Stoked Ultra serves up a mix of challenging terrain, stunning mountain views and inspiring trail vibes.
For more than a decade, Jacob Puzey has been quietly building one of Canada’s most respected mountain running festivals high in the rugged alpine terrain in and around Revelstoke Mountain Resort. Heading into its 14th season, The Stoked Ultra Weekend (August 27-29, 2027) is about to have its biggest year yet.
The resort sits in the heart of the Canadian Alps on the western flank of Mount Mackenzie, roughly midway between Vancouver and Calgary in interior British Columbia. It’s surrounded by the world’s only inland temperate rainforest, with a rich ecosystem of cedar and hemlock trees supporting diverse wildlife. Runners move through dense, damp valley forest before reaching exposed alpine bowls and craggy ridgelines higher up.
It’s all part of the stunning backdrop against which Puzey has developed the three-day Stoked Ultra Weekend into a destination event worthy of a spot on anyone’s bucket list.
Whether you’re a first-time trail runner, a hardened ultra veteran, or somewhere in between, the Stoked Ultra weekend offers something for everyone, with six races over three days.
“It’s a unique place where you can’t avoid the vert,” Puzey said. “It’s about as rugged terrain as you can get permitted anywhere in North America to host events on. There are some places that, other than on foot, you can only get to by helicopter. But we think it’s an amazing place for trail running races, with a nice mix of options for runners.”
That access wasn’t handed over lightly—it’s been earned by the race organization through a long relationship with the resort’s mountain operations teams. “They trust us, and when we say, ‘We’d like to link up this peak with this peak,’ they tell us, ‘If you want to go out there, go pick a trail through there. Go for it.'”
That trust has let the race grow alongside the resort’s own infrastructure. Sections of the current course, including a steep pitch through what’s known as the Montana Bowl—home in winter to the Natural Selection snowboard competition—became accessible only as the resort pushed cat tracks and lift access further into the terrain.
Courses send runners across singletrack, doubletrack, ridgeline sections, and scrambling terrain. That means a real mix—from flowing, runnable trails to exposed ridgeline walking to a few sections where putting your hands on the rocks is necessary for stability. Throw in blue-sky vistas with jagged peaks and glacier views, a range of mountain foliage, remote alpine lakes and a dash of grassroots trail running community vibes, and you have all the makings for some epic mountain moments.
A Weekend Built Around the Mountain
When Puzey and his crew help the resort maintain and build routes each summer, they do it with a runner’s eye, working to string together as many different visual features and physical challenges along the course as possible. The result is a race that regularly draws competitors from well beyond Canada’s borders to test themselves against Revelstoke’s steep, unforgiving alpine terrain.
The event’s current lineup has been refined over the years to balance challenging vertical terrain with genuine runability, all set against stunning alpine views in the heart of the Selkirk Mountains.
It all starts Friday with the relentlessly steep Stoked VK, a classic vertical kilometer race in which participants grind through a mix of running and power hiking.
“It’s straight up,” Puzey said. “We start on a trail called Bottoms Up, and then the next trail is called Kill the Banker, and it’s just pure vertical.”
On Saturday, the event serves up the Stoked Climb 15K, the Stoked Scramble 25K, and the Stoked Ultra 50K, all held on rugged alpine terrain. The final day, Sunday, features the flowy, runnable courses of the Trailstoke Half Marathon and 30K—something of a release valve after two days of climbing and scrambling.
There are also Full Stoke and Half Stoke multi-race packages for those interested in testing their mettle over the entire event.
“We think it’s a good mix, something for everybody,” Puzey said. “A lot of people really enjoy the first two days, but then they’re grateful after the last day, because they can finally stretch out their legs and run after the first two days of hiking and scrambling.”
In addition, the Stoked Ultra will host the Canadian Mountain Running Championships in 2027 and 2028, and next year it will serve as Canada’s selection race for the World Mountain and Trail Running Championships in Cape Town, South Africa.
Friday’s vertical kilometer will double as Canada’s national mountain running uphill championship, while Saturday’s classic up-down mountain race—a roughly 15K loop that starts and finishes in the alpine after a gondola ride up and over a sub-peak—will serve as the second championship discipline.
To keep the championship race honest without disrupting the broader citizen event, Puzey is working with Athletics Canada to build a separate, opt-in heat for athletes seeking official team selection—runners who agree to anti-doping terms and are prepared to race competitively, apart from the broader field.
“It’s also a way of just avoiding congestion,” Puzey said. “We just want to make sure that the people who are racing are racing, and the people who aren’t going to be in contention can run in the citizens’ race.”
The Stoked Scramble 25K, the Stoked Ultra 50K, and the VK will also count toward points in the newly formed Canadian Skyrunning Series.
Rugged Racing, Plush Landing
For all the suffering built into the courses, Puzey is emphatic that the weekend isn’t just about survival but mostly about the solidarity of runners challenging themselves on the breathtaking natural terrain. In the end, it’s not necessarily about how fast you run, it’s the camaraderie and shared celebration of what you’ve just done.
The races offer all the post-race amenities a runner could ever want, most finishing with views of the Columbia River and the Begbie Glacier, steps from restaurants, cold beer, and resort amentities.
“The running part is very rugged, but you’ve got your massages, your hot tubs at the resort,” he said. “It’s a very bougie experience outside of the running. As an event director, that’s kind of the dream—to essentially be able to have enough people show up that you can fund a really big party for your friends.”
Puzey is hoping to introduce his Revelstoke event to runners inside and outside Canada, riding the wave of the trail running boom in Canada over the past several years. With Revelstoke Mountain Resort’s support secured for both championship years—including discounted lodging for visiting athletes despite peak-season demand—Puzey is optimistic about what a two-year run as national host can do for the sport regionally.
“A lot of people came to our event last year for the first time,” Puzey said. “Some of them have skied here, but they’ve never thought to run here. We want to spread the word and show everyone what a great event this is.”
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