# Washington State Hill Climb Races



## borregokid (Jun 9, 2005)

We have two hill climbs that I know of that if you havent thought of doing you might consider. The first one is the Washington State Hill Climb Championship at Crystal Mountain in August. Its a fairly short race of about 5 miles and 1500 feet of climbing. It mostly attracts road racers with a few weekend warriors with good hill climbing skills giving it a shot. Anyone can enter it but its pretty competitive. The women start out first with the older age group riders following and then the category races. Riders leave every 30 seconds. I think the fastest rider was up in about 24 minutes and the slowest was around 38 minutes. The training for this ride is pretty simple, find a hill of about 1500 feet or so and keep going up and down.

The other hill climb is the Mount Baker Hill Climb in September. Its 24 miles and a lot of climbing-all the way to the top. Officially its not a race-but it is since times are recorded. Its broken down into two categories-recreational riders and competitive. The Rec riders leave an hour before the competitive group. Some of the rec riders will have mountain or cross bikes. The fastest time to the top was 1 hr 28 minutes and the slowest was around 3:15 although I think they sweep the course for stragglers. Last year even though it was rainy it attracted a fair number of riders. 

I dont road race but these are a couple of rides that you can test your abilities against some of the best in the state.


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## mattv2099 (Aug 27, 2004)

I think I'm going to do the state hill climb champs this year!

I did Glacier to the top of Baker yesturday. Beautiful. Extremely cold on the downhill, though. The snow has been plowed from the road to the top of the point. I've never actually ridden all the way up. Thats a gnarly climb those last few miles.


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## borregokid (Jun 9, 2005)

*Mt Baker-Great Race*



mattv2099 said:


> I think I'm going to do the state hill climb champs this year!
> 
> I did Glacier to the top of Baker yesturday. Beautiful. Extremely cold on the downhill, though. The snow has been plowed from the road to the top of the point. I've never actually ridden all the way up. Thats a gnarly climb those last few miles.


The weather was pretty bad last year but there were still a lot of riders. The "competitive" group was just that-competetive. Thats probably where you want to ride.The rec group might have 2-3 guys running a decent clip but its definitely a slower group. I was able to hang in their for a while near the lead riders. The first 13 miles to the bridge and the HWY Maintenance station goes pretty fast-then its a grind to the top. They are supposed to pave the road this summer which will make it pretty nice. Those last couple of miles are interesting. Last year I hit a rock near the top, but it didnt really matter because I think I was maybe only doing 6mph. 

If you do Crystal train for an all out 25-30 minute climb. A lot of hardcore hill climbers. I think there was a woman who did it in 26 minutes last year and the first place guy was 24 minutes.


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## Mellow Yellow (Sep 5, 2003)

I'm a terrible hill climber, so I could never see my self entering any such race. I envy and comend those who are very good at it.


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