Vertical (Minotaur VK) is the 4.0km vertical kilometre at Youth Skyrunning North & Central American Championships 2026 (Castle Mountain Resort, Canada). The race starts on June 26, 2026 at 01:00 PM. It starts in Castle Mountain Resort. The time limit is 3 h.
Short race: go all out.
The course climbs 970m+. With 243m/km of climbing, the course is exceptionally steep, with long hiking-grade sections. By gradient, 100% of the distance is uphill, 0% downhill and 0% flat. The longest climb runs 3.9km at an average 23.6% grade (929m of vertical). The steepest climb averages 50.7% over 0.3km. Flat-equivalent effort: 10.7 FlatKM.
The highest summit on the course is Gravenstafel Ridge (2391m), 3.9km from the start.
Trekking poles are strongly recommended: about 3.2km of the course is steep enough for them to pay off.
There is too little runnable descent to damage the quads: plan the race around climbing and fuelling.
On race day, start temperatures have historically ranged from 14°C to 25°C, with around 13°C at the highest point; the chance of precipitation is about 51%. Heavy rain of 10.0mm or more falls on about 5% of days around this date.
This page has a pacing and nutrition planner, a gradient matrix, an interactive elevation profile and historical weather for Vertical (Minotaur VK).
Other distances of Youth Skyrunning North & Central American Championships 2026Sky (Mini-Taur) (10.5km)
Official websitemeettheminotaur.com
