Latest News for 2010 version of the Scorched Sole Ultra

Monday, June 21st: Andy and I marked the top of the course today.  Still quite a bit of snow on Little White and the East ridge toward Canyon Lakes.  Trail markings were sketchy so we had to mark with lots of orange ribbon.  Tomorrow its back up to the summit with water and ropes.  One bad stretch on the south side of Little White is quite steep and slippery.  We will have ropes for the safety of the runners.
Note: A change in the course is required because of snow conditions and safety.  The out and back loop from Little White road over to Crawford Lake and Highland Trail is being removed from the course.
50k and 50mi runners will now go straight up to Little White summit on the road and return as the same route as intended.  The course will be slightly shorter but the difficult snow conditions will more than make up for the distance in time spent on the course.

Photos taken today showing snow conditions and some of the views near the summit of Little White.

   
     Upper Canyon Lake         View Toward Canyon Lakes     Summit from east ridge
      
  Scree slope above Canyon Lk.      snow on east ridge               Pole at summit 2171m

         50k turn around

Sunday, June 20th: Less than a week to go!  Andy Daley and I will be marking the top part of the course tomorrow.  We will mark the balance on Thursday.  Due to the large number of entries this year we will be presenting hand made medals only to the first 150 entries.  Hopefully everyone is healthy and excited about this year's race.  Due to the fact that this year all proceeds are going to charity we are trying to keep our costs at a minimum.  Therefore, we will not be presenting award plaques to age group winners this year.

Saturday, June 12th: Finished clearing Telegraph trail and Little White FSR to the base of Little White.  Should be good now until race day.  I will take the saw with me when I mark the course and get anything that comes down between now and then.  Snow is receding quickly and it was very warm today.  Clear until the junction of Telegraph and the FSR.  Still breaking through about 2' on the road up to Little White summit but clearing nicely on the edges near the trees.

   
             Little White FSR                           Base of Little White                       Top of Little White

Saturday, June 5th: Hiked the Telegraph Trail today with the chainsaw and cleared the remaining down fall.  Will make one more trek to see if we get any more downed trees before race day.  Snow is going fast, still on Little White but will be mostly gone by June 26th.  This year the course will be marked with less ribbon but will have black on white 8.5"x11" laminated signs that are printed with Scorched Sole and a large arrow.  Arrows will be double ended for the out and back portions and one way for the loop portions and some major intersections.

Sunday, May 30th: Report by Kevin Matrosovs
Today I biked the Lost Lake Trail up to the KVR and then the Bellevue trestle and then ran up the Crawford / Telegraph Trail to the snow line and then snow shoed to the summit of Little White, chatted with the 2 ham radio guys doing maintenance work up there (they snow shoed in from Canyon Lakes and said the snow line was much lower than they anticipated), and backtracked to Kelowna. The snow line is now roughly where we lost the trail last time we were up there, so a lot has melted. Near the summit of the Telegraph Trail the snow is soft and slushy but still roughly 2 feet deep. On the Little White FSR and above the tree line on Little White, the snow is often probably at least 4 feet deep, though it is definitely less in places, especially on the peak where there is a fair amount of exposed rock now.

Monday, May 17th: Biked the 25k course today and ran the Telegraph (upper Crawford trail).  Below is a photo taken at the same point as the one on May 1st.  Snow has gone from 3' to around 1' so that is great news.  We should be OK by race day.  Still some trail maintenance to be done within the next few weeks.
We will run the top portion in the next little while and report trail and snow conditions.

 

Saturday, May 1st:  Kevin, Pascal and I tried to run the top half of the 50k course today.  It was snowing heavily at the KVR elevation and snowed all day.  We encountered some serious snow depth at around the 5,000' level and did not quite make it to the Telegraph/Little White Junction.  Crawling and hiking through 3' of snow made it very slow going.  We need some serious hot weather or the course may have to be altered again.  No sign of climate warming in our neck of the woods.  I have not encountered this much snow on Telegraph Trail in the 13 years I've been running.
   
  Dirk on the KVR May 1                       Dan and Kevin on Telegraph May 1

Saturday, April 24th:
  Ran the 25k course today.  Very little run-off and the trail is in great shape.  GPS'd it at 26.4k and did it as a training run in 2:44.  So, there is a benchmark time for all of you that wonder what kind of time it will take.
 Next week I plan on doing the upper portion from Bellevue trestle to the top of Little White.  I will report on trail and snow conditions afterward.  Tammy Craig and I are a couple of weeks into the ultra clinic with 10 runners and everyone is excited and doing very well.  I may even convince a few of them to try the 50k rather than the 25k.

Sunday, March 14th:
 We are well under way with preparation for the 5th annual Scorched Sole Ultra.  Maps are done and registration is open.  This year proceeds from the race will go to impossible2Possible and J.D.R.F.  This year's major sponsor is Fresh Air Experience of Kelowna and they are sponsoring the ultra clinic April 13th to June 22nd. 
    We are expecting record numbers but I will promise everyone that this race will not go to the lottery system.  Anyone who has supported us will be guaranteed entry as long as I am race director.  We are looking forward to seeing you back this year.  As usual, all ultra race directors are welcome at this event with free entry.

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