Rode for a while with a group which was headed by a bike designer for the late lammented Outland bikes. He was on a full suspension bike with six inches of rear travel, which another guy called a "chopper." Wonder if he designed Outland's highly regarded but commercially unsuccessful "virtual pivot point" suspension

I beat them all on the climb (their fastest guy was on a Trek hardtail, but he had trouble with loose stuff scattered on the surface), and caught them all on the down, even though I started last.

Approximately 900 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.