Course Stats

    Course     Length    Climb  Controls  Navigation
    Beginner   2.5 km     45 m     13     Beginner  
    Short      2.9 km     60 m      9     Advanced (Summer Series Short)  
    Middle     4.0 km    100 m     15     Advanced  
    Long       5.0 km    120 m     16     Advanced (Summer Series Long)  

Beginners should be aware that the distances shown are the cumulative straight-line distances between controls. The climb numbers represent the amount of ascending that would be done on the "optimum route" (in the Course Setters' opinion), without regard for any descending. Because you won't travel in straight lines, and might not follow the optimum routes, your actual distance and climb will be somewhat more than what is shown above, and will depend on your route choices (and any errors you make).

Getting to the Start

There are three options for getting to the Start Area:

Option 1 – Free Highland Gondola + walk Take the Highlands Gondola (open 10 AM to 3 PM) to The Ritz-Carlton Walk 1.1 km (400 meters of [40 m] downhill, 700 meters of [90 m] uphill) on trail and fire roads Approximate walking time from Assembly Area to Start: 35 minutes (plus gondola time)

Option 2 – Walk all the way Follow the marked trail from the Assembly Area uphill for 2.2 km. The elevation gain is 240 m. Approximate time from Assembly Area to Start: 50 minutes

Option 3 – Big Springs Gondola – $29 fee – shortest walk Take the Big Springs Gondola from Northstar Village to Mid-Mountain. From there it's a 700 m, uphill walk. Gondola tickets can be bought the day of event at the venue, or you can use this link to preorder a ticket. Approximate walking time from Assembly Area to Start: 25 minutes (plus gondola time)

Finish

After the Finish punch, follow the marked route on the map back to the Assembly Area for E-punch download. This walk is about 1 km down a ski slope (150 m decent on trail and scramble). The route will not be marked with trail markings. The estimated time is 20 minutes.

Course Setter's Comments

Hello and thank you for participating in this event. The three courses are generally located in runnable forest. The area is characterized by many boulders and boulder fields. The area has been historically logged, and the old logging roads are in a state of "returning back to nature". Some of the more obvious roads are shown on the map, but not those that are not clearly obvious. There are a number of fire roads that crisscross the terrain, as well as some well-used hiking and biking trails. For this event, Northstar has closed the biking trails to biking traffic. I thank Steve Smith for vetting the courses.

Here are some comments about the map and courses:

We've made several map updates, including removing many unclear trails and adding new bike trails. We've also removed a number of vegetation boundaries. The map scale is 7500:1 for all the courses; the contour interval 5 meters. The maps will be in plastic cases. The control descriptions are printed on the map, and are available as separate sheets at the Start. Water will be available at the Start and Finish, but not on the courses.

– Blake Tresan