Over the years, the Emperor’s Challenge has shifted routes a number of times.
The biggest change was moving from Mount Roman (from which the Challenge gets its name) to Babcock, where it currently is. But that’s not the only change.
While it was still on Roman, Northern Energy and Mines (NEMI) began work on the Peace River Coal Mine, which forced a reroute to avoid industrial activity. So in 2006, the route shifted, going up the infamous Mathews Gully (named after race founder and local doctor Nigel Mathews)
As that mine grew, it became unfeasible to continue on Mount Roman, and the route was moved over to Babcock Mountain. While a portion of the route travels through the Quintette Mine site, that mine has remained in care and maintenance since the early 2000s.
The Babcock route has been tweaked a few times, but the most problematic section remained the earliest. After about two kilometres of running along a road, the race leaves the road and heads into ever-narrowing trail. With 800 people starting the race, this means that a lot of people hit this section at almost the same time, creating a bottleneck of people.
So in 2020, the Emperor’s Challenge Committee changed the route. Instead of leaving the road at the Boulder Garden Parking lot, the new route keeps on the road for another 1.3 km, and, instead of following an easy but narrow exploration road, the trail climbs steeply uphill along a newly built singletrack trail.
The hope is that the extra km on the road will allow a little more time for the field to spread out. It also means that the route offers more scenic views, for those wanting to take a second to look back. “The new route soon breaks out into the alpine, and stays there almost all the way to where it rejoins the old route at km 6.5,” writes Charles Helm. “Along the way there are extensive scenic views, not only of the mountains, but also of the horizon to the northeast (views which were never seen on the old route). Another highlight is the view looking down onto the Boulder Gardens, something few have got to see until now.”
He says allowing the field time to thin will hopefully mean the route is safer as well.
“The only downside is that it is tougher, with more elevation change,” he says. “The climb from km 3.5 to km 4 is relentless and fairly steep.”
As a result, this year, the cut-off time for the race (and for bronze medals) will be five hours, not 4.5 hours. “This will give the organizers time to assess the effect of the new route on participant times, he says.
So for participants entering this year’s race, the 2022 Emperor’s Challenge will be more scenic, will have more time above treeline, and will be a bit tougher.
In addition to the new section (shown on the map on the left), there’s a re-route around a sink hole at about the km 7.5 mark. Charles Helm photo.
Trent is the publisher of Tumbler RidgeLines.
