TRUE STORY: BEN HILDRED
Climbing Higher and Higher By Bike
Ben Hildred’s move to Queenstown, New Zealand, was just another stop on a biker boy’s search for the perfect place. He moved around the United Kingdom and British Columbia before relocating about as far away as possible, somewhere with real peace of mind and where he could obsess over little quirks and challenges. One challenge was to ascend 55,000 meters on his mountain bike in 30 days, all while holding down a full-time job at his gear shop.
Life became a list of numbers in December 2019 for Ben Hildred. His experiment is outlined beautifully by Mind Spark Cinema of British Columbia. He logged lines of climbed meters in a neat notebook chart at five every morning. He ties his shoes (we don’t see him eat) and silently travels up and down mountains in the park next to his house until about 7:45 AM. He then opens the bike shop, where he works as a mechanic.
The execution of the challenge itself is a reward. For Ben Hildred, there is nothing but the raw force of will (and a high degree of athleticism) pushing him towards unknown bounds. The video matches the energy of the expedition, framing most of his routine in fine rain and dark blue shadows.
There is an obsessive component to Ben’s activity. A year before his mission in Queenstown Bike Park, Ben and Henry Quinney completed a vertical lap of Whistler Bike Park, biking 20 laps around the park in one outing to reach a cumulative ascended height equal to Mount Everest. That obsessiveness, that determination, that earnest desire to do something purely for the sake of being the first to do it, push the Ben Hildreds of the world to take on these unbelievable stunts. Those qualities often match these adventurously daring people and we see them as the unusually charismatic and radiant people that they are.
An essential point for Hildred is that the hours he spends pedaling are precious moments of calm self-reflection. It isn’t easy to imagine the real determination required to ride a bike like that—elevating oneself over 1800m every day before 8 AM—yet, I find it equally puzzling and interesting how fulfilled and in tune with himself Ben Hildred must be. All those hours are spent quietly alone at the tops of mountains at sunrise. Now, only Ben knows how much higher he will climb.
