Free. You can start with nothing.
135.0 miles (217 km) point-to-point on paved public highway from Badwater Basin, Death Valley (280 ft below sea level) to Whitney Portal (8,360 ft), via Furnace Creek, Stovepipe Wells, Towne Pass, Panamint Springs, Father Crowley, Darwin, Keeler and Lone Pine.
Three named mountain ascents, quoted from the race's own route book: "Towne Pass, mile 42.2 to mile 58.9: 4956 foot gain over 16.7 miles = 5.6% average"; "Father Crowley, mile 72.8 to mile 80.8: 2000 foot gain over 8 miles = 4.5% average (Followed by a gradual 1000 foot gain over the next 10 miles.)"; "Whitney Portal, mile 122.8 to mile 135: 4750 foot gain over 12.2 miles = 7.4% average (The final mile is the steepest.)" The course's own profile breakdown: 69 flat miles, 46 uphill miles (+14,600 ft total), 20 downhill miles (-6,100 ft total).
A 135-mile (217 km) non-stop point-to-point road ultramarathon from Badwater Basin in Death Valley National Park (280 ft below sea level, the lowest point in North America) to the Whitney Portal trailhead (8,360 ft), crossing three mountain ranges with 14,600 ft of cumulative ascent and 6,100 ft of descent. Marketed as "The World's Toughest Foot Race" and the "135-Mile World Championship," it is an invitational, application-only race with a mandatory 2-4 person crew and support vehicle for every competitor, a 45-hour time limit, and three staggered night-time start waves.
AdventureCORPS' own materials describe the 2026 edition as "the 49th anniversary of 'the world's toughest foot race'" (2026 minus 49, inclusive, gives 1978 as year one). A separate page in the race's own Results & History section instead names "July 31, 1987" as the first organized multi-competitor event, the "US vs. UK Death Valley to Mt. Whitney Race," with 5 starters and 5 finishers -- likely the first race run head-to-head, as distinct from earlier solo crossing attempts of the same route (the route itself, and Al Arnold's solo crossings, predate any organized race; the blog's own year-archive list on badwater.com goes back to 1978).
| Mile | Station | Cutoff | Crew access | Bag | Pacer | Med | To next |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 0.00 |
Badwater Basin (Start)
-282 ft
|
? | ● | ? | ? | ? | 17.70 |
| 17.70 |
Furnace Creek
-170 ft
|
? | ● | ? | ? | ? | 24.50 |
| 42.20 |
Stovepipe Wells
0 ft
|
? | ● | ? | ● | ● | 8.60 |
| 50.80 |
Mile 50.8 - 2000' Elevation Sign (mandatory NPS pass point)
2,000 ft
|
10:00am | ? | ? | ? | ? | 8.10 |
| 58.90 |
Towne Pass Summit
4,956 ft
|
? | ● | ? | ? | ? | 13.90 |
| 72.80 |
Panamint Springs Resort
1,970 ft
|
7:00pm | ● | ? | ? | ? | 17.90 |
| 90.70 |
Darwin Turn-Off
5,050 ft
|
3:30am | ● | ? | ? | ? | 17.70 |
| 108.40 |
Keeler / Cerro Gordo Rd
3,610 ft
|
? | ● | ? | ? | ? | 14.40 |
| 122.80 |
Lone Pine (Dow Villa Motel)
3,610 ft
|
? | ● | ? | ? | ● | 8.40 |
| 131.20 |
Portal Road / Base of the Switchbacks
6,890 ft
|
? | ● | ? | ? | ? | 3.60 |
| 134.80 |
Whitney Portal (Finish)
8,360 ft
|
? | ● | ? | ? | ? | ? |
First recommended crew stop is a wide shoulder on the right between mile 2.6 and 3.4.
badwater.comTurn left (north) onto Hwy 190 at mile 16.5. General Store at 'The Oasis' (Furnace Creek Ranch) at mile 17.5, open until 0200 the first night by special arrangement. Time Checkpoint #1 at the Furnace Creek Fuel station on the left, mile 17.7. Immediately after, at mile 19.1 (Harmony Borax Works), crews must park and let the runner cover the next mile alone: NO stopping, slowing or parking anywhere from mile 19.1 to 20.1 ('Harmony Curves'). Parking resumes at mile 20.1.
Parking. Park in lots, not along roadway, throughout Furnace Creek.
badwater.comImmediately after this station, support vehicles may ONLY stop at the 8 designated parking zones over the next 12.2 miles (the Father Crowley climb, mile 72.8 to unmarked Panamint Pass at mile 84.9), monitored by NPS staff with authority to disqualify violators: gravel pullout at mile 74.5 (1.7 mi from the resort), gravel pullout at mile 76.1 (3.3 mi), gravel shoulder at mile 77.4-77.6 (4.6 mi), pullout at mile 78.1 (5.3 mi), Father Crowley's Point lot at mile 80.75 (7.9 mi, has a toilet), elevated pullout at mile 81.6 (8.8 mi), wide pullout at mile 83.3 (10.5 mi), and the unmarked summit pullout at mile 84.9 (12.2 mi). Crew members other than pacers may never cross the roadway anywhere in this 12.1-mile stretch. Normal parking resumes at mile 85.1.
badwater.comSupport vehicles should drive ahead to find parking at the Family Campground (mile 134.1); all crew may join the runner at the Overflow Parking Lot (mile 134.7) to cross the finish line together.
badwater.com20 people have been out there with a camera or a microphone.
+ 12 more.
These are other people's work and we link straight to them. Watching costs nothing and needs no account. More of them: every race we hold, on film.
Nobody sees it until we have read it. No account, no sign-in.
This changes nothing on the page on its own. Somebody checks it against the race first.
Somebody watches it before it goes anywhere near this page. What we are after is footage of this course, on the ground. If it would be just as true of any other race, it is not this.
We want the address of the file the race publishes, not the file. We download it from there so the page can say where the line came from.
We read every one of these and we write back. Every fact here carries the source it came from, and the way a wrong one gets fixed is a person checking it against what you tell us.
Cutoffs move, races get postponed, lotteries open and close. We read the race's own sources and record where every fact came from. Put your email in and we will send you what changed, and where we read it.
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I keep this catalog because the information is scattered and hard to trust. Telling you when it moves is the same job.
