The Pull of the Mountains
Unfortunately we recently had to be farewell to To Be Determined's climber extraordinaire as Richard Scudney, one of the team's longest standing members, relocated to the Colorado mountains. Ahead of his departure he had the opportunity to spend a few days in his future home town and he recounted the pull he feels toward the mountains while on two wheels:
I'm always on the lookout for breathtaking and challenging climbs.
I feel an almost hypnotic pull towards them.
Possibly the obsessive challenge is to hit the top roaring in defiance, to experience the feeling of soaring over something immovable and permanent, to experience the exhilaration, that brief moment, when you become etched with the earth.
And you are beyond grateful to have been lucky enough to experience it.
Then you get to descend.
The Mount Washington Hill Climb is one of the most difficult events on the East Coast. Ben, Dana and Matt tackled it this year.