Wasatch Front 100 Mile Endurance Run

The Wasatch Front 100 Mile Endurance Run is held in Utah the first Friday and Saturday after Labor Day each year. The run stretches from East Mountain Wilderness Park, Utah to Soldier Hollow, Utah and covers some of the most beautiful scenery the Wasatch Mountains have to offer. There is a cumulative gain of approximately 24,000 feet, as well as a cumulative loss of approximately 23,300 feet throughout the course. This is a premier run that will test the endurance of any runner.

The Wasatch Front 100 mile Endurance Run starts at 5:00am sharp on the first Friday after Labor Day. Runners must reach the Finish Line at Soldier Hollow in Midway by 5:00pm on Saturday to successfully complete the race. The race begins just past the entrance to the East Mountain Wilderness Park (650 North 1600 East) about 1/2 mile east of Highway 89 east of the Davis County Animal Shelter (about 17 miles north of Salt Lake City). The onlilne application period begins December 1st and typically ends within the first week of the following January. The lottery is held the first Saturday in February.

The Race
The Wasatch Front 100 is one of the most uniquely challenging ultrarunning events in the world. It is a study in contrasts: peaks and valleys; trail and scree; heat and cold; wet and dry; summer and winter; day and night; Desolation Lake and Point Supreme; “I can’t” and “I will!” Dickens had the Wasatch in mind when he wrote, “It was the best of times; it was the worst of times.” The primitive and isolated nature of the course is both its beauty and its challenge, for it requires the individual runner to rely primarily on himself or herself rather than the Race’s support systems. Wasatch is not just distance and speed; it is adversity, adaptation and perseverance.

The Course
The Wasatch 100 is a point-to-point run that traverses the heart of the central Wasatch Mountains, one of the most beautiful ranges of the Rocky Mountains. The course begins in Kaysville, Utah, at East Mountain Wilderness Park, running south to the mouth of Bair Canyon at the foot of Francis Peak, and ascends nearly 4,200 feet in 4.4 miles to the ridge line above. The trail then turns south and follows the crest of the Wasatch range past Francis Peak, through Farmington Flats and Arthur’s Fork, along Sessions Ridge, over City Creek Pass, Big Mountain Pass and Bald Mountain, through Parley’s, Lamb’s, and Mill Creek Canyons, then past Desolation Lake and along the Wasatch Crest trail, through Big Cottonwood and American Fork Canyons, and up to Pole Line Pass and Baker Pass. After leaving Baker Pass then goes around Mill Creek Peak through the “Glide” and the “Plunge”, and down to the Pot Hollow Canyon trail head. The course then climbs to join the OHV dirt road known as Cummings Parkway, along the mountain ridge above Heber Valley and heads south to the Cascade Springs Road until reaching the head of Decker Canyon. Runners then descend through Decker Canyon to its mouth at the Deer Creek Reservoir Trail, which leads to the finish at the Pavilion at Soldier Hollow in Wasatch Mountain State Park, Utah.