Climb or Die Complete

AP NEWS WIRE
Brown, Morris complete “Climb or Die”
7/04/08

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Summerhaven, AZ — Mountain bikers worldwide are celebrating a significant milestone in the evolution of the sport. Mount Lemmon has fallen to a pair of Tucson cyclists.

Riders Chad Brown and Scott Morris left Tucson at 4 o’clock AM to begin climbing Milagrosa, a wicked singletrack once thought only suitable for downhill travel. Their goal was 9100′ Mt. Lemmon, some 6500 feet higher.

“It was terrible. Within 2 minutes of hitting the trail, we were sweating buckets,” said Chad Brown of their demoralizing start under cover of darkness. Tucson International recorded a relative humidity of 84% overnight. At the news of the brutal conditions, Vegas bookies dropped the odds of a successful summit bid to 10,000:1.

The “Climb or Die” challenge is an epic of untold proportions. Although the paved Catalina Highway carts cyclists quickly to the cool pines of Mt. Lemmon, the Climb or Die route follows singletrack, gaining some 12,000 feet of elevation over 30 miles. Trails on the route include: Milagrosa, Molino, Prison Camp, Bug Springs, Green Mountain, Butterfly, Bigelow, Secret Trail and Aspen Draw.

The route crosses the paved highway six times, giving riders attempting the challenge six opportunities to either “climb” or “die” (coast freely back down the mountain). To date all known challengers have chosen “die”, usually within the first half of the mountain.

Usually focused and articulate, legendary endurance cyclist Mike Curiak was dumbfounded when he heard the news. He could only utter, “Erm, wow.” After thinking a moment he commented, “Today is a great day for mountain biking.”

Although efforts were made to keep the news from spreading, Summerhaven residents noticed the cyclists and quickly organized a 1000+ strong parade, complete with brass band and bag pipes. [editor’s note: OK, it might have been for the 4th of July, but there was a parade and thousands of people].

The feat was not without controversy. Several anonymous cyclists phoned AP reporters and MTB Hall of Fame officials to demand proof. One cyclist, who only called himself “Max Morris”, told reporters flat out, “It’s impossible. There’s no way they did it.” Unfortunately neither of the riders carried a camera, preferring speed and efficiency. The GPS units of both riders have been sent to forensic labs for testing and verification.

Pending verification, according to the mountain bike bible, completion of the Climb or Die challenge “renders the rider immediate and irrevocable status as a mountain bike god.”

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Alright, I’m done being silly. Chad and I had a great ride. We walked some (not as much as expected) and somehow neither of us self-destructed in the heat and humidity. I thought Green Mtn was going to be our undoing with the baking sun and unending unrideable sections.

“Who’s idea was this?” Uttered twice, and dozens upon dozens of times in the mind. Today was a good day to die.

But we both agreed that after surviving Green, failure was no longer an option.

Why? Neither of us could imagine doing all that, again.

And so it rolled from there. Chad showed me his secret trail, which brought the singletrack percentage to about 90%.

We were too hot and super sticky from the get-go, and never really dried out after that. It wasn’t comfortable, but we nailed it otherwise. No mechanicals, no flats, very minimal stopping. A focused effort. A mission in every sense of the word. I even left the camera home to save time and effort as we made our way up.

I honestly didn’t think we had a chance of doing it on July 4th of all days. When I felt the humidity at 4am, my hopes dropped even lower. But I never tired. My legs had power even to the last switchback on Aspen Draw, at 9000 feet. It was a great day.

So, after climbing 12,000 feet on singletrack, we turned around and descended 27 miles of pavement… at a coast. It seems lame, no doubt, and I was grumbling about it… for about three seconds. The cooling breeze and freedom from gravity was too intoxicating. 25 miles later I was finally some approximation of “dry.” Just in time to face the blast furnace of Tucson — 100+ degrees in the face.

I believe every last one of those little wiggles on that profile. Part of what makes this ride so hard is that it requires double climbing. Meaning, to actually gain (for good) one foot of elevation, you have to climb two. It doesn’t really look like it on the plot, but the numbers don’t lie (and neither do my legs).

That’s the reason we coasted the road down. If we took the trails we would have to climb 6000 feet just to drop 6000 feet.

And so it goes on Climb or Die. One for the books.

Real fanfare and mountain bike divinity are in order for this year’s Great Divide Race. John Nobile is, at the moment, wrapping up the last 125 miles to Mexico, and it looks like he will crack the course record. I’ve been following his progress each time as I updated the leaderboard, and rooting him all the way. Amazing.