The Gauntlet

**The Gauntlet** is a vertical obstacle course.

## General Information

It's called the Gauntlet because it's on the cliff that guards The Vale. The name, coming from the slippery nature of actual armored gloves made of metal, stuck as the official title of the obstacle course roughly 20 years prior to the events in Fourth Wing. It is an obstacle course that is carved into a ridgeline that is so steep that it resembles a cliff and it separates the citadel from the flight field and the Vale. The course zigzags across the ridgeline with distinct switchbacks of 180-degree turns. Each turn increasing in difficulty until the final ascent. Each of the five ascents on the course is designed to mimic the challenges that riders face in battle. From the balance they have to keep on the back of their dragon, to the strength needed to hold their seat during maneuvres, to the stamina needed to fight on the ground and then still be able to mount their dragon at a second's notice.

Each squad of first year cadets gets 9, one hour, practice sessions, starting two and a half weeks before Threshing, before their timed run on Presentation Day. After the hour is up it's the next squads turn. During these practice sessions Cadets are allowed to use safety ropes run every six feet across the cliffside from top to bottom, though using a rope adds 30 seconds to the cadets overall time. Each cadet is timed on their final run on Presentation day, and squads are ranked based on the entire squad's speed. This ranking determines the order in which squads present themselves to the dragons after the gauntlet. The squad with the fastest time will start first on Presentation day and the squad with the slowest time will go last. There are only two rules to completing the gauntlet on presentation day; cadets may not touch another cadet on the ascent, and cadets are not allowed to climb back down. Cadets will either complete the gauntlet or fall to their deaths.

Only after completing the Gauntlet will cadets be able to use the stairs to reach the flight fields. First years observe the other first years from either the base or the edges of the cliff.

## The Course

* **First Ascent**
	+ Has a spinning fifteen-foot log that is parallel with the cliff at the start of the uphill climb.
	+ Followed by four granite pillars, each one higher than the last, and each pillar is about three feet apart.
	+ The first switchback is a giant wheel that has a counter clockwise rotation and only one opening.
* **The Second Ascent**
	+ The second ascent is a series of five giant hanging balls hanging from chains linked to an iron rail above them, that cadets must jump or hug to swing across. The balls are just wide enough that cadets would be unable to hold them and they would instead slip off.
* **The Third Ascent**
	+ The first part has three giant textured metal rods hanging parallel to the cliff wall, lined up like battering rams, and cadets must go arm over arm and then use their momentum to swing the bars forward to reach the next bar. Each bar is half a foot higher than the previous bar.
	+ The second part requires the cadets to jump from the last bar onto a series of shaking iron pillars before finally leaping onto the gravel path.
* **The Fourth Ascent**
	+ Roughly two thirds of the way up the cliffside, one of the steepest sections of the course.
	+ has a series of seven nearly-touching three-foot wide timber logs that spin in opposite directions jutting out from the rocky terrain like a set of round-steps rising from the switchback above it. These logs crush a cadet if they are not fast enough.
	+ This is followed by a giant chimney formation, which is a hollow column, that rises at a twenty-degree angle upwards. Cadets should grab the sides of the formation by forming an X with their body and hop up until they reach the end and ends at the foot of the final obstacle.
* **The Fifth Ascent**
	+ The fifth and final ascent is a wooden ramp that juts ten feet out from the cliff wall and then curves upward like the inside of a bowl, the highest point level with the cliff top ten feet above it's base, making it a nearly vertical climb to finish the course. It's designed to test the ability to climb a dragons foreleg and reach it's saddle.

There are heavy ropes every six feet that run from the top of the cliffside to the bottom. Cadets are allowed to grab the ropes if they start to fall but during their timed practice runs before Presentation, however they will have thirty seconds added to their time.

The path between each obstacle is a shoulder width gravel path.

## Location

Located in the Riders Quadrant just outside the Citadel at Basgiath War College, the Gauntlet is built into the ridgeline that separates the citadel from the flight field and the Vale.

## Trivia

* Q: "Out of her 9 squadmates, what place was Violet in the Gauntlet line up?" A: 7th, "The order for violets squad during practice is; Sawyer, Pryor, Trina, Tynan, Rhiannon, Ridoc, Violet, Aurelie, Luca"
* aurelie slips off the fifth post on the fourth ascent.
* out the 171 first years that attempt the Gauntlet, only two die leaving 169 cadets to bond 101 dragons.

## References

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 Fourth Wing, Chapter 10
2. ↑ Fourth Wing, Chapter 11