Anyone done High Pass Challenge?

[Starfish]

This ride by Cascade Bicycle Club is listed with the following description:

High Pass Challenge (Sept. 13, since 2007)
• A very hard 114 mile ride from Packwood, WA to Mt. St. Helens Windy Ridge lookout. This is for experienced. riders who like to climb. Limit: 600 riders.

My question: Has anyone done it? If so, what are the grades like? Pretty steady? Or any sections really steep...above 10-11%?

Thanks

[Veronica]

I haven't done that ride. But it's nice to see you back. :)

Veronica

[maillotpois]

Yeah - welcome back! :)

[Starfish]

Hi V, thanks! :)

[Starfish]

All right now you two, don't get all excited. Not sure if I am getting back on the bike or not, and without internet at the house, probably not "back" on TE too much.

Might consider, though, picking a nice ride down south in sunshine land for next late-fall so that I do not have to train too much up here on the roads until summer.

[Eden]

I did it the first year it was on. I don't recall many really steep sections (double digit grades), more of a long steady climb - but don't take my word for it, as I am a climber and I've only done it once. I seem to remember it being a longer continuous climb than Hurricane Ridge, but less steep overall.

[Starfish]

Thanks Eden. It sounds like a good ride, and I like that it is September, not earlier. Was it pretty?

[Eden]

It was cold, but the ride itself was amazing. The moved it up one weekend from the first year, because of the threat of snow! I'd never been up to Mt. St. Helens before and the ride goes right through some of the blast zone. Even today its still surreal. My only wish was that it had been a little warmer. It was absolutely freezing at the top. We pretty much gulped our lunch, hit the rest rooms and headed back down. If had been nicer we probably would have gawked a bit more.

If you go make sure you carry warm stuff for the ride back down - they might have a gear truck now. It was one thing that almost everyone who did the maiden voyage suggested. It was warm enough when you were climbing, but I would have liked toe warmers, extra gloves and a hat for the way back down.. Some people got to the top in just shorts and short sleeves.... there were a few left over STP tyvek jackets hanging around, but those folks must have been popsicles by the time they got back down to the valley.

I'll sniff around on the Cascade site and see if I can find my original ride report - I'm sure it has better impressions of the ride than I can remember now, since I wrote it right afterwards.

Here's ride reports from the first year of HPC http://www.cascade.org/Community/forum/messageview.cfm?catid=7&threadid=8702&FTVAR_MSGDBTABLE=

No one mentions steepness at all..... so I'm guessing there probably weren't any parts of the climb so steep that they were memorable...

[LilBolt]

I chickened out from doing it the last 2 years...drove the route and I was afraid of the 'technical decents'. My bf has done both years and really enjoys it (we still have the surplus XL STP jacket the gave him at the top...thank goodness). Last year the weather was much nicer and they moved the start down the road about a mile or so. Maybe I'll get the nerve to give it a try this year. I really do like doing Tour de Blast (http://www.tourdeblast.com/) from Toutle to Johnston Ridge. Challenging enough for me with a great road...although weather always is a big variable!