From lush forest to... more lush forest, but (very) steep this time! Week #3 will test your will and your quads.
Big Drop Valley to Slhanay North Summit
Strava Segment Link
Please time yourself manually! Strava is cool and all, but there can be mistakes with GPS data and your Strava time might not reflect your actual time, especially if there are a bunch of different routes up. So please time yourself manually by doing a split lap on your watch or doing a full start-stop on your watch. This manual time is your actual result. Good for you if it ends up matching your segment time on Strava, but it likely won't.
Getting there
There are a few options to get to the start of Big Drop Valley trail. The quickest way is to park at the end of the Valleycliffe Dyke on Manquam FSR, then to run a few hundred meters southbound back towards the start of the trail. You can also park at the KM 1 pull-out on Manquam FSR and run northbound for 1.5 km to reach the start of the challenge. There is also a bit of space right across the road from the start of the trail for those who aren't into warm-ups...!
The segment starts as soon as you step off the Manquam FSR onto the trail. It finishes when you stand on the viewpoint slab at the top of the North summit of Slhanay.
Start of the Segment
- Distance: 1.49km
- Difficulty: Challenging
- Elevation Gain: 555 meters
- Surface: Dirt, roots and rocks with three short fixed line sections.
The Fork at the base of the Top Shelf crag. Go LEFT.
The fork to hit the North summit of Slhanay. Go LEFT behind the fallen tree and follow the trail that wraps around the summit block.
The North summit of Slhanay. Stop your watch when you hit the slab just outside of the picture.