Western States is 100.2 miles point-to-point across the High Sierra from Olympic Valley to Auburn, the oldest 100-miler there is. You can't just sign up: you finish a qualifying ultra, then enter a lottery that took about 260 of nearly 10,000 applicants for 2025, so one ticket is under 1 percent and most wait years. The canyons cook past 38 degrees, snow lingers at Emigrant Pass, and 5,500 metres of climbing make the 30-hour cutoff a fight.
Better info coming — we're still verifying 1 field on this race.
Why we'd pick it
- Serious climbing — 5500 m of gain. Respect the cutoffs.
- It's a lottery. Enter the day it opens, not the week before.
- Thin on non-race things to do for a partner (2/5).
- Race day usually sits 10–35°C, about 10% chance of rain.
The course
100 miles point-to-point from Olympic Valley to Auburn across the High Sierra, with about 5,500 metres of climbing and 7,000 metres of descent. The early snow at Emigrant Pass and the brutal canyons' afternoon heat, often over 38 degrees, make the 30-hour cutoff a genuine fight.
