Rode up Sumas Mt. from the winery with Mark Belles the day after I had to bale part way through the ride on Galbraith because of whacking my knee.

We did it at pretty much a full sprint: I looked down at my watch at one point and noticed we had just equaled my best one hour climb total ever -- 2190 verts.

It was almost exactly one year ago to the day that I first was able to ride over Sumas Mt. last year. Then snow was still deep along the road and the air was chill; today we only saw one small patch of snow back in the woods, and the warm air quivered with hummingbirds.

Approximately 2700 verts.

Vert Quest chronicles "The Man Known As Mongo's" pursuit of the World Record for climbing on a mountain bike, 404,000 vertical feet, or the vertical equivalent of 13 sea-level-to-summit ascents of Mt. Everest during a 12 month period. Mongo's mountain bike climbing tricks are distilled in Mongo's Over-the-top Guide to Climbing.