5K of Pain

Today I got around to riding up to the top of Mt. Archer. It is the best climb around here, I have been meaning to ride up there for a while now, but today became the day when I went to the track and no one was there. I guess they were scared away by the threat of rain.
I don't have the official numbers, but I was told that it is 10-11% grade. It was almost exactly 5K from the base to the top. This was one hell of a climb, I am pretty sure I have not climbed a mountain this long at this steady of a grade. When I cycled through Colorado, I defiantly did longer climbs, but never this steep. It was a narrow 2 lane road, reminded me of the roads you see on the tour de france. I knew I was screwed when I clicked into my lowest gear and I was still having trouble turning over the pedals. I wished I had taken off the 11-23 cassette and switched it over to a 11-25 or 11-28 prior to leaving CA, but those are all in a box somewhere in storage.
So I slogged on up the hill, it was the presence of a guy behind me somewhere that kept me going, otherwise I think I may have turned around a few times on the way up. I was sweating so much (I do live in the tropics) that I was having trouble holding on to my wet handle bars. As I neared the top I came into the cloud cover and some rain. It was sort of neat to climb out of the sunshine and into the clouds. I finished in just over 30 min, not bad considering the fastest time up the hill was 24 min (the other cyclist told me this, not verified).
I realized how steep it was on the way back down. The roads were now slick because of the rain so I kept my speed down, I didn't really want any broken bones. My hands actually hurt holding onto the brake levers. I was able to use my new HR monitor for the ride and I averaged 168 on the way up, not bad. I am looking forward to trying the hill again next week. I am going to steal the cassette off Laura's bike first though.