Junior skiers Morgan Arritola from Sun Valley, ID and Glenn Randall from Colbrann, Co showed impressive running/skiwalking skills up the famous Agony Hill in Salt Lake City at a recent time-trial for participants at a Mountain/Pacific training camp held in Park City.
Agony Hill is an all-uphill trail with some very steep sections. Some run the entire way while others mostly ski walk. The nation's top skiers have tested their endurance up Agony Hill for more than three decades and the two junior skier’s times are putting them ahead of numerous national champions and Olympians from the past.
The men’s record is 12.46 (!) and held by former National Champion and Olympian John Aalberg. John was (also) 10th overall in the NCAA 10-k cross country running championship in the same time period as he was impossible to beat up “Agonyâ€. John ran around 13+ minutes a number of times while the second fastest skier up the hill was UU skier Lars Ohren in roughly 13.13. Carl Swenson might have been the third fastest male skier with a time of roughly 13:30. I believe the fastest junior time belongs to Rob Whitney. I think he broke 14 minutes (and we’ll check on this). I can’t locate my old files at the moment so these times might be off by a second or two, but to my knowledge no other male skier has run under 13 minutes. A milestone for good male skiers has been to “break†15 minutes.
We believe Glenn Randall’s time of 14:49 is the second fastest ever by a junior.
The women’s record is 15.46 and held by 15-times national champion and Olympian Nancy Fiddler. Nancy was 15th at the World’s in 1989 (and probably beaten by a large number of dopers). She is the only female who has broken 16 minutes on Agony Hill. Second and third fastest women times belong to Leslie Thompson and Dorcas Wonsavage in roughly 16.23 and 16.28. A milestone time for women is breaking 18 minutes.
We believe Morgan Arritola’s time of 16:55 is the fastest time ever recorded by a female junior skier.
