2014 Climb to the Castle Race Report

Last Updated: 10.Sep.2014

For the first time in several years, the GRP skiers didn’t have a large contingent racing Climb to the Castle. Climb to the Castle, or C2C as it’s affectionately known, is an annual uphill skate rollerski sufferfest that ascends 5 miles at an 8% average grade to the top of Whiteface Mountain, just outside of Lake Placid, NY. The Climb to the Castle usually falls as one of the last workouts of the US Ski Team training camp in Lake Placid, and members of the US Biathlon and Nordic Combined teams have been known to jump in as well. However, this year only two GRP members, Caitlin Patterson and Ida Sargent, attended the USST Lake Placid camp and they both had to leave early to prepare for a 2.5 week long glacier training camp in Ramsau, Austria. Luckily, GRP biathlete Susan Dunklee was still in town and was able to represent the GRP as the sole racer in the Climb to the Castle.

For the last four years, Vermonter Liz Stephen has been the queen of Climb to the Castle, often winning by minutes over her nearest competitor. This year was no different and she powered away to a nearly 4 minute win over second place skier Caitlin Gregg. Behind them, the battle was the final podium spot was heated. A pack of six skiers including Susan, USBA teammate Annelies Cook, Jessie Diggins, Mary Rose, Erika Flowers, and Katharine Odgen stuck together for most of the race, with Annelies, Susan, and Jessie doing much of the pulling. With a little over a mile left to go, Erika Flowers made a break and Katharine Odgen followed. They ended up placing 3rd (Katharine) and 4th (Erika). Behind them, the next four women finished within a minute of each other. Susan took 8th place with a time of 49:43.

About her race, Susan commented, “it was the last day of a high volume week, so I was pretty tired, but everyone else also had tough training leading up to it. We [the six person chase pack] worked together pretty well. It was a valuable workout, but definitely a struggle to make it through the last mile after the pack broke up.”

Congrats to Susan for turning in a solid performance on a blustery day, and we are sure that next year she will be joined by more of her GRP teammates to climb to the top of the castle on Whiteface!

Find the full C2C women’s results here.

Susan Dunklee leading the chase pack early on (photo FasterSkier)