Team AVSC News

Catching Up with the Five Trees Winners | Roger Farrell and Molly McPhee

In early October, AVSC held its traditional Five Trees Race, which officially kicks off winter training at the Clubhouse with a race up to the top of the Five Trees lift — an elevation gain of nearly 1,000 feet in a mile. Nordic athletes swept the top male and female spots, so we sat down with overall winners Roger Farrell and Molly McPhee for a quick chat.

Molly McPhee (Nordic U16)

High school freshman Molly McPhee started in AVSC with the Bill Koch program in kindergarten. She’s participated in the Five Trees Race since fifth grade.

“I felt pretty confident,” she said. “In past years I’ve done well, but I wasn’t planning to win overall. It was pretty cool to finish and see all the boys around me, all my teammates, and see lots of girls, both older and younger. In past years it was the older Nordic girls that I looked up to and hoped to get close to their time. Now they’ve graduated, and I’m one of the older ones.”

Being one of the older athletes has its advantages, but so does running with the Aspen High School Cross Country Team and training all summer with the Nordic team, which regularly heads up the same course.

“Nordic has the advantage,” McPhee admits. “We train by going uphill. Everyone else is focused on going down hill.”

Strategy also plays a role.

“I started on the front line, and I knew a few people would sprint," she says. "I knew what would happen to them, and so I held back and then passed them going up the steep pitches. I ended up walking and then crawling on the steep section on all fours, grabbing onto trees.”

McPhee sees the race as a moment of connection across the club and a chance for all the disciplines to gather together.

“It’s fun to race with the other disciplines and see that we’re all in the same situation,” she says. “The race puts a spotlight on other disciplines that may be underappreciated and shows, wow, they’re really strong and also have endurance.”

The race is just one small component of what makes AVSC special. McPhee has made great friendships over the years and notes that while everyone is reaching for opportunity and competing through their sport, they’re also having fun.

“It’s really unique. A lot of other places don’t have anything close to this right outside their school. It brings kids together,” she says. “At lunch, you see Nordic talking to Alpine. It’s a strong bond and really rare to have.”

McPhee’s goals for the upcoming season are to race well and get stronger, to build better relationships with older members of the team, and to get to know others outside of racing. She’ll return next October to Five Trees with a particular goal in mind.

“Next year I’ll try to go faster,” she says, “but I also want to beat my brother’s time. I’m getting pretty close. He doesn’t know that yet.”

Roger Farrell (Nordic U20)

Sophomore Roger Farrell is modest about winning the top spot at the Five Trees Race this year.

“I just did it. It seemed like a thing. I don’t run,” he admits. “I bike and do Nordic. It was pretty hard, but I’m one of the older kids. I had a good lead — it was pretty steep and kind of fun.”

Farrell has been with AVSC since middle school, when he joined the recreational program Aspen Supports Kids. He grew up skiing with his family, and joining AVSC seemed like the logical next step. He progressed from the recreational to the competitive team programming, and like many AVSC athletes who are encouraged to try different disciplines, he participated in freestyle before settling on Nordic in the seventh grade. Since then, he’s progressed into the competitive Nordic racing team, where the opportunity to travel and compete is a highlight.

“I made a lot of friends here,” he says. “It’s like a gang, and we tour competitions together.”

Farrell has competed all over the country, and Jackson Hole tops his list of favorite destinations. 

This past season, Farrell trained with the Nordic team all summer before switching to mountain biking this fall. He clinched third place in the Division III Mountain Biking State Championships Sophomore Boys Race, even while healing from a broken collarbone.

This year, Farrell’s goal is to get faster and attend Junior Nationals in the top 12. He looks forward to the start of the winter season with AVSC this year.

“It’s pretty cool,” he says. “Great friendships have developed, and the coaches are super nice and qualified.”

And as for the Five Trees Run, he’s putting the competition on notice. “I’ll keep doing it,” he says. “I like it.”