In Norway, there seems to be uphill running races all the time. Throughout the summer you can find reports on langrenn.com (the Norwegian version of Fasterskier) of various uphill times and records being broken. Just like how every town in VT used to have a little ski hill, and every town in Sweden has it’s own rollerski track, every town in Norway seems to have its own legendary uphill run course.
We’ve used the Sherman’s Pass trail at Bolton for our uphill test since at least 2013, but this week some construction on the mountain meant we couldn’t be up on the trail. Not to worry though, as there are many ski teams in our area and an even more storied test nearby: Honey Hollow, the UVM uphill run test!
We got the details from Perry and took on the challenge. There wasn’t a huge squad, as many of our Juniors had already competed in some XC running races that week. But it was a good taste of just how fast some of the best skiers our country has ever seen can run up a hill. Instead of 2013, there are times on this course going back to 1997 or earlier.
The top three men’s times are held by Thorodd Bakken, a mid-90s Norwegian UVM skier who even has a 38th place at the Holmenkollen World Cup to his name. Did you notice he even beat Bjorn Daehlie in that race?
On the women’s course, World Cup skier and recent Birkie champion Alayna Sonnesyn has the killer time, and on the UVM list of times you’ll even see a current MNC parent, a current candidate for Lieutenant Governor, and several MNC guest coaches from over the years.
So while nobody from MNC has surpassed Thorodd Bakken or Anayna Sonnesyn yet (they’ll also have to get by Ben Ogden, Caitlin Patterson, and plenty more) it’s worth a try to check out a new course and challenge! You can find the Strava segments (aka course maps) below:
And if you’re interested in a short 1-minute video diary of the day:
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