Upper Stoney

The climb is ridiculous with sections steeper than 30% grade on huge roots, which come after zero rest from sections that are less steep but still 15%-20% grade. The climb has several section steeper than anything on runs like No Homers at the nordic center except you are going up instead of down.

The downhill is a really cool technical exercise with rocks, short slabs, roots, narrow trees. All pretty steep and very solid for a single black. Some of it has exposure on the right hand side making it scary as well.

I don't think the elevation graph is correct at all, there is no midway descent and then climb again, you just climb all the way to the viewpoint which is marked with a camera icon. And then descend all the way until a brief climb to get out.

It might actually be pretty interesting in the unpopular direction too, going down the roots. Maybe as an in-and-out where you still climb them

It was great. Challenging in the uphill. I push my bike sometimes. But the downhill section is awesome! Worth the climb for sure. (It is technical uphill and downhill, not for beginners)

The counter clockwise climb up to Snow Peak is 90% roots and was beyond my uphill abilities (especially after having ridden up from the town site to the trail head). I pushed up 90% of it, the roots made for good steps to climb up at least - the push up was relatively easy. Nice viewpoint at the top. The counter-clockwise down section is technical and steep, but a lot less roots. There are not any real opportunities to open up for speed and visibility is low with a tight path. Hikers and wildlife could be an issue . A lot more fun in the dry I expect, prepare for steep, committed sections if you don't want to find yourself in the trees, but its good technical DH. I wouldn't recommend this if the ground is wet and I bet it takes longer to dry as it is shaded.

I carried on to the Lower Stoney trail as I was doing a loop from town. This was a lot of fun even in the wet, fast bumpy flowing single track, some small drop offs, roots and rocks to work around, some small uphills, but mostly fun all the way to the highway. It took me down to a gate around 1km from the Norquay off ramp so I biked along the shoulder of the highway to get back to town. I'd do the Lower section again, not so sure about Upper.