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Take advantage of the opening kilometres to warm up and find your legs — you’ll need them. At roughly 5 km, the course turns sharply upward for the first major test of the day: about 560 vertical metres of climbing to the summit of Apex Mountain.
The Gauntlet drops hard and fast on steep, technical singletrack. You’ll lose roughly 500 metres over 3 km, so expect your quads to be talking by the bottom.
Don't mistake shorter for easy. The Wildside 16K is a serious mountain race in its own right — a chance to experience skyrunning on a shorter course and a demanding race for developing and junior athletes.
The course builds around one major climb to Apex Peak, followed by steep, technical descending where good legs and good decisions both matter. And it saves a particularly nasty piece for the end: a quad-screaming 3 km descent that drops more than 600 vertical metres.
Then, just when your legs are asking for the finish line, Wildside sends you back uphill to get there.
16 kilometres. Plenty of ugly.
Wildside Sky 16K is part of the 2027 Canadian Skyrunning National Series™. Your result earns points toward the season-long national rankings.
