closed to the general public, unless you have special permission to be there. Never-the-less, Marsimik La has seen frequent 2 wheeled expeditions from numerous Indian motorcycle clubs – often on 150cc bikes! Respect !! Legendary Swedish explorer Sven Hedin crossed the pass in the early 20th century, but alas he was not on a Husaberg nor indeed on any motorcycle.

The sign atop Marsimik La (see below) claims its altitude is 18,634 feet – 5,590 metres. But if we have learned anything about Indian pass signs, it’s that they need to be treated with a very large dose of scepticism. For starters, basic conversion maths should show something incorrect with this sign. They have conjured 300 extra feet out of dodgy mathematics. 5,590 metres (if it were accurate) would translate as 18,339 feet, and not 18,634 feet. However, the 5,590 metres stated on the sign is also not accurate, and of course it’s overstated - but in this case only by a small amount. Satellite mapping and GPS data puts Marsimik La at 18,314 feet (5,582 metres), 320 feet below what is claimed on the sign.

[The sign at Marsimik La states (claims) "Marsimik La.  World's highest motorable pass. Alt 5590 mts, 18634 ft"]

Top Gear: While its definitely not motorcycling, it was watched by a large audience and is therefore a quite well known piece on vehicles at altitude. In the Bolivian special, the top gear chaps went higher and higher up the mountains on the Chilean edge of the Bolivian Altiplano in their 4WDs; eventually reaching 17,200 feet (5,243 metres). They began suffering from headaches and potentially fatal hypoxia (not enough oxygen in the blood) and had to turn back.  As extreme as they made it sound, it is worth bearing in mind that they were still on pretty well worn gravel roads that kept going higher, and their effort is a still below the hundreds of people who cross Khardung La (5,359 m) every day. Still, it made for dramatic TV.