Last year was supposed to be the last year for the Emperor’s Challenge.
Never mind that has been said for nearly every Emperor’s Challenge for more than a decade, last year was a watershed year.
The Emperor’s Challenge was originally up and over Roman Mountain, but when Anglo American started mining that mountain, a new route was needed.
So the race moved over to Mount Babcock in 2009.
While parts of the new route were within the boundaries of the Quintette mine, that mine had been shuttered since the early 2000s.
But, when Teck began looking at re-opening Quintette in 2010, a pall was cast over the race, and every year, the question was asked: will this year be the last?
In 2024, Teck sold Quintette to Conuma. Last year, the mine only had permits to mine one pit on the far side of the mountain, but the expectation this time last year was that the mine would be in full swing, and that 2025 would be the last year for the race.
But the Wolverine and Nordic Mountain Society has been in discussion with Conuma and has managed to get permission to use the route for at least the next few years.
The race was cancelled three years in a row due to Covid. When it came back in 2022, it was much changed.
For one thing, the race—which in 2019 had booked up in under four hours, despite having expanded the number of racers from 800 to 1000—only had 635 finishers in 2022.
And while that number has grown (in 2025, registrations fell four short of the previous race cap of 800), the race is not expected to sell out this year, either.
In the last few years, the planning committee has seen a number of changes, too.
This year, Kris Swanson—who has one the race XXIV of XXV times—and who has been advising the committee for a number of years, takes on the role of co-director with Deanne McDoom (who has helped plan other races, including the Five Peaks race down in Vancouver).
In addition, a number of past members of the committee have come back, including former race director Jerrilyn Schembri and former volunteer Coordinator Barbi Mackenzie, as well as yours truly to help out with social media, website and other tech-y things.
Registration for the MMXXVI race (which is also the XXVI running of the race) opens on Friday April 3. People who have run the race more than V times will be allowed to register the day before.
Trent is the publisher of Tumbler RidgeLines.
