Dry Trail Obstacles

The course started in the woods and had a short distance walk/sprint and then exited the woods and came to the first obstacle of the day, Berlin Walls, which on Sunday even though it rained a little during the night, was still covered in lots of mud. The course then continued on for a little bit and made came to Mud Mile 2.0, I enjoyed this

From the valley, the trail is the going to follow a gentle grade, as it passes through the meadows, trees, and willow thickets. The trail then takes you to a steep rockslide climb, and then spills over to the eastern side of the Maroon Peak. Once you reach the top of the slide, turn around, and enjoy some spectacular views of the valley beneath.

The course went in to a stream bed for a brief and very at times technical section and then made its way out to the “Z Wall”, which was more challenging than typically as it was around 15.5 miles into the course and we just spent the last few minutes in very cold running water. A very short distance after the Z walls was the spear toss, which the hay targets where pretty beat up at this point and what typically is a dead in the middle of the target stick for me fell out. Another very short distance away was the next obstacle the “Monkey Bars”, which at least for me are way harder than the ones used at Spartan America races. The course went back in the cold stream bed one last time for a short distance and then came out just near the “Slip Wall” and just after the slip wall was the “Fire Jump” and then the finish line. Talk about a bitter sweet end to an amazing course, I just finished one of the harder Spartan races I have ever done and that was after doing the 10+ mile Super the day before and I should have been proud of myself, but I wasn't and I am not embarrassed to admit I cried like a baby because I missed the time cut

The course wasn’t just a bunch of death marches up the mountain and running back down, but rather was designed by Norm to take racers in the wooded trail sections of the course for the majority of the just over ten miles course. The course included some very technical sections that if racers weren’t carful and paying attention could end with a fall or broken ankle, but racers clearly were aware of this and most took their time to get through these sections. Racers were also very good about moving aside to let faster racers get past

The course continued on for a few minutes staying in the woods and on some technical terrain and the next thing that caught my eye was another sign that said “Just Kidding”, which clearly was a response to the previous sign that said we were half way through the course. Just a few hundred feet away was the mile two marker, which clearly meant we were not at the half way point yet. The course continued on in the woods and then exited back on to pavement and a short time after was the next obstacles, that I am going to call a series of three about six foot high step ladders to go up and back down. After this obstacle came another brief trail sprint and up next was another angled wall (with a rope) obstacle to climb up and over and then it was

The course started out with a good inclined mountain trail run/climb and after some time came the first obstacle, which was a climb/jump over four foot hay bales. Just after the first hay bales was net crawl, which I always dread as my hydration pack never fails to get caught up several times in these nets. Just after the net was another hay bale to jump/climb over and then the course continued on up the mountain and in the direct sun light. The trail run continued on for a decent distance and eventually made its way to about a four foot log obstacle to climb/hop over. Only a short trail distance after the course went underneath the Cargo Net climb obstacle (we would see later in the course) and then made its way a short distance later to the

The course started out with a climb right up the face of a ski mountain, once racers made it up the initial steep section the course continued on for a brief distance further (still up the mountain) and the first obstacle of the

It’s a grueling course that most people backpack in a week. We were planning on attempting it in a day, bound to be met with rattlesnakes, quicksand, hundreds of river crossing and the unsettling possibility of flash floods, we were in for one hell of a trip.

Starting out with an eerie silence that lasts only a few second, riders are blasted backwards through a 206 metre tunnel at speeds of up to 161 kilometres an hour before soaring up a 100 metre drops where they will dangle in the air for a few more seconds at the ride’s peak before plummeting back to earth towards the seemingly too narrow tunnel for re-entry. Riders need to hold on tight to conquer this ride; if the speed doesn’t have you screaming for it to stop, speeding towards the narrow tunnel just might.

Once we finally arrived at the resort we were surrounded by cool chilly air and snow, we had an amazing view of the mountains and crisp green pine trees all around us, which was breathtaking. This was also a great opportunity for me to take as many pictures as I could of the amazing mountains around me. Thankfully that day there were no harsh winds and the slopes were not icy yet since this was towards the end of March. In order to get our tickets and find our instructor we had to enter this cabin like building; the bottom floor was where we picked up our tickets and tried on boots, the upstairs they had a dining area where they had delicious hot dogs and cookies.

We finally arrive at the mountain. We trudge through the snow in our awkward ski boots, stop near the lift to clip on our skis and get into line. We are given a brief run through of how to get on the lift as we scoot forward to a line, being careful to not

As the name suggests this challenge is all about training the kids in making a balance while riding the bike down hills. It is essential to master the art of balancing the bike in high speed rolling down the slope. This adds the skill of controlling the bike in speed and making balance without falling. This is just opposite of the mountain up the challenge where more efforts are required while here the balancing matters a lot.

I started noticing racers pretty early on struggling with the heat and climbs and looking pretty beat up so I shared my hydration back pack water with several racers and I wasn’t the only one that did this as I saw a fair number of other racers sharing as well. The course pretty much started out with obstacles I have seen and gotten used to doing at Spartan Canada races over the past two race seasons and I had been told to expect some new obstacles so I was looking forward to them all day, but I really only saw the Platinum Rig Stair Way to Heaven, which has been at the other races I did this year and another Platinum Rig obstacle that was a series of vertical wooden poles and vertical metal sections and racers had to travers across without touching the ground. Otherwise the Beast version of the course didn’t include anything else new.

The course included other obstacles and as already mentioned some fun technical terrain to deal with, one part of the course has racers climb up on to a huge natural stone and then maneuver through a tight fit section of almost like a tinny cave, I was worried I wouldn’t fit through it, but I did!

We got to the one lane bridge slowed and crossed it then sped up as we approached the hill after it. The hill is pretty bad because the road curves sharply to the right going up and the angle of the road slants the wrong way. Also, there are steep cliffs on both sides of the road. We started up the hill fine; made it to the curve, then in the middle of the curve we hit the grader bump that marked the end of road maintenance. Jerad couldn't quite keep control of the light truck and we went into a slide. We slid into the left lane sideways then the tires caught for a second and we were propelled back into the right lane headed right for the cliff's edge.