Ouray, Colorado, starting August 31, 2024. Start times vary (see below).
The Sneffels Round (or informally, Sneffelupagus), is a free mountaineering challenge with a 100 hour time limit. Climb a whole bunch of peaks in one go, choosing your own route and selecting from several possible combinations of peaks. There are 39 peaks on the map, but depending on which "electives" you include, you can earn a full finish with as few as 34 or 35 peaks. The peaks include many 13ers and one 14er, Mt Sneffels. Assuming you select and locate the easiest way, none of the peaks are harder than Class 3. The route I would personally select is about 75 miles with 43,000 feet of vertical gain and is about 70% off-trail.
We ask for a brief summary of your previous mountaineering, routefinding, and endurance experience with your application. Only qualified applicants will be considered. In addition, we require club membership. Head over here to sign up for club membership.
See the map and route description. You are responsible for your own route planning. Also note that you are free to bypass any of the peaks or to tackle them in any order.
Some of the controls points are considered "elective" (yellow on the map). To earn a full-finish, you must reach elective controls worth 6 points (in addition to all of the non-elective controls, which are green on the map).
* indicates an elevation reading that was recently revised using new lidar data
** Will not be a supported location in 2024 unless we get a volunteer with a suitable vehicle and a lot of time!
Maybe. We don't want anyone, no matter how slow, to need to worry too much about cutoffs, as long as you keep moving. You shouldn't feel pressured to take more technical routes than you're comfortable with, and you have time to retreat from a bad route choice and try again. We also want to ensure that if you need to layover for safety reasons, like waiting for a storm to pass, that you will have at least some time to do so.
A portion of our intended audience would find some of them too spicy. Teakettle is rated Class 5. Potosi is loose Class 3. Emma is reasonable class 3, but finding and staying on the route is non-trivial. By selecting your electives, you can construct a course of your choosing that remains within your comfort level. You need a total of six units worth of electives to qualify for a full finish.
It's tricky to keep at Class 3 or lower, and it connects poorly to the rest of the course, except as maybe an out and back, which doesn't seem that fun for something that isn't quite a thirteener.
That would make a nice circuit on its own. But we had to draw the line somewhere!
They are mandatory, but the order that you do things is up to you. You may also visit a given checkpoint more than once. There is one checkpoint, Ptarmigan Overlook, that you are required to visit twice.
Your score will be the total number of control points reached/satisfied within 100 hours. If you skip part of the course, but still proceed to the finish under your own power within the time limit, the finish location simply counts as another control point.
