Leadville 100 Course
Sawatch Range, CO
Elevation Profile
Current Conditions
Bottom Line
Snow showers and 33°F today with 15-20 mph winds make for cold, potentially icy trail conditions on the high sections of the course. Tuesday is your best day — sunny with light winds and temps reaching 37°F. Plan your long efforts around Tuesday and be off exposed ridge terrain by mid-afternoon Wednesday when the next snow cycle moves back in.
37°/15°F · Snow Showers
Moderate (2/5)
0" depth
Elevated flows · 5 gauges
No active fires within 50 miles
10h 30m daylight · Sunrise 6:35 AM · Sunset 5:05 PM
Full Briefing
The biggest concern this weekend is cold and footing, not distance or heat. Today is the worst of the window: 33°F, 86% precip chance, snow showers, and 15-20 mph WNW winds. The Leadville course spends significant time above 12,000 ft — Hope Pass, Sugarloaf, the Powerline climb — and any fresh snow today will compress into ice or slick slush on those exposed sections before tonight's hard freeze to 17°F. If you're running today, expect icy footing on the high traverses and dress for wind chill in the low 20s°F on the ridge. Traction devices are worth having in your pack for anything above 11,500 ft.
Tuesday is the window. Sunny, winds dropping to 5-10 mph, high of 37°F — that's as clean as you're going to get this trip. The freeze overnight Monday (15°F) will firm up any sloppy snow from today into a solid, runnable surface by mid-morning. Get out early to catch the best conditions and plan to be off the high terrain by 3:30 PM ahead of sunset at 5:05. With 10.5 hours of usable daylight and sunrise at 6:35 AM, a 30-mile effort on Tuesday requires roughly a 3 mph average including stops — tight but doable if you start at first light. Bring a headlamp regardless.
Wednesday deteriorates again. Snow showers return with 70% precip probability and another overnight cycle Wednesday night at the same probability. If you're doing a multi-day effort that bleeds into Wednesday, plan your high-exposure sections for morning and drop to lower terrain — Fish Hatchery, the Twin Lakes corridor, Winfield — by early afternoon. The Wednesday snow cycle will re-load any sections you firmed up on Tuesday.
The stream crossing data flagged in the status is sourced from California gauges and is not relevant to the Leadville course — ignore it. No fires, no avalanche problems identified (Moderate danger but a clean bulletin). The snowpack stations show zero depth at current monitoring elevations, meaning accumulation is early-season and patchy. Expect variable coverage: bare trail at lower elevations, 1-4 inches of new snow on the high terrain above 12,000 ft from today's storm.
Waypoints
Leadville Start/Finish
Historic 6th Street in Leadville. Race begins at 4 AM.
10,151 ft
Twin Lakes
Major aid station at Twin Lakes. Pacer pickup point outbound.
9,199 ft
Hope Pass Summit
High point at 12,600 ft. The crux of the course, crossed twice.
12,598 ft
Winfield Turnaround
Ghost town of Winfield. Turnaround point for the out-and-back.
10,000 ft
Route Details
Distance
100.0 mi
Elevation Gain
15,748 ft
Elevation Loss
15,748 ft
Max Elevation
12,598 ft
Estimated Days
1.5
Trailhead
Leadville, 6th Street
Best Season
Race held in August. Course runnable July-September at altitude.
About This Route
The Leadville Trail 100 is America's most famous mountain ultramarathon, an out-and-back course through the Colorado Rockies at extreme altitude. The entire course stays above 9,200 feet, with the high point at Hope Pass (12,600 ft) crossed twice—once in each direction. Starting and finishing in historic Leadville (10,152 ft), the course traverses the Sawatch Range through a mix of mining roads, singletrack, and river valleys. The Twin Lakes section, the climb over Hope Pass, and the exposed ridgeline to Winfield turnaround are the signature sections. The altitude is the defining challenge. Even elite runners slow dramatically above 12,000 feet. The 30-hour cutoff is generous by some standards but the altitude makes it brutally selective. Night running through the Colorado mountains adds another dimension. The race has been held since 1983 and is one of the original American ultras.
Plan This Route
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