4 Peaks Bright Alpine Climb Recap - Matt Crehan

29/11/2024

Every year in early November, the Victorian town of Bright hosts the classic mountain running event called the 4 Peaks Bright Alpine Climb. First held in 1979, the race is essentially a stage race, where competitors run or hike up a different peak each day, with the total cumulative time going towards the overall placing.

While the “fourth peak” has changed a few times over the years, the line up has now settled as Mt Buffalo, Mt Feathertop, Mt Hotham and Mystic Hill. Only the uphill time is recorded for the first three stages, while Mystic Hill includes a quadbusting downhill on the last day.

This was only my second time racing the event, but after such an awesome time last year, I was keen to get up there again with a bunch of La Sportiva teammates.

Day One - Mt Buffalo (10.5km, 1345m vertical ascent)

Day One for 2024 saw the piloting of a new format, where the runners left first, followed by the walkers. To me, this just makes sense, and I hope it will continue in future years, and be repeated in the other stages.

We took off pretty quickly, and one runner in particular dashed around the outside to get to the front. However as soon as the incline began to increase he seemed to drop back, perhaps slowed by trying to get his poles sorted.

I was soon in the lead, but not for long as Iain Best, a very quick runner from Canberra and VK specialist, jumped in front. I kept on his heels, and we remained reasonably close all the way up to Mackey's Lookout.

As the terrain got a little more technical through the switchbacks across the granite, I noticed Iain’s pace began to slow a little. I decided to make a move and put in a bit of a surge to get in front. I kept my foot on the gas as I passed and managed to get just out of sight around the switchbacks.

I burnt a few matches with effort so eased off a touch, but knew I couldn’t afford to take the foot off completely, thankfully staying just out of sight. In the end I came across the finish line first, 44 seconds ahead of Iain. Chatting with him up the top, he was surprised to hear that I was not that far ahead, and I knew he wouldn’t let me get away with a move like that on the following days.

Day Two - Mt Feathertop (12km, 1650m Vertical Ascent)

Mt Feathertop is an interesting stage as there is no road access to the top. That means that while only the time for the climb is recorded, you still need to make your way back down afterwards.

This also has implications for the gear and nutrition you might choose to bring with you. We were made aware before the start of the race that due to high winds up on the peaks, we would not be going all the way to the summit, although there were mixed signals about where we would actually finish.

After a short run up the road to get to the trail head, the climb is pretty consistent all the way up. This can be a bit relentless, as there are very few opportunities for reprieve or a change in pace. But if you're a runner that likes to get into a groove and grind away, then this is the climb for you.

Day Two was back to the old format of the walkers and slower runners leaving first, with those interested in the overall results leaving last at 8am. This resulted in approximately one million “passing on your right” - “sorry” - “just popping through” - thanks”, which adds a degree of effort when already breathing hard running uphill.

Thank you to all those who jumped to the side and gave words of encouragement. Apologies to anyone who was annoyed about the situation, it is not ideal for either party! It seemed that after yesterday's efforts, Iain was determined not to leave my shoulder, and we stuck together basically the whole way up.

He finally made a move to pass at around 8km, and it was well timed as I struggled to go with him. I was under the impression that the finish line was now at the junction between the Razorback and the Summit Track, so I was a little surprised when I popped out at the hut and was told that was it, we had finished.

In hindsight, it is a much more appropriate finish line location, but I was hoping to use that last kilometre or so to my advantage. In the end, Iain finished nearly 30 seconds in front, taking a little chunk out of my overall lead. Bring on Day Three!

Day Three - Mt Hotham (15km, 1867m Vertical Ascent)

Mt Hotham is my favourite day of the weekend. It has a bit of everything - quite a fast undulating start; a couple of really steep climbs; some quick running along the saddle; and some techy bits along the Razorback.

It also has some pretty epic views up the top, and with yesterday being cut short, I was happy we got to go all the way up. I started pretty hard, hoping to get a bit of a gap before we hit the steep climb around 6km in.

This felt steady but controlled, although when I hit the climb my heart rate really spiked, so maybe in hindsight I did take it a bit too hard. Ethan Penck had been moving up positions each day as he recovered from an earlier sickness, and stuck right with me the whole first section, we then swapped leads as we started to climb.

I managed to pull away as we continued up and used the section along the saddle to recover and lower the heart rate, while still maintaining a decent effort. I hadn’t realised Iain had closed in behind me and was quite surprised to find him right on my shoulder at the bottom of ‘the wall’ - a super steep section that takes you up to the final push to the Razorback.

Iain moved super strong up here and I felt my chances of another stage win slipping away. As the gradient eases off, it was hard to transition back to running from hiking, but I saw that he was still not too far ahead. At first I had hoped I could at least minimise the deficit, and go into the last day not too far behind.

But as we got up on the Razorback, I realised I was gaining on him again. Nothing left to do now but give it a full send to try and catch him. I put the foot down and was pretty reckless over the technical terrain, but unfortunately was breathing so hard he heard me coming. We were now both charging along the trail.

I had perhaps made my move too early and while it felt like I was reeling him in, I couldn’t quite get there by the finish line, and in the end he got me by 5 seconds. A fun (albeit painful) way to finish the stage, and it set the stage for an exciting race tomorrow. Only 10 seconds now separated Iain and myself, in what was feeling a bit like déjà vu from the 13 second differential between Leo Peterson and myself heading into the final stage last year.

Day Four - Mystic Hill (12km, 800m Ascent & Descent)

This year the start and finish line area had been moved from the oval at Alpine Park to the orchids of Nightingale Bros in Wandiligong. This is another welcome change as it provides a nice race hub atmosphere, and a nice place to hang around for a drink and a chat after the race.

It was a reasonably quick start, although with the accumulated fatigue from the weekend was becoming apparent, my perceived effort was a fair bit higher than the pace we were actually running.

In contrast to last year’s straight up straight down elevation profile, we started with a small climb then actually had a bit of very runnable downhill before hitting the major climb. Just enough to really bang the legs up before hitting the steep stuff. A pack of 4 or 5 of us stayed close, and Iain pulled in front of me as we started the climb.

My plan was to keep him in sight, then hopefully catch him on the descent. This climb is shorter than the previous days, but it is steep, exposed, and hard going. Iain soon passed Ethan to take the lead, but they were both well within my sights.

Coming to the top of the first pitch there was a bit of reprieve in terms of gradient, but not in terms of effort as I pushed hard to stay with the leaders. My legs were burning by this stage but I kept telling myself that it wasn’t too much further, and the whole weekend was coming down to these next few kilometres.

Another agonising run / hike and we finally crested the climb, heading straight down a very steep fire road. I threw myself down and tried not to dislodge too many loose rocks as I navigated my way through some of the earlier starters. With both Ethan and Iain still within sight, I thought I was making up some ground on them.

But after a couple more corners I couldn’t see either of them, so figured they had pulled ahead. As I got back into the orchards, I noticed Ethan not far up ahead again. Knowing I must have been more than 10 seconds back from Iain and the overall win, I took my foot off the gas, enjoying the last kilometre winding my way through the apple trees.

I crossed the line in what I thought was third, until someone asked, “where’s Iain?” Turns out both he and Ethan had missed a turn as they were heading back into the farm, and Iain had backtracked to correct himself, coming across the line a few minutes later. This resulted in me getting the overall win, but it was a bittersweet way to get the victory after such a close battle over the previous four days.

All in all, it was a fantastic four days of racing, and great to catch up with so many friends throughout the weekend. Well done to Rob and the crew at Trail Running Gippsland for putting on another fantastic event. Make sure you put it on your calendar for next year!

I should add that this is just my personal reflection, and I’m sure there are many other stories that came out of the weekend. Nor is it a full breakdown of results, which can be found here: https://www.4peaks.com.au/