White Mountains 100

White Mountains 100

The White Mountains 100 is a formidable journey through Alaska's rugged backcountry, traversing a variety of terrain from gentle ridges to steep descents, sweeping meadows, and frozen waterways. Participants can choose to travel by foot, ski, or bike, and have 40 hours to finish the race. Wind, blowing and drifting snow, Arctic temperatures, water crossings, and wildlife encounters are not uncommon along the remote race route, which mostly consists of partially maintained snowmachine trails. Aid stations approximately every 20 miles offer shelter, food, water, and limited options for sleeping and for medical and emergency support. Participants must be experienced in their chosen mode of winter endurance travel and fully self-sufficient.

Racers begin their adventure at the Wickersham Dome trailhead at Milepost 28 of the Elliot Highway, about an hour's drive from Fairbanks. They follow a 100-mile counterclockwise loop through the BLM White Mountains National Recreation Area, for a total of more than 8,000 feet of elevation gain. The landscape features rolling hills, black spruce forests, frozen lowlands, scenic ridgelines, challenging climbs, and wide-open vistas of the surrounding ranges. Highlights include a climb above treeline to the Cache Mountain Divide; breathtaking views of limestone jags; and the "ice lakes," a beautiful and treacherous mile-long stretch of frozen overflow. The challenges are great and the rewards are even greater in this unforgiving test of endurance and self-reliance across the Last Frontier.