Badwater 135 crosses California at the height of summer, starting at Badwater Basin, 85 m below sea level in Death Valley, and finishing at Whitney Portal at 2,548 m. The entire route is paved road, first across open desert, then on the long climb toward the Sierra Nevada. Heat and exposure shape everything about the race.
The event is a fixture of the American ultra landscape. There is no open registration: runners are chosen through a selection process for a field of roughly 100 starters, and the organization sets a 45-hour cutoff. Each competitor runs with a crew following by vehicle, a format the terrain and the conditions make necessary.
