The Mt. Washington Auto Road, opened in 1861, snakes up New England’s highest peak.
Beginning in 1973, cyclists challenge themselves by riding up its 4,000+ vertical feet over 7.6 grueling miles in a race often known as “toughest hillclimb in the United States”, the Mt. Washington Auto Road Bicycle Hillclimb. UnTapped Maple Fanatic Ian Boswell traded his knobby gravel tires for an extralight, skinny tired bike as he recently took on the iconic challenge.
The following is Ian’s summary of what brought him to the start line… and what he earned as he crossed the finish line.
From the center of Peacham, Vermont you can see the majestic Mount Washington rise above the landscape like a tower overlooking the land. For years now, I have seen the summit from the roads around my home while riding up and down the rolling hills of Vermont’s Northeast Kingdom. Despite only living 50 miles as the crow flies from the summit, the “Rock Pile” was never on my list of roads to climb.
Most of my riding these days is on the endless dirt that criss-crosses this part of the country and a paved 7+ mile climb seemed like an effort from a lifetime since passed. That’s not to say Mt. Washington hasn’t come up in a Strava search of mine over the past few years — my search, however, has been during the winter months and been for skiing rather than biking up the mountain.
There are several ways to summit the peak: by foot (I have gotten into trail running over the past few autumn seasons, but have yet to take on something so strenuous), by bike (when it is open to bikes for two days of the year during the practice ride and official ride for the Mt. Washington Hill Climb), by car (I never desired a bumper sticker on my truck saying “This Car Climbed Mt. Washington”), and by cog rail (I am not a fan of lines, touristy things or paying money to sit on a train for two hours only to end up where I started).
Thus, until July of this year, I had never been to the top of the mountain by any mode of transportation.
Earlier this spring, my long-time competitor and friend Peter Stetina shared that he was coming to New England in July for a practice event with the aim to break the official hill climb record in August. I told Pete he was welcome to stay with us and that I’d be happy to support his attempt (given the grade of the road, riders must return to the base by car and no one is allowed to ride back down the mountain). In mid-July, Pete arrived from California to our old farm house in Peacham, ready to take on the climb.
I really enjoy being part of the “team” and supporting athletes who are striving to achieve a goal. I built up Pete’s bike, made sure he had the equipment to properly warm up, and gave him all the support and encouragement I remembered from my professional road cycling days. I loved being out there supporting Pete, seeing him give his all and being there at the finish with a bottle and curiosity to see if he broke the record. Driving to the top that day was my first time up the mountain, and my goodness, is it a magnificent place on this planet. The winds that day were howling (as they often are, the highest ever windspeed on planet earth was clocked at the top of the mountain), and thus Pete missed the record due to literal elements out of his control. That was okay, though, as July was largely just a dry run and a chance for Pete to dial in his setup and preparation. The main and official event was still four weeks away.
Once off the top and back in Conway, NH enjoying some breakfast, Pete began to poke to see if I had any interest in giving the climb a go when he returned in August for the official event. I told him I would think about it, and would let him know.
Pete set off for the airport and I drove home with his stripped down climbing bike to store until August when he returned. Once home, my wife and our eldest daughter went to a play, leaving me with the little one. I got her down for a nap and got the itch to tinker with my Specialized Aethos road bike to see if it would make a good bike for hill climbs. What began as a naptime project quickly turned into a fun game using my wife’s baking scale to see how much weight I could strip off the bike. Eventually, I got my bike to 12.5 LBS, then realized that a light bike won’t be all it takes to get up the mountain.
Over the next week, I continued with my regular riding and even did a few hill repeats to see how I was moving. I then signed up for the Mt. Ascutney Hill Climb and figured it would be a good test as it is only half the time it takes to do Washington. All the while, the deadline for registration for Mt. Washington was quickly approaching. I now had the bike, had been constantly riding and even had a test event to figure out all the details. Before finally signing up I called Pete, and asked him if he still wanted me to sign up. I didn’t want to step on his toes and the attempt he was making, but he assured me that he’d like for me to join, and that the added competition could be a good thing.
The rest is all less interesting in my opinion. I did Mt. Ascutney at the beginning of August and set a new course record. It was a confidence-building ride indeed, however, still a bit less than half of the time it would take to climb Washington. If getting up Mt. Ascutney required one Coffee UnTapped gel, how many would I need to get up Washington?
Between Ascutney and Washington, I carried on with my regular riding, doing a few more hill repeats and even tried to cut back on creemees and beer. I’d give myself a solid B- in that attempt.
The actual day of Mt. Washington was fairly straightforward. Ultimately, I just had to ride as hard as I could while managing my effort for 7.4 miles at a 12.6% average grade. I was able to do the best I could on the day and we were blessed with stunning clear skies and very low winds. I finished with an official time of 50:15 and took the Strava KOM of 49:48. While this is the new record, one rider in the early 2000’s has posted a quicker time, but that is another, controversial story. So as it stands and for the moment, I hold the official best time up the Rock Pile.
And, I cannot forget to mention my motivating factor for doing this: my buddy Chris picked up a used Taylor Creemee machine earlier this year for a screaming deal, and we then made a bet that if I win and take the record he would sell me the machine for his cost plus one dollar. So after 50 minutes of climbing and $101 dollars, I am now the proud owner of my very own creemee machine; a sure fire way of making sure I never go up that hill so fast again.
But I think maple creemees are a worthy prize, no? I know where I will be getting my maple from!
All photos by Joe Viger.