The Bucket List
Some of the best days of your running life have no bib, no timing mat, and no finisher photo. A rim you drop off at dawn. A ridge in New Hampshire. Forty-two fells in under twenty-four hours. Here are 21 of them, with the honest logistics nobody puts in the trip report.
Want the races instead? Getting In covers every major and coveted ultra →
The rules are different out here
A race hands you aid stations, course markings, a cutoff clock, and someone whose job it is to find you. These hand you none of that. The trade is total freedom of date, pace, and style. Three things change when you leave the bib behind:
- PermitsThe paperwork moved, it didn't disappear
Half of these need a permit from a land agency, and the good ones run lotteries every bit as brutal as Western States. Rainier's Wonderland Trail draws over 10,000 applications for roughly 600 advance itineraries. Those windows open in winter, months before you'd think about it.
- Self-supportedYou are the aid station
Water is the whole game on most of these. Grand Canyon pipelines break. Desert caches get raided. Snowmelt sources dry by August. Plan carry capacity and filtration for the conditions you'll actually meet, not the ones in the blog post from June 2019.
- No safety netRescue is hours away, on a good day
No sweep vehicle, no medical tent, frequently no cell signal. Leave an itinerary with a real person, carry a satellite messenger for anything remote, and build a turnaround rule before you start instead of negotiating with yourself at mile 30.
Bucket list experiences
No bib. No timing mat. No entry fee, in most cases. Just a line on a map that runners have been chasing for decades, and the small matter of getting yourself across it.
Grand Canyon Rim to Rim
Down one wall of the Grand Canyon, up the other. No permit, no entry fee, no help.
Full guide →
Zion Traverse
Forty-eight miles across Zion, from the west rim desert to the east side, in a day.
Full guide →
Wonderland Trail
Ninety-three miles all the way around Mount Rainier, with 22,000 feet of climbing.
Full guide →
Timberline Trail
Forty-one miles around Mount Hood, with river crossings that can stop you cold.
Full guide →
The Pemi Loop
Thirty-one miles and 9,000 feet around the Pemigewasset Wilderness, on the rockiest trail in America.
Full guide →
Presidential Traverse
Every Presidential summit in one push, including Mount Washington and the worst weather in America.
Full guide →
Four Pass Loop
Twenty-six miles and four passes above 12,400 feet, around the most photographed mountains in America.
Full guide →
Nolan's 14
Fourteen Colorado fourteeners in sixty hours, self-navigated, with no course at all.
Full guide →
Bob Graham Round
Forty-two Lakeland fells, sixty-six miles, 27,000 feet, in under twenty-four hours.
Full guide →
Mount Whitney in a Day
The highest point in the lower 48, twenty-two miles round trip, and a permit lottery to match.
Full guide →
John Muir Trail
211 miles through the High Sierra, and one of the hardest permits in American hiking.
Full guide →
Tour du Mont Blanc
The UTMB course, without the bib. Run it in stages, sleeping in mountain refuges.
Full guide →
Manitou Incline
2,744 railroad ties, 2,000 vertical feet, in less than a mile. The hardest mile in America.
Full guide →
Everesting
Climb 8,848 metres on one hill, in one go, without sleeping. Pick your hill.
Full guide →
The Backyard Ultra
4.167 miles every hour, on the hour, until only one runner is left. There is no finish.
Full guide →
Hood to Coast
A 12-person, 199-mile relay from a glacier to the Pacific, in two vans, with no sleep.
Full guide →
The Speed Project
340 miles across the Mojave. No course, no rules, no spectators, no website worth the name.
Full guide →
The Six Star Medal
Finish every Abbott World Marathon Major. The hardest medal in road running to collect.
Full guide →
A Marathon in All 50 States
Fifty marathons, fifty states, one very long spreadsheet.
Full guide →
Seven Continents Club
A marathon on all seven continents. Or all seven in seven days, if you're unwell.
Full guide →
Grand Slam of Ultrarunning
Western States, Vermont, Leadville, and Wasatch. Four hundred-milers in ten weeks.
Full guide →
How to actually pull one off
- Pick the season first, then the date. Most of these have a window of a few weeks where the route is in condition. Rim to Rim wants May or October. Rainier wants late July through September. Nolan's wants the snow gone and the monsoon quiet.
- Find the permit deadline and work backwards. A February lottery for an August trip is normal. Missing it usually costs you a full year.
- Solve water on paper before you solve fitness. Write down every source, its mileage, and whether it is seasonal. If two sources in a row are "probably flowing," redesign the day.
- Recruit one partner and one person at home. A partner halves the risk and doubles the story. A person at home with your itinerary and turnaround time is the whole safety plan.
- Do the dress rehearsal. One long day at similar vert, with the same pack, the same shoes, and the same food. Everything that will go wrong shows up there first.