In case you haven’t tortured yourself enough on your mountain bike this summer, the Widow Maker Mountain Bike Hill Climb is on the horizon, and it’s not too late to sign up for the pain.
This year is the 10th annual Widow Maker, and it takes place on Saturday, September 18 at 10am at Snowbird.
If you’re even thinking about doing this, better read the course description first – the race starts at the bottom of the Gad Valley at Snowbird, where you grind up the service road that goes across Big Emma to the top of the Wilber chair. From there, you continue up while traversing the mountain. The course goes underneath the Tram where it then switch backs all the way up to the finish line at the top of Hidden Peak.
Those who have ridden the course before (and generally have a vendetta against it as a result) describe it as a brutal, painful, 3,000 foot grind where you will be thinking to yourself “why, oh why did I sign up for this?”
The course also never lets up as there’s not an iota of downhill on the entire trail. To add insult to injury, after all that work you don’t even get to ride down the mountain after you finish (for safety reasons.) Instead you take a nice trip down on the tram.
The only saving grace for this masochistic self-infliction of agony is that there will be food, drink, music, drink, awards, and drink. Better be lots of good, tasty, frothy drink.
Still interested? Then it’s time to sign up. The cost to enter is $30 and your entry must be in by September 18th. You can register online at the Sports-Am website.
You can also register in person at Millcreek Bicycles, located at 3969 S. Wasatch Blvd.
For more information, visit www.sports-am.com, or call them at 801-583-6281.
That’s false information. There are two downhills on the course, each lasting about 30 seconds.