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The Canyons Endurance Runs by UTMB Course Guide

The Canyons by UTMB is a fast, deep, descent-heavy trail race on the Western States Trail near Auburn, and it does not let up. Steep canyon climbs, even bigger descents, a river crossing, spring heat down in the canyon bottoms, and a Western States Golden Ticket on the line in the 100K. The climbs are not what get you. The descents are. I will walk you through the course, then give you pacing and fueling that fit exactly these conditions, plus free tools to figure out your own numbers.

⏵ Quick facts

The Canyons by UTMB at a glance

Date
Fri-Sat, April 23-24, 2027
Location
Auburn, CA · Sierra Nevada foothills (Gold Country)
Distances
100M, 100K, 50K, and 25K
Vert (100M)
About 18,000 ft of gain, 22,000 ft of descent
Vert (100K)
About 13,000 ft of gain, 17,000 ft of descent
Vert (50K)
About 1,700 m (roughly 5,600 ft) of gain
Cutoffs
100M: 35 hrs · 100K: 20 hrs · 50K: 10 hrs
Qualifier
Western States + UTMB qualifier; 100K is a Super Golden Ticket race

Heads up: the next edition runs Friday April 23 to Saturday April 24, 2027, with the 100 mile starting at China Wall on Friday and the 100K, 50K, and 25K on Saturday. Vert and cutoffs change with the distance, and they tweak the route year to year. So always confirm the date, the exact course, the aid stations, and the checkpoint cutoffs on the official Canyons by UTMB site before you plan your race.

The course

The Canyons by UTMB is based in Auburn and runs the Western States Trail through the American River canyons of the Sierra Nevada foothills. Most of it is runnable singletrack mixed with fire road, but the thing that defines this race is the up and down. You drop into a steep canyon, climb straight back out, and then you do it again. The 100 mile stacks roughly 18,000 feet of gain and about 22,000 feet of descent, and the 100K roughly 13,000 feet of gain and about 17,000 feet of descent. So on every distance the descending meets or beats the climbing.

The named climbs are the spine of the race

This course is built around a handful of brutal, named canyon climbs and descents that anyone who has run the Western States Trail knows by heart. The K2 climb, the Devil Thumb descent and the climb out of El Dorado Canyon, and the long pulls up toward Michigan Bluff and Foresthill are where the race turns. They are steep, they are sustained, they are usually out in the open, and they keep coming at you instead of arriving as one big effort.

The way to handle it is to take every canyon as one piece. Go down it under control to save your quads, then settle into a steady power hike on the way back up. The runners who bomb the descents and then redline the climbs blow their legs apart in the first half, and they have nothing left for the second.

Heat in the canyon bottoms

This is foothill canyon country, not high alpine, so altitude is not what you fight here. The heat is. Late April in the Sierra foothills can run warm to genuinely hot, and the deep canyon bottoms hold that heat with little shade and no breeze. Those exposed climbs out of the canyons in the afternoon are where the day gets hardest, and they are where most runners fade.

And those open stretches are exactly where hydration and sodium matter most. Cool off at the river crossings and the creek dips, carry enough fluid to cover the long climbs out where there is no aid, and treat the hottest hours as a heat problem to manage so you can run again once the canyons cool down.

Where the race is won or lost

The Canyons is won and lost on the descents. Total descent beats total gain on the long distances, so the long technical downhills into each canyon punish any quads that are not ready for them. Trash your legs early bombing the descents and every downhill left in the back half turns into a grind. Quad-specific downhill training is about the most race-specific work you can do for this one.

On the 100 mile you also have the Rucky Chucky river crossing and the long night out to deal with. On the 100K the tight 20 hour cutoff means you cannot afford to fall apart late, and that goes double with a Golden Ticket and a Western States qualifier riding on a clean finish.

Aid stations and cutoffs

There is a string of aid stations along the Western States Trail with water, electrolytes, food, and medical support, and you get drop bags at the major checkpoints like Foresthill, Michigan Bluff, and the canyon stations. The overall limits are 35 hours for the 100 mile, 20 hours for the 100K, and 10 hours for the 50K.

But several of those aid stations carry firm intermediate cutoffs, so you cannot hike the front half casually, and that is especially true on the tightly timed 100K. Pull up the official Canyons by UTMB checkpoint cutoff chart for your distance and the current edition, then build your pacing plan backward from those times and leave yourself a buffer, because the canyon climbs and the heat will gang up and slow you late.

Pacing strategy for the Canyons by UTMB

A descent-heavy canyon course pays off patience and quad protection, and it punishes ego on the downhills. Pace this race by effort and by grade, not by the flat-ground numbers from your home training runs.

Pace the climbs by grade, not by clock

With this much gain packed into steep canyon climbs, your moving pace is going to swing all over the place between the descents and the climbs, and that is fine. That is what it should do. Power-hike the steep pitches efficiently and run the runnable singletrack and fire road. Trying to hold one steady minutes-per-mile number across the canyons is a quick way to cook the climbs and have nothing left for the next descent.

Use our free grade-adjusted pace calculator to turn your flat fitness into honest effort targets for the steep Canyons climbs, so you know whether you are pacing the K2 and Devil Thumb in a way you can hold or burning matches you will want back late in the race.

Protect your quads for the descents

Since the course loses even more than it climbs, downhill running is the real crux of the Canyons, and it is the part people forget to train. Hold back on the early descents. Run them controlled and light instead of letting gravity hammer your legs, and your back half will be a lot better for it. The runners who finish strong are usually the ones who still have working quads when they reach the last big canyon.

To set a finish goal that actually accounts for all that vertical, use our vert-aware race time calculator. It factors the climbing and the descent into your projected finish, so you are not stuck on a flat-course estimate that the American River canyons will quietly take apart.

Respect the heat and the cutoffs

The afternoon heat in the canyon bottoms can wipe out a fast morning, so run a slightly conservative front half and bank a little time before the day heats up, rather than trying to claw it back later. On the 100K especially, the 20 hour cutoff is tight for the vert, so keep moving with some margin against the intermediate cutoffs from the very start.

And if you want to see how your fitness from a recent race carries over to a long canyon effort like this, our race equivalent calculator helps you reality-check your goal time before you commit to a number on the line.

Fueling strategy for the Canyons by UTMB

A long, up-and-down day in warm canyons makes fueling and hydration matter as much as fitness. The heat down in the canyon bottoms is the thing that wrecks most well-trained runners. So plan for it.

Carbs: ramp to the high end, on a trained gut

For an effort this long, aim for roughly 60 to 90 grams of carbohydrate per hour, leaning toward the high end once your gut is trained to handle it. Use a glucose plus fructose blend so you can absorb more than a single sugar lets you, and rehearse your exact hourly carb number on long training runs so 80 to 90 g/h feels normal by race day, not like an experiment you are running on the start line.

The canyon heat makes all of this harder, because a hot stomach takes less. That is one more reason to practice fueling in race-like heat, and to keep eating through the ugly hot hours climbing out of the canyons, when your appetite drops off but your engine still needs the fuel.

Sodium and fluid: built for the canyon heat

In the warm, exposed canyon bottoms your sweat losses can run high, so bias your sodium toward 500 to 700 mg per liter of fluid and carry enough to cover the long climbs out where there is no aid and no shade. Cramping, a sloshy stomach, that wrung-out feeling late in the day: most of the time that is a fluid and sodium balance problem, not a fitness problem.

Dial in a plan with our free ultra fueling calculator. Put in your weight, your goal time, and the expected heat, and it hands you a carb, sodium, fluid, and caffeine number per hour built for your Canyons distance and conditions. Then go test it in training.

⏵ Free calculators for this race

Run your Canyons by UTMB numbers with our free, no-signup tools, and then let Summit Line tie them all back to your real fitness and this exact course.

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Train for the canyons

Free, in-depth guides for the distances and demands of the Canyons by UTMB. Stepping up to the 100K or your first 100 miler, training for the vert, handling the heat, and building a fueling plan that holds up down in the canyon bottoms.

⏵ Train for the Canyons by UTMB

Get a race-day plan built around YOUR fitness, this exact course, and your projected splits. Summit Line reads your actual training, builds a fueling and pacing plan around the Canyons climbing, descent, and canyon heat, and tracks how your gut and quads handle the load, so race day is rehearsed instead of guessed.

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Canyons by UTMB FAQ

How hard is The Canyons Endurance Runs by UTMB?

It is a genuinely hard course, and the reason is the way it stacks vert. It runs the canyons of the Western States Trail near Auburn, where you drop into a steep canyon and climb straight back out, over and over. The 100 mile carries roughly 18,000 feet of gain and about 22,000 feet of descent, and the 100K about 13,000 feet of gain and 17,000 feet of descent, so the descending actually beats the climbing and shreds your quads. Then add the named grinders like the K2 climb and the Devil Thumb descent, the Rucky Chucky river crossing on the 100 mile, a 35 hour limit for the 100 mile and a tight 20 hour limit for the 100K, plus the spring heat down in the canyons. It earns its reputation. It is a Western States and UTMB qualifier, and the 100K is a Super Golden Ticket race, so the field runs deep and fast.

How much climbing is in the Canyons by UTMB?

It depends on the distance. The 100 mile carries roughly 18,000 feet of elevation gain and about 22,000 feet of descent. The 100K carries roughly 13,000 feet of gain and about 17,000 feet of descent. The 50K has about 1,700 meters, or roughly 5,600 feet, of gain, and the 25K is the shortest with the least vert. On every distance the total descent meets or beats the total climb, because the course keeps dropping into the American River canyons and climbing back out. That descent-heavy shape is the whole personality of the race, and it is why quad-specific downhill training matters so much here.

How should I fuel for the Canyons by UTMB?

Fuel for a long, hot, up-and-down day in the canyons. Most runners aim for 60 to 90 grams of carbohydrate per hour, leaning toward the high end once the gut is trained, with a glucose plus fructose blend so you can absorb more. Late April in the Sierra foothills can be warm to genuinely hot down in the canyon bottoms, so bias your sodium toward roughly 500 to 700 mg per liter of fluid and carry enough to cover the long climbs out where there is no aid and no shade. Practice your exact hourly carb number in training first. Honestly, that is the part most people skip. Our free ultra fueling calculator turns your weight, goal time, and the expected heat into a carb, sodium, and fluid plan per hour.

What are the Canyons by UTMB cutoffs?

The overall limits are 35 hours for the 100 mile, 20 hours for the 100K, and 10 hours for the 50K. The 20 hour 100K limit is the one runners blow off, and it is the one that gets them, because it is tight for a 100K with this much vert and you also have to beat it to lock in your Western States qualifier. There are intermediate cutoffs at the major aid stations along the way too, so you cannot hike the front half casually. Build your pacing plan backward from the published checkpoint cutoffs on the official race site, and leave yourself a buffer, because the steep canyon climbs and the afternoon heat will slow you late.

Does the Canyons by UTMB give a Western States Golden Ticket?

Yes. The Canyons 100K is a Western States Super Golden Ticket race, which means the top three female and top three male finishers get direct entry, a Golden Ticket, to the Western States Endurance Run. And finishing any of the qualifying distances inside the cutoff earns you a standard Western States qualifier and counts toward the UTMB World Series. So you have a deep, fast field chasing tickets up front plus the qualifier status underneath, and that is a big part of why this race is so popular and so competitive.

Where is the Canyons by UTMB and what is the terrain like?

It is based in Auburn, California, in the Sierra Nevada foothills of Gold Country, and most of the course runs on the Western States Trail through the American River canyons. The terrain is mostly runnable singletrack mixed with fire road, with steep sustained climbs and fast technical descents, a No Hands Bridge crossing, and the Rucky Chucky river crossing on the longer distances. This is foothill canyon country, not high alpine, so altitude is not what you fight here. The heat in the exposed canyon bottoms and the sheer amount of climbing and descending are what define the day.

This guide is for planning and training, and it reflects publicly available information about The Canyons Endurance Runs by UTMB. Race details, including the date, course, vert, aid stations, and cutoffs, can change year to year and vary by distance. So always confirm the current specifics on the official Canyons by UTMB race website before you train or travel.