Course description

Please note, the cut off time for this event is 12 hours. See the elevation profile below for more information.

The course starts from the main street of Queenstown. Mt Owen towers directly above. And you will ascend it by the most direct route. Across the top and over to North Owen, you will follow MTB trails and some steep, epic ridgelines, down again to the valley floor.

This course features the Lyell-Comstock rail formation, a 120-year-old mine railway, which has epic views from the Comstock Valley, out to the famous Frenchman’s Peak and many others. The rail formation was actually never used by the mine but became a popular bushwalking track until the 1960s. It has long been forgotten, but we are reclaiming the 11km track back from the bush to re-open it. Not just to make DIVERGE a reality, but also for the community to enjoy year-round.

You then ascend again. This time a super steep, and direct old seismic exploration line to an epic lookout, that overlooks Queenstown’s mine. You might pause for a moment to take in the man-made moonscape of stripped hills and mountains. A century of copper mining has left these mountains bare, although look closely, and you’ll see intricate details. Like the exposed root balls of century old King Billy Pine stumps where the soil has eroded around the roots. You then traverse the ridgetop to (and past) Mt Lyell, and you then bomb down to Chamouni Aid Station down climber's access tracks.

You’ll pass the historic Pioneer Cemetery and a single track takes you through the old mining ghost town of Gormanston. You’ll hit the classic tourist lookouts at Horsetail Falls at the foot of Mt Owen. This 50-metre waterfall can vary from a trickle when it is dry to a massive waterfall after rain. And then it’s past the Iron Blow Lookout, which gives an impressive bird's eye view of the huge open-cut mine and perhaps gives you a little more understanding of the man-made moonscape landscapes around Queenstown.

It’s then back down the MTB trails, and around over the Miners Siding — a large sculpture that tells the story of Queenstown's rich mining history — and over the finish line.

There are 4 aid stations on course (but you go to Chamouni twice). See the Strava map for where they are. There is a recovery station at finish line.