People have been traveling from Badwater (279' below sea level) to Mt Whitney (14,505') by various means for decades (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Badwater_Ultramarathon). The most standard route is about 135 miles of paved roads to Whitney Portal, followed by 11 miles up the Mt Whitney Trail, though some have used the shorter, harder Mountaineers Route. The Badwater 135 is an annual (supported) event in July covering just the road part, though competitors sometimes continue up Whitney on their own. There is an historic tradition of doing the crossing in July or August - the hottest months of the year, when temperatures in Death Valley routinely exceed 120 degrees Fahrenheit, see https://sites.google.com/view/bw146/ for more information about completions and a discussion of "rules", which include the requirement for a satellite tracker, and specific morning or evening start times. Those interested in FKTs for July-August should consult that website. To avoid duplication of effort, and possible conflicts, we will not track FKTs done within the parameters set there. Rather, we are tracking OVERALL FKTs for Badwater to Whitney, which can be done at any time of the year.
We have a separate route page for the Badwater Duathlon, which consists of bicycling the ~135 mile road section, and then ascending Whitney on foot. And, another route page for "Lowest to Highest", which is a primarily off-road route.
February 21-27 2021, Marshall Ulrich did the first Winter Badwater, in honor of and as a fundraiser for his friend and teammate Mark Macy who has Alzheimer's. Marsh is the most experienced Badwater participant ever, with 30 crossings including a solo self-contained Quad crossing, and is featured in our podcast Episode 85.
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In the spirit of holding it to the letter in going for the record (FKT) of the lowest to highest place in the continental USA I will begin at the exact time of Marshall Ulrich’s 1991 quest at 6pm tonight for a pm start in the hottest time of the year on the hottest place on the planet.
I will be going for the supported record for the FKT (in the hottest required time period of July/August) covering the 146 miles from Badwater -282 feet sign in Death Valley National Park to the summit of Mt. Whitney, the original route of endurance pioneer Al Arnold.
Marshall has been super supportive and always had the strongest character of sportsmanship. Two reasons; starting at 6pm is tougher than 10pm. In Marshall’s words “Having done the race using multiple starts (speaking of starts only), the PM start at 6 was the hardest as a person had to run to Furnace creek with the sun off the shoulder to the left, which effectively goes down slowly as the valley rises gently to the west.” Also, it is more difficult to summit Whitney entirely in the dark and arrive at the top at the coldest possible time (before 3:54am).
I immediately agreed with Marshall Ulrich and want to be fair as well as consistent with his journey to the FKT of 33:54 from 1991.
We will leave at 6pm Pacific time. You can follow our progress from this link.
https://share.garmin.com/bw146
I am running for the charity City Gospel Mission that does great work in our community providing shelter, food, jobs program and a running program to homeless and individuals in recovery.
Tracey Outlaw will be providing posts throughout the journey on FB and Instagram via Harvey Lewis - Ultra Runner beginning at 6pm tonight (August 9th, 2020)
Epic!
I have a Whitney permit for after the BW135 race finish. Not sure I'll be in any shape to use it as I plan to give my all to the race, but thought I'd put this out there JIC.
Planning to give this a go on Sunday Oct 13th, about 4:00am. Obviously I'm not trying to go during the hottest time of the year, but simply inspired to try and run from the lowest point on the continent (8th lowest on earth) to the highest in the lower 48. I've got an amazing support crew, and hopefully the feet to carry me the distance. I will be running to raise awareness and support for O.U.R. Rescue, who do a courageous work fighting child trafficking. You can click or copy and paste the link below if you want to join the fight!
https://donor.ourrescue.org/-/NKZVQALN?member=SNGNTFWA
Grateful for the opportunity to try and do this endeavour. I've worked hard to be prepared and hopefully won't let my team down. Regardless of all the effort put forth thus far, I know that unless The Lord preforms it, it will not come to pass.
share.garmin.com/badwatertotumanguya