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Ultras · CA · AB

Canadian Death Race

Death Race Solo (118K) · 118K
Registration open
Registration is open.
Race dateJuly 31 to August 1, 2027
Duration2 days
Start8:00am
Whenin 278 days
First held2000

Who's going to Canadian Death Race?

I'm running itPlan your weeks and your aid station times I'm crewingWhen to leave, where to park, at every stop I'm pacing or cheeringAsk your runner for their Out Here link

Free. You can start with nothing.

Official website Results Aid stations Crew access Notify me if this race changes
Free, and always will be. NavRun makes money from race-day planning for runners who want it, never from this. Ultras change constantly, sometimes the morning of. Always confirm with the race director and the official website before you rely on anything here.
Distance
118K
Climb Our math
11,860 ft We worked this out from what the race prints.
Descent Our math
14,596 ft We worked this out from what the race prints.
High point
not checked yet
Time limit The race
24:00:00
Aid stations
14
Started
not checked yet
Finished
not checked yet
Finish rate
not checked yet
The course

Where it goes loop · 14 aid stations · rust marks a stop your crew can reach

Course line from the race's own GPX. Source file. Recorded 2026.

Five legs from Central Park: the Downtown Jaunt (14km), Flood and Grande Mountain Slugfest (29.4km), Old Mine Road (21.5km), Hamell Assault (35.2km) and the River Crossing (18.5km). The race has 24 hours.

Over 4,770m of climbing across five legs. Leg 2 is the most technical: the trail from Flood Mountain to Grande Mountain is the roughest in the race. Leg 4 climbs Mount Hamell, and runners fetch a summit flag from the spine above Hell's Canyon. Leg 5 crosses the Smoky River by boat and is run in the dark by most runners. Runners who cannot finish in 13 hours will be in the dark.

The race

What this one is

A mountain ultramarathon in the Canadian Rockies that starts and finishes in Central Park in Grande Cache, Alberta. The full course crosses three mountain summits and the Smoky River by raft at Hell's Gate. Runners can take it on solo or as a five-leg relay, or choose the shorter Near Death race. A kids' race runs from the same park on the Sunday.

The Canadian Death Race has been challenging runners since 2000. It is a Western States qualifier, one of the few in Canada.

Getting in

Getting in Entry, lottery and what the race asks of you before race day.

Lottery
not checked yet
Lottery opens
not checked yet
Lottery draw
not checked yet
Field cap
1000 sinistersports.ca
Registration
Other raceroster.com
Qualifying
not checked yet
Minimum age
not checked yet
Transfers
Yes sinistersports.ca
Deferrals
not checked yet
Crew access, pacers and drop bags

The rules that shape your day Anything marked "not checked yet" is a gap in what we hold, never a no from the race.

Crew allowed
Yes sinistersports.ca
Vehicles per runner
not checked yet
Pacers
No sinistersports.ca
Muling
not checked yet
Drop bags
Yes sinistersports.ca
Cupless
not checked yet
Course marking
Fully Marked sinistersports.ca
Night running
Yes sinistersports.ca
Dogs
Not allowed sinistersports.ca
Headphones
not checked yet
Crew rules
Assistance is allowed only at the Transition Areas. Assistance cannot help a runner cover distance or hand over required items after the start. A Race Parking Pass is required for entry to transition areas, and parking on the highway is not allowed. sinistersports.ca
Pacer rules
Pacers are not allowed. Registered runners can run together on their own leg. sinistersports.ca
Drop bag rules
Solo racers can leave one drop bag at each Transition Area and at CP423. Bags are only accepted at check-in on the Friday before the race. Use a weatherproof bag or bin, as the race may not be able to shelter this gear. sinistersports.ca
Cutoff philosophy
Except for the Finish, each cutoff is the time a racer must start the next leg by. If conditions are poor the race may change or add cutoffs for safety. sinistersports.ca
Aid stations

Every stop, and what you get there ● yes   ○ no   ? nobody has checked   – does not apply to this race

Mile Station Cutoff Crew access Bag Pacer Med To next
? Start: Central Park
NoneSignal wrong?
 ? ? ? ? ? ?
? CP109 (Leg 1)
NoneSignal wrong?
 ? ○ ○ ? ? ?
? Transition Area 200 (start of Leg 2)
NoneSignal wrong?
 12:00pm ● ● ? ? ?
? CP219 (Leg 2)
NoneSignal wrong?
 ? ○ ○ ? ? ?
? Transition Area 300 (start of Leg 3)
NoneSignal wrong?
 5:30pm ● ● ? ? ?
? CP316 (Leg 3)
NoneSignal wrong?
 ? ○ ○ ? ? ?
? Transition Area 400 (start of Leg 4)
NoneSignal wrong?
 7:45pm ● ● ? ? ?
? CP406 (Leg 4)
NoneSignal wrong?
 ? ○ ○ ? ? ?
? CP410 (Leg 4)
NoneSignal wrong?
 ? ○ ○ ? ? ?
? CP423 (Leg 4)
NoneSignal wrong?
 ? ○ ● ? ? ?
? Transition Area 500 (start of Leg 5)
NoneSignal wrong?
 4:45am ● ● ? ? ?
? CP510 (Leg 5)
NoneSignal wrong?
 ? ○ ○ ? ? ?
? CP513 (last boat)
NoneSignal wrong?
 6:30am ○ ○ ? ? ?
? Finish: Central Park
NoneSignal wrong?
 8:00am ? ? ? ? ?
Driving your crew

Getting your people there 4 stops with directions the race published.

Transition Area 200 (start of Leg 2) cutoff 12:00pm

Relay runners should not drive here: take the shuttle bus from Central Park. From the Grande Cache Recreation Centre, head east on Hoppe Ave to Hwy 40. Turn right (southeast) onto Hwy 40 and continue for 8.3km. Look for the Aseniwuche sign on the right (south) side of the Hwy. Turn onto the dirt road, then make an immediate right into the large gravel lot and follow the directions of parking volunteers.

Parking. Large gravel lot on the dirt road off Hwy 40, with parking volunteers.

docs.google.com
Transition Area 300 (start of Leg 3) cutoff 5:30pm

This TA is in Central Park, next to the Recreation Centre in Grande Cache.

Parking. Parking is located at the south side of the centre, as well as on the street.

docs.google.com
Transition Area 400 (start of Leg 4) cutoff 7:45pm

From the Grande Cache Recreation Centre, head east on Hoppe Ave to Hwy 40. Turn left (northwest) onto Hwy 40 and continue for 17.7 km. Look for the large clearing with the wooden hut on the left side of the road.

Parking. Large clearing with a wooden hut, on the left side of Hwy 40.

docs.google.com
Transition Area 500 (start of Leg 5) cutoff 4:45am

From the Grande Cache Recreation Centre, head east on Hoppe Ave to Hwy 40. Turn left (northwest) onto Hwy 40. Continue for 6.8 km and turn left onto Sulphur Gates Road. Turn right into the clearing and drive to the north end.

Parking. Clearing on Sulphur Gates Road; drive to the north end.

docs.google.com
Same race, other lines

Other distances and other years

What it looks like out there

Somebody has been out there with a camera the tables say the climb is long. these say what long feels like.

2 people have been out there with a camera or a microphone.

Canadian Death Race 2017

Recap

2016 Canadian Death Race: Full Video

Recap

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.

Add to this page

What you know every one of these is read by a person before it changes anything

Ran this race? Tell the next runner what you know.

Nobody sees it until we have read it. No account, no sign-in.

Leave blank if it applies to the whole race.

Leave blank if it is not about one particular stop.

Optional. Something like “Cal Street, mile 62 to 78”.

Write it the way you would say it to someone at the start line.

Optional, and it decides nothing. It only tells the next runner where this is coming from.

Optional.

Optional, and never shown on the page. Only so we can ask you a question about this note.

Leave this field blank.

See something wrong or out of date? Suggest an edit.

This changes nothing on the page on its own. Somebody checks it against the race first.

Optional. Filled in for you when you start from a specific line on the page.

Copy it as it appears, so we can find it.

The corrected value.

Required. Where it came from: the race email, the runner manual, what you saw on the day.

Optional.

Optional. A screenshot or a photo of the sign works.

Optional, and it decides nothing.

Optional.

Optional, only so we can come back to you about this correction.

Leave blank if it is about the whole race.

Leave blank if it is not about one particular stop.

Leave this field blank.

Seen a course preview or a film of this one? Send it over.

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.

Required. A line is plenty. Where the climbs are, what the footing does, what the last twenty miles look like.

Optional, and it decides nothing.

Optional.

Optional, and never shown on the page. Only so we can ask you a question about this one.

A YouTube link, a race report, a photo gallery, whatever it is.

Optional, and we credit them on the page.

Leave this field blank.

Have the GPX? Send us the link.

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.

The page or file on the race's own site.

Optional, and only so we can ask you a question about it.

Are you the race director? Get in touch and we'll make it right.

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.

Required, because this is a conversation and we write back.

Tell us what is wrong, out of date, or missing on this page. We read every one of these and we will get back to you.

Optional.

So we know who we are writing back to.

Optional. Director, assistant, comms, whoever you are.

Leave this field blank.

Where this came from. Every fact on this page records its source and when we last checked it: 161 sources for this race. Hover a source link to read the sentence it came from.
39% of what we track for a course is filled in. The rest says "not checked yet" rather than guessing.
See something wrong or out of date? Suggest an edit
Ran this race? Tell the next runner what you know
Were you out there? Say which stops a text got out from
Got footage of this course? Send us the link
Are you the race director? Get in touch and we'll make it right.
Anything else: [email protected]

Ultras change. We will tell you when this one does.

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.

No account, and nothing to cancel.

What happens to your email. Nothing else. I do not sell it, and I will not send you anything except this race changing. One click gets you out.

I keep this catalog because the information is scattered and hard to trust. Telling you when it moves is the same job.

Ultras change. We will tell you when this one does.

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.

No account, and nothing to cancel.

What happens to your email. Nothing else. I do not sell it, and I will not send you anything except this race changing. One click gets you out.

I keep this catalog because the information is scattered and hard to trust. Telling you when it moves is the same job.