Every trail system has one. The big climb. The one that burns your lungs and makes your heart feel like it’s going to bounce out of your chest. If, that is, you can ride it all the way to the top without dismounting. It’ll be called something like Heartrace Hill, or Cardiac Climb, or something else indicating its tendancy to get your ticker ticking.

At Rock Cut, the locals call it Heartrate Hill. A heavily eroded, double track fireroad that parallels the main paved road around the west side of Pierce Lake. It’s not particularly steep, but it climbs forever. Starting with the sandpit at the bottom, it’s a long, slow spin in the granny gear to a plateau and a curve. But that’s the trick. Just when you think you’ve reached the summit and you’re ready to fall over to catch your breath, there’s the second part of the climb.

Heartrate is part of the racecourse this year, but on our early morning rides we usually avoid it. Mostly due to time constraints, but, in all honesty, partly because it’s a real beast. So we take the shortcut trail, a short bit of singletrack through the woods followed by a couple of smaller climbs, which we’ve appropriately named, “Heart Bypass.”

My Ned Overend Mountain Biking Technique book talks about climbing. Get your weight forward, over the bars, in the “attack position.” That’ll give you more power in the climb, but be sure to find the sweet spot where you can get power without your back wheel lifting and spinning out.

I’ve read that, on a full suspension bike, you should stay seated while climbing. Still get your weight over the bars, but do not stand and mash. The idea is that the suspension design should keep the back wheel grounded. I’m no engineer, but I ride a Klein Palomino with the Maverick shock and I’ve found that staying seated on long climbs is fine. But standing and mashing on short climbs keeps my momentum.

No question, I’m better on the hills coming down than going up.