Once you’ve pulled the trigger on the commitment to condition, you’re now ready to choose your hill.

This is the most important decision you will make on this whole journey.

You need to find a hill that best suits your way of riding and your fitness. If the steepest hill you ride and have access to week in week out is a 400m long 4% average gradient then there seems little point in selecting an 11% 5km monster.

You want a hill that’s going to hit the sweet spot in terms of elevation while also not being too gentle an incline that you need 48 hours to get to the magic 8,848.

Similarly, a punchy little number is appealing because on paper “it will be over faster”, but then fatigue and the desire to abandon will also descend upon you faster.

The accepted wisdom is that any hill that can be Everested in under 200km is at the sharper end of the challenge, while a gentler incline will be closer to the 300km mark and will most likely run over the 24 hour mark, so no-sleep fatigue will become a serious factor in addition to the fatigue from the effort exerted.