Detailed Course Information

Swim

1K Lake Swim: The triathlon will begin with a 1 kilometer swim in Grant Lake, which is located above the Club at Crested Butte on Skyland Drive (private land). The temperature of the lake will be in the mid sixty degree range, so wetsuits will be required.

Bike

24 K Mountain Bike: After the refreshing swim, you will make the transition to your mountain bike. There you will test your endurance as well as your technical skills on a variety of trails including Upper Loop, Upper Upper Loop and Strand Hill. After some lung popping climbs and steep decents you will ride back to Grant Lake on Brush Creek Rd. and re-enter the transition area to prepare for the run.

We receive many inquiries as to the difficulty of the bike course. The terrain on the bike course includes a little bit of everything: pavement, fireroads, smooth singletrack and technical rocky, rooted sections; however, if there is a portion of the bike course that you feel uncomfortable with, it is always OK to dismount your bike and walk that section. 

The following are two links that describe the major segments of the bike course:

Upper Loop (the link to this trail description describes a couple of routes, but you will only be riding Upper Loop and Upper-Upper Loop)

Strand Hill

Run

9 K Trail Run: Once you have make it through the second transition, the run will lead you back to the Upper Loop Trail. Instead of continuing to the Upper Upper, you will head down Whetstone Vista Trail to Brush Creek Rd. and back to Grant Lake where you will find the finish line.

Elevation Statistics
The following are our elevation statistics on the course. The following figures were gathered by riding the course with a GPS stashed in your race director’s jersey pocket.

Starting Elevation (Grant Lake)- 9,022 feet

Total Bike Elevation Gain (Upper Loop, Upper Upper Loop, Strand Hill)-2,200 feet
Highest Bike Elevation (top of Strand Hill Climb)- 9,775 feet
Total Run Elevation Gain (Upper Loop, Whetstone Vista)- 400 feet
Highest Run Elevation- 9,300 feet
Average Course Elevation- 9,299.25 feet