Giant's Ridge is a monster of a course, set up along the ski hill. There's 1600' of elevation change up and then back down the hill. This course is a hike. You need to be in solid shape to take on this challenge. Expect a couple hours, at the minimum, to finish your round. It take me and the wife 2 1/2 hours to play, and we're generally pretty quick players.

The baskets are older Mach III's. These are still in solid shape and catch ok. Not great but not terrible either. There's multiple pin positions on many of the holes it appears. Not sure how often they're moved, but that's always nice to see.

The flow of the course is very intuitive. I didn't have to use the map one time. There's a few spots where it may not seem obvious, but every one of these had next tee arrows in plain to see spots. They even had next tee arrows to both long and short pads where needed. This is always a bonus on a course with extreme elevation change. Conserving your energy is critical out here. Very well done in this regard.

The tee signs are solid. They have the hole #, par/pars, a basic hole map showing both pads and pin positions if applicable. They also had the distances listed from each tee to each pin location and a next tee arrow on the sign to further help with navigation. These were all screwed to a big log by the long tees. Plenty servicable.

The tee pads were all nice and grippy concrete, with the exception of two that were sprayed painted on a flat rock surface. Two tee pad placements on each hole. These are great to have on any course, but especially so on ski hill type courses.

While the course has you trekking up the hill for the first half, It's not overly uphill feeling. I mean it is, but they do a good job of kind of zig zagging across and up the hill. There's a couple that are just straight up, but they did a good job of breaking that up a little. By hole 9 you're all the way up. The ski lift can be taken up when the resort is open if you were only interested in playing down the hill.

I liked the fact that they rewarded you with a couple wooded holes after making it up to the top. Changes it up a little and lets you get you wind back.

The views from the top, even part of the way up, are just stunning. Some of the most scenic disc golf I've ever played. You can literally see for miles and miles. It's like an added treat for making it all the way to the top. Absolutely gorgeous area.

The baskets are tough to spot when they're tucked off into the tree line. I had to scout ahead a few times to be sure of where we were headed. It does make the holes more challenging though, so this is a minor nitpick.

Many of the holes feel pretty similar. There's only so much you can really do on these types of courses, and they did a great job with what they had to work with. But it doesn't change the fact that there's a lot of similar shots to be had.

The rough can be brutal in certain areas. For the most part it wasn't too bad, but be sure to keep an eye on your shots. Especially the downhill ones. The grass can gobble up errant shots pretty easily.

There are miles of mountain bike trails that meander their way around the hill, and some of these trails run through the course. These can probably become a bit annoying if it were busy with bikers. I doubt it ever that busy that It'd be a problem but worth noting.

I'm generally not too much of a fan of ski hill courses. They seem to be really hit or miss. Either they're good or they're kind of an afterthought, a way to bring in a few extra dollars during the off season. This one felt like the good kind. I was glad I took the time to play this. Is it the 4th best course in MN? Not even close, but you can definitely do worse than Giant's Ridge. I'd recommend it if you're ever in the area, but it's not worth going way out of your way to play it.

Be sure to bring lots of water if you play this course. And also to wear sturdy, grippy footwear. Preferably ankle high. The course is physically taxing and there are tons on loose rocks that can cause slips and rolled ankles. So take your time and enjoy the views.

Elevation change, hole variety, good distance.

Not very well maintained.
Not nearly as many wooded, technical holes as expected.
Signage is rather old and vague.
Flow of the course isn't great; seems like they could've had a better layout so you're using more downhill or cross hill holes instead of walking as much in between holes.

Overall, it's a pretty good course. Maintenance wouldn't be as much of an issue if it was a free course. As stated in the cons, this course would be much better if it had better flow. You'd get more variety by way of utilizing cross and downhill paths instead of just walking them to the next uphill hole. Good course, but Hibbing is significantly better in the area and is free.