Seven Summits

39 kms
7hours
extreme
Mountain Biking, Back Country Skiing, Hiking
Summer, Fall, Winter
Rossland, BC

kylefarnum

Hmmm, an EPIC trail deserves an epic writeup:

>>Original post------Rated number 1 in the IMBA 2005 trail of the year. goes through 7 summits<<

Epic? Absolutely (for some people).

7 Summits in Rossland, BC, Canada has been rated as 'EPIC' by IMBA, 'Trail of the Year' by bike Magazine and something along the line of 'not to be missed' in a dozen other languages by the biking and adventure press.

People ready and up to for an epic adventure will LOVE this trail. Other people will get chewed up and spat out. It is very hard from an endurance point of view. Be prepared to start by riding up 659m in 6.43km (10% grade for 1-2 hours) Then be prepared for rocky downhill sections that will happily rearrange your synapses if you are not on top of your game 100% of the time.

There is a shortcut by driving up a FSR (forestry service road) that saves 3.5km off of the start and virtually 350m of climbing... not a bad idea for the mortals among us.

If you want more down than up, you'll want to ride North to South. There are 2 trailheads at each end. The main North trailhead on the highway and the shortcut trailhead mentioned earlier. At the South end, you can ride to the Rossland Cascade Road (and ride down the road or park there) OR you can ride across Cascade Road and tie in the Dewdney Trail (yes, THAT Dewdney) right down to Highway 22, about 3km N of the US border. The Dewd is virtually all downhill, dropping from 1400m at Cascade down to 718m on Highway 22.

We came down via the ski-hill due to a mech problem and dropped 624m in 4.1km !! (and mostly on Green runs) 15.1% slope for those mathematically challenged people.

Safety: -----------

Water: It's dry country there and there is very little water along the route and it can get hot. Make sure you have enough. A burbling brook is about 17.5km into it (from the highway trailhead, not the shortcut). A very fit looking guy that lives nearby uses it as his main source of drinking water so I'd say it is safe BUT he says in late hot summers it can dry up.

Cell phone service is generally pretty good along most of the trail

Loose sandy rocks. One endo was enough for me, luckily a cactus or some similar flora broke my fall, but be careful.

Brakes: Make sure you have a very mechanically sound bike. There is some serious braking required and it'll hurt if you can't do it. Also mechs mean a long walk out. An all-mountain or DH bike is recommended, FS XC *with* discs will do, but there are some serious, technical downhills here.

Flowers and views - amazing assortment of wild flowers along the trail. The fact that much of the trail is along ridges and sparsely treed slopes means great views of mountains with other mountains behind them which in turn have other mountains behind them.

Snow - even in mid July we found snow in 'dem 'dar hills. Only a couple meters (long) here & there but inquire about the rideability of 7 if you are planning a trip, especially early season ones.

Specials:

The top of Old Glory has an abandoned weather station (and part-time forestry lookout) up there. Rumour is there may even be a keg of beer in the area (likely by now, frozen, thawed, frozen, thawed, skunky beer, but beer nonetheless).

Geocaches - Sure, a couple.

Directions:

Go up the nancy greene and stop at strawberry pass...trailhead is there.

ED NOTE: Main trailhead is ~21.1km N of the Mine Museum 3way stop, the shortcut turn is ~350m further N of that.