Four Weeks.
Four Climbs.
One Queen.
One King.
Think you've got what it takes? Welcome to the Queen and King of the Hill, the ultimate uphill throwdown. Four weeks. A different climb each week. One other runner standing between you and the next round. Fastest GPS-verified time moves on, slower time drops into the general classification where there's still everything to race for. Win enough and by week four you're in the group of men and women left standing, one hill away from the crown.
The bracket is competitive. The trail is a different story. Out there, everyone is just a runner pushing hard, suffering openly, making each other better. You'll cross paths with your bracket opponent mid-effort and find that the person you're racing against is also the person cheering you through the hard part. That's what this tournament does every year. The competition brings people out. The community keeps them coming back. So lace up, show up, and climb your way to the throne.
The hills are calling. Are you in?
THE CHALLENGES
THE RESULTS
THE RULES
Time yourself manually. Strava GPS drifts, especially on steep mountainous terrain. Use your watch's lap or split function. Better yet, make your segment effort a standalone activity, separate from warm up and cooldown. Your manual time is what counts. If it lines up with Strava, great. If it doesn't, your manual time wins, end of story.
You can run the challenge as many times as you want within the window. If a second effort beats your first, submit a second result for the week and we will keep your fastest time.
Submit your own time. We're not tracking down hundreds of Strava profiles. If you don't submit, you don't exist.
-24-HOUR SUBMISSION WINDOW -
You now have 24 hours after your effort to submit a time. That's it. The old "hold it until Sunday night" approach is gone; sorting through a pile of late entries every Sunday night into Monday wasn't sustainable. Go out, climb, submit. Within 24 hours.
- FOUR "LITTLE Q" RESPAWNS -
Previous years of the tournament have been merciless; lose your head-to-head and you're out. If you lose a matchup this year, fret not, you can still get back into the bracket final.
In the final week of the tournament, the fastest four eliminated competitors (determined by shortest cumulative time over the first three weeks) will get re-entered into the bracket final competition.
GROUP MEETUPS
Each week we'll organize a group meetup at the base of the challenge. If you're not sure what you're getting into, or just don't want to suffer alone, come out and share the pain with a few dozen of your new favourite people. Misery loves company. We’ll announce logistics and all other details for the group meetups at the start of each week.
Bring a friend. They don't need to be registered to join the group effort or to come stand at the bottom and heckle. Both are equally welcome.
CODE OF CONDUCT
When you're out on a challenge, you're representing this community. Hikers, families, climbers, people out for a quiet morning have as much right to the mountain as you do. Call your passes, yield where you need to, and be the kind of person that makes everyone's day on the trail a little better. Racing hard and being respectful are not mutually exclusive.
Some of the places on this bracket carry meaning that goes well beyond a PR or a bracket result. Indigenous peoples have held these mountains as sacred for thousands of years. Move through them with that awareness. Tread lightly, leave no trace, and take care of places that were never ours to begin with.
And the basics: pack out everything you bring in, stay on trail, don't cut switchbacks, and if you see something that needs reporting (trail damage, wildlife, another runner in trouble) say something.