The Mt Difficulty Ascent has runners scrambling up, along and down the Central Otago landmark.
But competitors did it even tougher than ever, after a decent dusting of early winter snow on Saturday.
"There was quite a bit of snow up to 20 centimetres in areas but we had a look at some weather websites and we thought 'na, we're going to do it'!" race organiser Terry Davis said.
Davis climbed Mt Difficulty at 2am on Saturday to check the course and make sure the 44km race could go ahead.
Competitors set out at 8am but the higher competitors got, the worse the conditions.
For the first time in the race's nine-year history, the distance cut to 25km.
That also meant they couldn't aim for the very top of Mt difficulty, but the runners didn't care.
"Next year we'll be back to normal!! Normal is a nice little dusting of snow, nice cold frost in the morning and then a clear calm beautiful day, 12 degrees!" Davis said.
They've toughed the elements this year, now they have an excuse to come back, and knock it off next time.
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