Hell’s Hill

One of the things Jeff and I were originally worried about in training for the Death March is the elevation chart on the Death March website. This chart shows a big peak in the middle of the hike. It goes from approximately 1,225 ft. at the 10k mark, to 1,650 ft. at the 22k mark. In that 12 kilometers, there is no up and down…it’s just up. Granted, that’s not a terribly significant uphill grade, but it is continuous for 12 kilometers. It looks intimidating on the chart, anyway. Jeff, being the engineer that he is, did the math and figures that the average grade on it is approximately 3.6%.

A few of the comments left by past participants emphasize the point:

"I’ve run in a lot of marathons. This was the toughest, especially the hill that I now refer to as Hell Hill. The wind that we pushed into up that hill was unforgiving. This event is not for the light of heart. The great thing about the march is that it helps you find a sense of community right in the middle of a desert."

"I participated in and finished the Bataan Memorial Death March for the very first time this year. I will be doing again. It was one of the most challenging things I have ever done. I do climb fourteeners (mountains above 14,000 feet) in Colorado every summer and this was a true challenge…"

"This was my 36th marathon. Although it was by far the toughest, it was also far and away the most rewarding."


So apparently this hill is not to be taken lightly. By the way, the “wind” that’s referred to by many past marchers gets to be upward of 50 miles per hour during the spring in that part of New Mexico. It’s also a continuous wind, not just gusts. And you walk into it while going uphill…

Anyway, our concern was around the fact that the Perkiomen Trail used to be a rail bed, and as such is almost entirely flat more or less. We were concerned about not having much in the way of hill training to do in preparation for the event.

That concern has been fairly well settled though. Between mile markers 11 and 12 ½ or so on the Perkiomen Trail, we have a Hell’s Hill of our very own. Just north of Schwenksville, strolling down the path, we come across a yellow sign reading “12% grade, ¼ mile”. The first time I saw it, I didn’t think much of it, until we got to the hill the sign was referring to. Having been the first time I’d been on this portion of the trail, I didn’t realize that this was actually the same hill that Spring Mountain Ski Resort is on. When you go down (it lasts for about a half mile), you come to a straight away fairly level part of the path for about a half a mile, with the hill now on the right (when going west/north) going up into the woods. After the straight away, the trail crosses a road, and there on the right is the overflow parking for Spring Mountain Ski Resort. We turned around at about that point and hiked back up…wow, what a hill. Some kind soul donated a bench right at the top of the hill. I’m going to have to pay attention to the plaque next time and remember that guy’s name. As I remember, it was donated in memory of his wife.

Anyway, we found our hill to train on.