Larch Madness

It's not everyday you stumble into such a brilliant and terrible idea. While scouting the trails on the eastern edge of the North Cascades at the Loup Loup Ski Bowl for a different race idea (stay tuned for details on that one) we couldn't help but notice that it seemed like every tree was a larch! It was only June but we could picture that come October there would be gold everywhere! To confirm we asked local photographer Steve Mitchell if he had any photographic proof of our dreams. And as you can see in the next two photos (the following two photos are from June) he did and it was true! The Loup, unknown to the masses, is a treasure chest of hidden fall colored riches! 

But don't be blinded by brilliance and fooled into thinking this is a golden oasis. There's a dark side to this place. It's steep. And even worse the footing often is horrendous. There's only one way up this mountain (riding the chairlift) and one way down this mountain (on skis) that could be considered fun to most people. But those options are only available in the winter. For you, you'll have to run, hike or crawl your way around this beautiful but rugged place.

All kidding aside this will be a very beautiful race. 

And the 5K will be moderately difficult, challenging but doable for a beginner while still hard enough to not be taken lightly by even those who are experienced. The 5K is one single loop basically following the perimeter of the ski area going up Uphill Route, a "steep dirt jeep road" and down Loup Run, something the United States Forest Service was once classified as a "road" but is now best known as Loup Run the least steep of the eleven ways skiers can choose to come down the down mountain.

The 15K, 25K and 50K options are quite difficult due to the elevation gain and elevation loss but even more so because of the substantial off-trail, rough terrain sections. 35-45% of these courses are what you'd call "off-trail".  It's steep but not that steep -- Class 1 or maybe just briefly Class 2 (where you'd use your hands) in rare cases but even those Class 2 sections can be avoided.  At times you very well could be slower on the downhills than on the uphills, and that's saying something, just because of how rugged it is.