Zwift Everested! Extra Credit Badge
In addition to the usual Zwift Route and Achievement Badges there’s 12 Extra Credit Badges. These don’t appear in your Badges screen until you’ve received them and they’re typically tougher to get than the standard badges. The Everested! Badge is awarded when you’ve climbed 29,029 ft / 8,848m in a single activity. Most people do it by riding up and down Alpe du Zwift on the Watopia Road To Sky route 8 and a half times.
As with the IRL Everesting Challenge, it’s generally understood that you need to complete it within 24 hours. As days got shorter in Autumn 2021 I wondered whether it was possible to get the badge in a single activity but not in 24 hours. I didn’t have the time or enthusiasm to spend a whole day in the saddle but I did have 30 -60 minutes each day in-between work. This would mean doing it over multiple days but not ending or saving the activity in between.
When I set out I wasn’t sure whether Zwift would award me the badge, but I didn’t see why not. My main concern was about having a power cut during the challenge and losing all the progress. Just to be safe I made a note of progress at the end of each day so I could at least add the distance and elevation to my Garmin account if I lost it all.
As it turned out I had a busy time at work so I only had 30 minutes in the saddle on most days. Still, it was good exercise and I was making progress but it did take about a month to get to the target distance. I was very pleased when the Achievement Unlocked banner came up and I get my badge.
The only snag was that the activity didn’t save properly. When I checked my Zwift Activities log, it wasn’t there, so the total distance and elevation were not saved. The badge was there though which was the main thing I was interested in. I was having Wi-Fi issues at the time so that may have been the cause. I reported it to Zwift Support but they’re not able to manually add in missing progress. It’s a shame as it was a lot of distance and elevation to lose, but certainly nothing to lose sleep over.
I’m sure that some will say that it’s a cheat to not complete it in 24 hours. Am I bothered? Not in the slightest …
For how to do it the proper way, see this article on vEveresting from Ron Chatfield
