As I mentioned last time, we had plunged into the Asgard Mountain map in Over the Hill, which was proving itself to be a step up in difficulty… as one might reasonably expect.
Over the Hill
Asgard Mountain isn’t a radical change from Gimli Ridge, but it does push things further. The terrain is more rugged, the marked trails less tamed, and the unmarked trails more common. To find all of the points of interest you will spend a lot more time driving past the end of marked trails than you had on the previous two maps.
Yes, even on the first map, Emerald Lake, you have to push beyond the end of marked trails to find the final few points of interest. But at Asgard Mountain there are some pretty large swathes of the map that have no trails indicated so you will need to make your own way across a variety of terrain and find paths to the markers that present themselves. Sometimes the way forward is fairly obvious. Other times you may get within sight of a goal only to have to easy way to get there.
Just a sheer cliff in the way…
That is the exploration aspect of the game, the challenge of the map, the bit that makes getting there worthwhile. And the sights are worthwhile, with beautiful views and the occasional surprise find.
Is that an abandoned Apollo command capsule?
The marked trails vary, with some smooth rides.
Down a trail by a lake
Then there are some trails that seem to be worthy of being challenge trails in their own right… something not helped by our own driving errors.
Hanging off a bridge by two wheels
That was on the way to a trail and I think we had to restart that journey twice, only to find the actual challenge trail much more relaxing.
There are two vehicle recovery challenges on the map and both of them are very much a step up from previous maps. The first one I found had a stranded vehicle down in a shallow bowl that you had to spiral down and then tow the vehicle back up. This was the first one I couldn’t simply brute force with the Blazer. Instead you have to figure out where you need to plant yourself so you have enough grip to pull your target up a steep incline. Also, I did it in the middle of a snowstorm.
It is like Dun Morogh out here…
The other is a high wire act where you have to tow a stranded vehicle along a mountain trail where there downhill aspects can make the whole thing go awry as the mass an momentum of the free wheeling target can work against you. I got pulled down the mountain face on the first try, yoinked off the track by the tow rope.
The stranded vehicle is taking me down
I ended up doing a pretty cautions run the next time and made it to the rescue point, but I had to hook and unhook it a few times to get it there safely.
After a few weekdays exploring on our own, Potshot and I grouped up to take on the last challenge trail we had left, the one at the top of the ascent from the previous post. We took this one seriously… or at least semi-seriously… getting our favored trail vehicles out to make the run to the highest summit on the map.
The pair at the cabin where we started
I was in my red Scout… Trailrat… and Potshot had chosen The Brick, both vehicles fully upgraded for the ascent. I had recently unlocked the hot dog roof cosmetic, so decided to run with that.
From the cabin it is only a few dozen yards to the start of the trail, the Midgard Ascent.
Midgard Ascent in big letters when you arrive
We set out on the trail which, honestly, did not have anything quite as challenging as “the crack” of the previous post. But it was still a job and required some careful approach lines and generous use of the winch.
Hot dog wagon waiting for Potshot to get lined up
Together we managed to make it to the top and wrapped up the final challenge trail, arriving at the Heimdall’s Eye observatory, which was the final scenic point on our list as well.
Top of the world ma! The hot dog wagon has arrived!
After that I had to find two more points of interest to find. One was in a very obvious diamond of unexplored territory in the middle of the southeast quadrant of the map. That was another one where you follow a trail, then push on beyond the marked trail to find an unmarked by fairly readable trail to the eventual mark.
The final point of interest Potshot had to point me at. As it turned out I had driven past, but not quite close enough, to a point of interest at the very middle north of the map. It required a long run up a shallow but undulating snowy slope to get there. It was within site of that Apollo capsule pictured above. That screen shot was from this ride to the last point of interest.
I made it to the final crate, got my reward as well as the Canadian Passport achievement for making it all the way through the first three maps.
That meant the next stop was Algeria.
