The Individual Challenges have been an annual club activity for many years. For the 2020-21 season, we have retained the traditional ones, and added a couple of new versions of "Ski Every Trail". (Don't forget to check out the Team Distance Challenge as well! --click here for info)
There are 6 Challenges in total. Each event is independent and cannot be combined with another except the 2 events, Ski Your Age and Ski Every Trail. For example, If you are 40 and ski every trail in one day, you have also skied your age. Or, If you are 48 and ski every trail in one day you can top up your mileage to 48 and you will have skied your age.
Also new this year! Our tech guy Erik has created a spreadsheet where you can enter your completed challenges, and also see what the other individual challengers have been up to! To prevent errors, it's set up so that you can check off items in your own line but not for anyone else, so everyone has to enter their own data. To add your name to the spreadsheet, email the club at sunpeaksnordicclub@gmail.com and tell us you want to be added. We have to do this manually for each member for now, so your name may not appear for a day or two. (Note that to access the spreadsheet you will need to be signed in to your Google Account.) Go to the spreadsheet here.
1. Holy Cow Ascent Ski from the Nordic Centreup Holy Cow to the top of the Morrisey lift and back down. You do not have to go around Pony Loop.
2. Twin Peaks Ski from the Nordic Centre to the top of Stellar Jay and to the top of Pony Loop in one trip. You do not have to go to the bottom in between summits and it doesn’t matter which peak you ascend first.
3. Ski Your Age Ski your age (as of Dec 31, 2020 ) in one day. If you are over 50 you may choose to either ski 100 minus your age in one day OR you may ski your actual age within 24 hours i.e. start the afternoon of one day, finish the next morning.
4. Ski Every Trail (new for 2020-21 season: three versions!) (a)Ski every trail in the Nordic Trail System in one day. You're allowed to take the chair for this one. You may set your own route but every bit of every trail in the system must be skied (approx 42 km). (b)Ski every trail in the Nordic Trail System in one day, without taking the chair. This one is a lot tougher of course. It works out to about 48-49 kms with more climbing. (c)Ski all the green trails. A much more friendly option. We haven't mapped out the distance yet but stay tuned. This can pretty well be done without any repeated sections, although Nuthatch and the Village Trail will need to be done as out-and-backs.
Planning an efficient route to ski all the trails without repeating a lot of trails is harder than it looks. One of our members, Richard Taylor, designed a computer program to figure this out and he has posted the routes on his website. There are 4 possible routes for Option (a) and one route for Option (b). And if you're keen, he has developed a system with which you can design your own custom-made route. You can also download and print his map with the junctions numbered. Check out his website here.