Crested Butte Ultra
50 Miler · 50 Mile
Ran · this year's race is done.
Run September 26, 2026; results posted.
Race dateSeptember 26, 2026
Start6:00am
When20 days ago
Who's going to Crested Butte Ultra?
Free. You can start with nothing.
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
50 Mile
Climb
8,301 ft
Descent
8,301 ft
High point
11,291 ft
Time limit
not checked yet
Aid stations
7
Started
not checked yet
Finished
not checked yet
Finish rate
not checked yet
The course
Where it goes
· 7 aid stations
The 50 Mile starts at 6:00 a.m. at Crested Butte Community School on single track through mountain meadows and up to ridges in the Gunnison National Forest. Its cutoffs are firm at intermediate aid stations; missing one often lets a runner drop to a shorter route.
The race
What this one is
Crested Butte Ultra runs single track through the Gunnison National Forest around Crested Butte, Colorado: mountain meadows, ridges above 11,000 feet, wildflowers lower down and fall color. It starts and finishes at Crested Butte Community School and offers a 50 Mile, 55K and 35K, run under a special use permit with the Grand Mesa, Uncompahgre, and Gunnison National Forests. No crew, spectators or pacers are allowed on the course.
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
-
not checked yet
- Registration
-
not checked yet
- Qualifying
-
not checked yet
- Minimum age
-
not checked yet
- Transfers
-
No
docs.google.com
- Deferrals
-
not checked yet
Running, crewing, pacing or still deciding
How NavRun helps with Crested Butte Ultra
Six stations with a clock on each.
You are running it
You reach Farris Creek, mile 23, before its 12:35pm cutoff, and you already knew that this morning.
An arrival time for all 6 stations, each next to its cutoff, worked out from your own training.
Start free →
You are deciding
You find out Crested Butte Ultra is months of work away, not years, and you start.
Put in a race you have already run. NavRun shows you where this one sits from where you are.
No account needed →
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
-
No
docs.google.com
- Vehicles per runner
-
not checked yet
- Pacers
-
No
docs.google.com
- Muling
-
not checked yet
- Drop bags
-
Yes
drive.google.com
- Cupless
-
Yes
madmooseevents.com
- Course marking
-
Fully Marked
drive.google.com
- Night running
-
not checked yet
- Dogs
-
not checked yet
- Headphones
-
not checked yet
- Crew rules
-
No crew or spectators are allowed on the course or at aid stations, to protect the fragile landscape; aid stations have no parking. Runners are responsible for their spectators and crew. Crew may be at the finish line.
docs.google.com
- Pacer rules
-
Pacing is not allowed. Vehicle and bicycle pacing is also prohibited.
docs.google.com
- Drop bag rules
-
50 Mile only, one per runner. Taken to the Teocalli aid station (mile 29.5 and 41). 12 x 12 x 12 inches or smaller, labeled with bib number and/or name. No valuables. Returned to the finish line around 7:30 PM; everything must be off the school grounds by 9 PM Saturday. Not mailed; unclaimed bags are donated.
drive.google.com
- Cutoff philosophy
-
Our 50 Mile cutoffs are designed to be tough. Fall in the mountains means limited daylight, cold temps, and long nights, so the timing is built around that. Firm cutoffs at intermediate aid stations; missing one often offers the ability to drop in distance to finish a shorter route. Shorter distances come with more generous cutoffs.
docs.google.com
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 |
| 6.00 |
Farris Creek
|
7:25am |
○ |
? |
? |
? |
7.00 |
| 13.00 |
Walrod
|
9:25am |
○ |
? |
? |
? |
10.00 |
| 23.00 |
Farris Creek
|
12:35pm |
○ |
? |
? |
? |
6.50 |
| 29.50 |
Teocalli
|
2:30pm |
○ |
● |
? |
? |
11.50 |
| 41.00 |
Teocalli
|
6:00pm |
○ |
● |
? |
? |
3.00 |
| 44.00 |
Farris Creek
|
7:00pm |
○ |
? |
? |
? |
6.00 |
| 50.00 |
Finish Line
|
9:00pm |
● |
? |
? |
? |
? |
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Where this came from.
Every fact on this page records its source and when we last checked it: 71 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.
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.
