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Telluride Mountain Run Course Guide

The Telluride Mountain Run is about as raw as American mountain racing gets. It climbs out of Telluride into the San Juans on old mining roads, alpine singletrack, and tundra, over a string of high passes and a ridgeline above 13,000 feet, and the race is blunt about it: this is a technical mountain race, not a trail run, and not for beginners. I will walk you through the course across all the distances first, then give you a pacing and fueling plan that respects the altitude and the vert. There are free calculators along the way to dial in your own numbers.

⏵ At a glance

Telluride Mountain Run quick facts

Date
August 22 to 23, 2026 (main races Saturday, Hill Climb Sunday)
Location
San Juan Mountains above Telluride, Colorado (start/finish at Telluride Town Park)
Distances
65 mi · 40 mi · 24 mi · 14 mi · Hill Climb
Elevation gain
65 mi: about 22,500 ft · 40 mi: about 15,000 ft · 24 mi: about 9,000 ft · 14 mi: about 5,500 ft
Start
65 mi: 6:00 AM · 40 mi: 5:00 AM · 24 mi: 5:30 AM · 14 mi: 7:00 AM
Cutoff
65 mi: 32 hr · 40 mi: 17 hr · 24 mi: 10 hr · 14 mi: 7 hr, with strict aid-station cutoffs
Qualifier
No Western States, Hardrock, or UTMB qualifier status listed by the race

These facts come from the official race site and UltraSignup. Check the current date, start times, cutoffs, and aid stations in the race-day details before you commit. Race logistics change year to year.

The course: where Telluride is won and lost

Every distance starts and finishes down in Telluride and sends you straight up into the high country. The 65 mile (about 22,500 feet of climbing) and the 40 mile (about 15,000 feet) are the true alpine tests; the 24 mile (about 9,000 feet) and 14 mile (about 5,500 feet) are shorter but still steep and technical. What follows is mostly about the long routes, since that is where this race earns its reputation, but the lessons scale down.

The climbs: there is no easing into this

From the gun you are gaining elevation, and you do not really stop. The big routes go over 13,000 feet multiple times and spend long stretches above 12,000, linking passes like Black Bear, Brooklyn, Ophir, and Oscar’s with steep mining-road switchbacks and loose alpine pitches. Most of the steep stuff is a power hike, not a run, and that is true even for the front of the field. The smart move is to settle into a sustainable hiking effort early and protect your legs and your lungs for the second half.

At this altitude the climbs feel harder than the grade alone suggests, because there is simply less oxygen up there. Keep your effort easy and your breathing under control on the lower climbs. If you are gasping at mile 8, you are writing a check the thin air will cash later.

The Mile and a Half of Sky and Telluride Peak

The signature stretch is a mile and a half of sharp, exposed ridgeline above 13,000 feet between Ajax Peak and Imogene Pass, including the 13,500-foot summit of Telluride Peak. This is the highest, most exposed, most committing part of the course, and it is slow by design. You are on loose rock with big drops, picking lines and watching your feet, not running.

Up here weather is the real boss. Afternoon thunderstorms build fast over these high passes, and lightning on an exposed ridge is no joke, which is a big reason the starts are early and the cutoffs are strict: the race wants you across the high ground before storms roll in. Respect that timeline, and carry a shell even if the sky looks friendly at the start.

The descents: loose, rocky, and quad-destroying

What goes up has to come back down to Telluride, and the descents here are not the fast, flowy kind. They are steep, rocky, and loose, the sort of downhill that hammers your quads and tests your nerve and your ankles. The drop off the high country and the long grind back down the canyon to town is where badly paced runners come apart, especially late in the day when the legs are cooked.

If you only train the climbs you will get wrecked on the way down. Practice controlled descending on technical, rocky terrain so you can keep your feet under you and your quads alive when it counts. On the 65 mile, you do this with hundreds of miles already in the legs, which makes late descending a real survival skill.

The 65 mile night, drop bags, and crew

The 65 mile starts at 6:00 AM with a 32-hour limit, so most runners are out for a full night and into a second day. That changes the game: you need a headlamp plan, warm layers for cold nights at altitude, and the patience to keep eating and moving through the dark low points when everything feels slow. There are nine fully stocked aid stations on the 65, and the back-half stations carry hot food like soup, ramen, and broth, which is exactly what you want at 2 AM up high.

The 40 mile gives you two drop bags, at Tomboy around mile 16.5 and Mill Creek around mile 29, so stage spare socks, calories, and layers there. Plan your drop bags and any crew access around the long gaps between aid and the weather, not just the mileage, and read the current race-day logistics carefully because aid and crew points get adjusted year to year.

Pacing strategy for big vert at altitude

With this much climbing stacked into thin air over technical ground, Telluride is an effort-management race, not a pace-chart race. Hike the steep climbs, run the runnable bits within yourself, and treat your flat-ground splits as basically irrelevant up here.

Pace by grade and effort, not by your watch

Your road pace tells you nothing on a 13,000-foot pass. What matters is grade-adjusted effort, so settle on an output you can sustain up the long climbs and hike the steep, loose pitches without burning matches. The classic Telluride blowup is pushing the early climbs because the legs feel fresh, then having nothing for the high ridge and the long descents home. Use a grade-adjusted pace to turn your real fitness into honest climbing and descending targets so you do not cook the first half.

Build a vert-aware, altitude-honest finish prediction

Do not guess your Telluride finish off a road time. The 15,000 to 22,500 feet of climbing, the technical footing, and the altitude all add huge amounts of time, and your moving pace up high will look painfully slow on paper, which is normal. A vert-aware finish prediction that accounts for this course’s climbing gives you a realistic window and lets you work backward into the strict aid-station cutoffs, so you know how much buffer you actually have at each checkpoint instead of hoping.

⏵ Free tools to pace this course

  • Grade-adjusted pace calculator to turn your flat fitness into honest targets for the long climbs and the steep descents back to town.
  • Race-time calculator for a vert-aware finish prediction on this course’s climbing, so you can plan against the strict cutoffs.
  • Race-equivalent calculator to turn a recent race result into a Telluride goal that survives first contact with the vert and the altitude.

Fueling strategy for altitude and a long day (or night)

These distances put you out for many hours, and the 65 mile for a full day and night, all at altitude where your stomach gets fussy. Carbohydrate, sodium, and fluid are as much a part of finishing as the legs are.

Carbs: steady, trained, and easy to get down

For a long mountain effort, aim for around 60 to 90 grams of carbohydrate per hour, leaning higher only if your gut is trained for it. Altitude is the wrinkle here: it tends to blunt your appetite and slow digestion, so keep your intake steady and simple instead of gambling on big late doses. Practice your exact race-day carb rate on long climbs at elevation if you can, so eating 80-plus grams an hour while gasping up a pass feels normal and not like an experiment.

Sodium, fluid, and the cold nights up high

You sweat at altitude even when it feels cool and dry, so keep sodium coming, often in the range of 500 to 700 milligrams per liter of fluid, and more if you are a heavy or salty sweater. Carry enough fluid and calories to cover the long gaps between aid stations rather than rationing to the next one and showing up empty. On the 65 mile, lean on the hot food up high at night, the soup and broth, to keep calories and warmth going when cold and altitude are killing your appetite. Weigh yourself before and after a hard long run to find your real sweat rate, then build the plan around your own number.

⏵ Build your fueling plan

Get a carb, sodium, fluid, and caffeine plan per hour built for your weight, your goal time, and a long day at altitude with the free ultra fueling calculator. Browse the rest of the free running tools at the tools hub.

⏵ Train for it with Summit Line

Get a race-day plan built around YOUR fitness, this exact Telluride course profile, and your projected splits. Summit Line reads your real training, builds a plan for this much climbing at altitude, and rehearses your fueling so race day is something you execute, not guess at.

Start free →Explore the demo

Telluride Mountain Run FAQ

How hard is the Telluride Mountain Run?

It is one of the harder mountain ultras in the country for its distance, and the race itself will tell you it is a technical mountain race, not a trail run, and not for beginners. The 40 mile packs about 15,000 feet of climbing and the 65 mile about 22,500 feet, almost all of it on steep, loose, rocky terrain at serious altitude, with long stretches above 12,000 and a ridgeline above 13,000 feet. You are scrambling over passes and exposed summits where footing and weather matter as much as fitness. The thin air alone slows everyone down, so this is not a course where you chase a flat road pace.

How much elevation gain does the Telluride Mountain Run have?

It depends on the distance. The 65 mile climbs roughly 22,500 feet, the 40 mile about 15,000 feet, the 24 mile around 9,000 feet, and the 14 mile about 5,500 feet, per the official course pages. The big routes go over 13,000 feet multiple times and spend long stretches above 12,000, including the summit of Telluride Peak at 13,500 feet and a mile and a half of exposed ridgeline above 13,000. For the climbing alone this is one of the steepest ultras out there per mile.

How high is the Telluride Mountain Run and how do I handle the altitude?

High. Telluride sits around 8,750 feet and the courses spend a lot of time above 10,000, topping out at the 13,500-foot summit of Telluride Peak. At that altitude there is meaningfully less oxygen, so your climbing slows down and your heart rate runs higher for the same effort. If you live at sea level, get up to elevation either well in advance to acclimatize or as late as possible right before the race, and plan to hike the steep climbs and keep your effort easy early. Going out hard at altitude is the fastest way to wreck your day.

What are the cutoff times for the Telluride Mountain Run?

The overall limits are about 32 hours for the 65 mile, 17 hours for the 40 mile, 10 hours for the 24 mile, and 7 hours for the 14 mile. The race enforces aid-station cutoffs along the way, and they are strict: if you check in after the cutoff you are done, for safety reasons on this terrain. Because the climbing is so slow, you cannot bank time and coast, so work backward from the intermediate cutoffs and keep moving through aid. Confirm the exact intermediate cutoffs in the current race-day details before you start.

How technical is the terrain at Telluride Mountain Run?

Very. The course runs on old mining and jeep roads, rough alpine singletrack, and tundra over high passes and exposed ridgelines, and a lot of it is loose, rocky, and steep enough that you are using your hands in spots. Expect rockfall-prone slopes, sharp ridgelines, and steep rocky summits where a fall has real consequences. The passes (Black Bear, Brooklyn, Ophir, Oscar’s) and the Ajax-to-Telluride-Peak ridge are slow, careful going. If you have not spent real time on technical alpine terrain, that is the first thing to train.

What is the weather like at the Telluride Mountain Run?

Late August in the San Juans means cool mornings, strong high-altitude sun, and a real chance of afternoon thunderstorms rolling over the high passes. Up on exposed ridgelines above 13,000 feet, lightning and fast-moving weather are a genuine hazard, which is part of why the cutoffs are strict and the early starts push you to clear the high ground before storms build. Temperatures swing a lot between the cold start, the exposed sun, and any weather that comes through, so carry layers and a shell even when it looks clear at the start.

This guide is independent and for planning only. The course details, dates, start times, cutoffs, and aid stations come from public sources and can change year to year, so confirm the current specifics with the official race before you register or run. The fueling and pacing advice is general and not medical advice.