A NEW annual Ultramarathon with a twist.
This Ultra will take place during the weekend closest to the first Full moon of August, which happens to be August 13th this year.
Also, the location is not fixed, and will change every year. The location for the following year, will be announced at the preceding years race. This year, the race will take place in the Stein Valley. Starting at the bottom of the Lizzie Lake FSR, the course will run over 100km to the Lytton trail head.
It will feature incredible scenery, amazing alpine terrain, beautiful singletrack, vast wilderness, and ever-lasting memories.
Race Format:
The racers will travel in a "peleton" format and "racing" will be decided on with the following criteria, with 2 small prizes up for grabs.
- Sprint Finish Winner: The final 13km will be a "sprint" finish. Placement in the race will be determined here. The sprint starts at the final Suspension Bridge, and ends at the car.
- King of the Mountains: There will be 3 major mountain passes on the route as part of the over 4000m of vertical to be climbed. Points (5, 3, 1 for 1st, 2nd, 3rd respectively) will be awarded for the first 3 at each of the following:
the Arrowhead - Tabletop col (~16km, 2000m)
the first to see Tundra lake (~21km, 2100m)
the sub-peak directly W of Puppet Lake (~ 26km, 2100m)
Approximate route: link
Distance: ~100km
Elevation Gain: ~4000m
Start Time: 2am on Saturday August 13th, 2011
Approximate Finish Time: 8pm on Saturday August 13th, 2011
Required Gear: warm & light clothing, emergency blanket, a headlamp, & a bit of real food.
Park Map: link
Entry: There is no fee and you don't need to be a member of Club Fat Ass to participate in a Flash event, however whining is not allowed. No registration is required but please indicate your participation via the comment form below. You are responsible for your own well being and safety and should be self sufficient.
Please read the Release of All Claims. By participating in this event you agree to the terms of the Release of All Claims.
Comments
Cancelled
The event this year was cancelled due to unsafe snow conditions in the Western alpine portion.
Next years event will take place July 28th, 2012 (to avoid the long weekend) in the Southern Chilcotins near Gold Bridge, BC.
We will return to the Stein in the future, but we'll give it a years rest.
Thanks to everyone for your interest and feedback.
Looking forward to next year!
Thanks Alex for trying to organize the Stein run this year and looking forward to running the Chilcotins next year. By the way, Tom Craik ran the West Coast Trail last weekend in 16 hours 39 minutes, so a WCT attempt requires starting at dawn to be able to finish before dark.
Thanks for being flexible
Thanks Ken.
I think the issue with the WCT is trying to get to an info session, get on the trail, then make the dealine for the ferry at Nitinat Lake. All while making sure you don't have a conflict with the tides. Then trying to get back to the airport for you to make your plane.
It almost takes 3 days just to go do a 1 day trail run. But oh well. We'll see what this winter brings us.
I just got my new brace and I feel like I could run an ultra... but maybe I'll resist and do what the doctors say.
Thanks again for your interest.
-Alex
hi Alex ... Stein is a
hi Alex ... Stein is a fantastic route...will be a nice adventure.
Had a look at your pics and you're obviously a fit dude with some mountain bushwhacking experience and a good idea of times etc. Don't forget that you can only go as fast as your slowest member though if it is a peloton race for the most part.
I'm kind of with AdventureMike... I fast packed it as well. 3 times. Fastest was about 38 hours I think..although we did snooze at the hut just after shangri la and again for about an hour part way through the next night. We started at 10pm I think. So... maybe not being a lazy ass like me and taking out the snoozes I'd still hazard about 30hours...? Not sure what AdventureMike's experience was but he's a tough little bugger ..
I dunno.. I guess with lighter loads you could maybe run more and we did stop and eat lunches and took lots of pics. So maybe you can drop more time there too. Route finding in sections of the Stein was a little difficult in spots when we went ... lots of overgrown areas from stein lake to cottonwood and climbing over deadfall ...trail markers often not visible nor the trail!... all sap your energy and slow you down. Maybe it's been cleaned up since then... maybe not.
Anyway .. have a great time. It's a really nice route and definitely do-able as a light and fast effort instead of the 6-7 day pack lugging ordeal that most do.
trails worked
Hey Lazy Trail Runner,
I heard that BC Parks hired some of the First Nations in the area to do some pretty major trail maintenance (clearing / new bridges) all the way up the valley to Stein Lake. So assuming minimal blow down this past winter / spring, it should be quite a bit faster between stein lake and cottonwood creek. So 30 hours seems fairly reasonable. Thanks for the beta.
Alexis is actually on his way right now to do some reconaissance as far as the snow situation goes. The West side of the Stein near Lillooet lake is still quite snowy on North facing and shady areas it seems, but south facing slopes are mostly snow free up to 1800m it looked like (from a plane). If there is too much snow, we'll change the location to the Southern Chilcotins, and have about an 80km race from N to S through that area.
I unfortunatley have had to withdraw from taking part myself, because I tore my MCL & ACL 2 weeks ago. But there are still a few keeners good to go.
Sounds promising...hopefully
Sounds promising...hopefully the weather cooperates for some good views for everyone.
Bummer on the injury... you could be the first to do it on crutches...;)
I'm interested
Hi Alex,
I live in Smithers and planning a business trip to Bella Coola around the time of this event. I would be back in Vancouver from Bella Coola on Friday, Aug. 12 and am interested in joining in.
Awesome!
Ken,
Glad to have another person joining us. I'm assuming you'll be flying back into the Vancouver airport on Friday. Me too! Hopefully it'll make everything easy.
See you in a few weeks!
Still in winters grip
The Stein (as viewed from Slalok to the NW) still appears to be in winters grip as of yesterday (June 26th)
47 more days for the snow to melt a bit more.
I'll do another trip in a month to see what the trail is like on the way to Tundra Lake.
Winter's grip - no kidding!
Hi Alex,
I was up doing Mt. Seymour yesterday and it was still winter like conditions there. I passed a group of 20 or so that were wearing full mountaineering gear with ice axes and all! I don't know if your 'gear list' is appropriate for the event for this year. I also encourage bringing a SPOT and GPS. There will be no route or cairns through the upper passes as I imagine that the snow and lack of travel will not allow any cairns to be visible. I've travelled through the Stein on a 'Fast Packing' trip with 2 fit guys and moderatly light packs and we had to use GPS due to poor weather visibility and that was the last weekend in September when we got snowed on!
Where was this photo taken from and what kind of gear were you using?
Cheers,
Mike
Winter...
Hey Adventuremike,
The local hills were blessed with a ridiculous amount of snow this past winter (7m base at the end of May), so it's not so suprising that they still have an amazing snowpack. The photo from Slalok only reveals the North sides of the mountains. But the majority of the alpine portion of the Stein Divide Trail follows South facing slopes, which typically receive more sunshine in the summer and less snow in the winter (due to wind). I know that Seymour is south facing, but on it's steeper, southern portions, it is losing snow rather quickly. The North Shore also receives quite different snow in the winter than the Stein area. The Stein receives about half the water equivalent as the North Shore, which means that it consolidates to a smaller base, and will melt out faster. The Stein area also gets quite a bit hotter in the summer, because it is inland, away from the oceans that keep our climate so nice and mild.
Obviously a trip like this has a very small window of opportunity, and since it's fairly common to see periods of snow squals as early as the beginning of September (I was stuck in one last labour day long weekend in the Chilcotins), August was the logical choice. August tends to have longer periods of high pressure that allow for clear weather. I'll be watching the weather though, just to make sure. If anything seems unsafe, I'll be sure to adapt the event to suit the local weather. I'll also be going up there a week or two ahead of time to see how things are progressing as summer unfolds.
I'll assume that you're interested in this run since you commented, but I think you might have doubts. I have a SPOT and will be carrying it with me (since the group is togethor for the first 87km, this is fairly adequate), and I have a GPS. The people that have responded to me so far are quite capable and have done similar trips of this nature. I'm also relatively experienced, and even though I'd love to not have an epic, I'll be ready just incase it happens. If you'd like to see 'my resume', check out my picasa gallery
I only really started taking lots of pictures this past year, so this abreviated version will have to do.
Let me know if you can make it and feel up to the challenge.
Difficulty level?
Hi Alex,
I'm most certainly not capable of participating to such an event at this point in my running career, but I do find the concept of this event brilliant and the route is just beautiful. So, for future reference: how fast do you expect the group to go? What pace do you have in mind?
Thanks.
Timing
Eric,
I estimate:
6 hours to the Arrowhead - Tabletop col
+ 1 hour to Tundra Lake
+ 4 hours to Stein Lake Outlet
+ 6 hours to Cottonwood Creek
+ 4 hours to Lytton Trail head
For a total of 21 hours.
If you're interested, you could come along for the first part of the run and turn around at a distance you feel comfortable with. Then zip around to the other side for probably the best afterparty of your life (for the 5 minutes we can all stay awake).