Bishop High Sierra Ultras

The Bishop High Sierra Ultra Marathons are high altitude races, with lots of climbing, in the scenic foothills of the Eastern Sierra Nevada, above the small town of Bishop. The course is mainly run on 4 wheel drive dirt roads, with a couple of sections of single-track trail, and very short sections of pavement. There are very few trees, thus the race is exposed, often hot, usually dry, sometimes rocky, and mostly high! Much of the 100k and 50 mile courses are above 7000′ in altitude. These races are the perfect training opportunity for upcoming mountain trail 100 mile events.

The weather can range from cold to hot, dry to snowing, breezy to very windy. We have experienced all weather types, but usually we can expect fine, sunny weather, with afternoon breezes and high temps for the second half of the day. Temperatures usually range from high 40’s at the start to 90’s in the late afternoon, and then cooling in the evening.

Our aid stations are at 3 to 7 mile intervals, and are famous for variety of food and drinks available, not just “standard race fare”, particularly as the race progresses. We have small first aid kits at each, with foot care and the usual supplies. Consistent with recent trends, pain relief meds will not be dispensed. There are usually nurses and EMTs at aid stations, especially the stations later in the course, with a Search and Rescue unit available as well, but let’s hope we don’t need that as Inyo SAR is operating one of the aid stations! Runners are tracked by our local Ham Radio club, who maintains radio contact with the finish line.

At the finish line, we have a wonderful post-race meal with an assortment of hot snacks, cold drinks and and lots of “munchies” and real food as well.

Overall winners each receive a prize, and finishers receive a custom medallion made by Francis Cholewa and Tom Meyers, and we have 30 custom coffee mugs, also by Francis and Tom, for sale for $30.00 each, first come, first served, reservations accepted.

This incarnation of the Bishop Ultras is offered as a benefit to the Eastern Sierra Youth Outdoor Program, a free six day outdoor climbing and backpacking camp for Eastern Sierra youth, as well as Inyo County Search and Rescue. All net proceeds will be donated to these two organizations. The race is operated by the Eastern Sierra Interpretive Association, who provides all necessary permits including from the Inyo National Forest, the Bureau of Land Management, Inyo County, and Los Angeles Dept. of Water and Power.

Regarding the 100k distance and Western States: This race IS NOT currently a Western States qualifier as it has been in past years. However, we have been told by WSER that if we get 100 finishers in the 100k distance that it would again be a qualifier.

Note: the 50k didn’t get longer, we are just coming clean that it’s a tad long for 50k. Thus we now call it a ’53k’.