Telluride Mountain Run

Nearing the top of the Bear Creek drainage just after sunrise.

At the end of August Steve Cummins and I motored down south to participate in the ninth running of the Telluride Mountain Run. It’s a race that offers three different distances (13, 24 and 40 miles) which traverse the ridgelines and peaks above town. All three courses are pretty tough relative to most other races of the same lengths due to the elevation gain associated with each (5,000, 9,000 and 14,000 feet respectively). In fact it’s tough to find a race as steep as this one anywhere in the country in terms of vert-to-mileage ratio, in addition to average elevation above sea level. In the words of race founder Dakota Jones, “The course is really hard”. I’d have to agree.

24-miler course map (click to enlarge). The 24 forms an aesthetic, complete loop beginning and ending in town, while the 40 adds a second smaller loop onto the day and is more contrived, and the 13 misses most of the best stretches of the race offered by the 24 and 40. In hindsight after looking at all three options, the 24 is the best overall in my opinion.

Saturday morning at 5:30am rolled around and those of us running the 24-miler were off from the Telluride Town Park (with Steve running the 13-miler, I wouldn’t see him until the end of the day as his race started at 8am). I didn’t get to the start line until 5:32 and thus set off a few minutes late behind the pack of runners, following the headlamps south from town into the mouth of the Bear Creek drainage.

Nothing like a 4,500 ft ascent straight from town to kick off the day.

Bear Creek is a pretty famous drainage, bordering the east end of the Telluride Ski Area with many long sidecountry runs dropping into it and a ton of history, both good and bad, to speak of. I’d actually never climbed up the trail in the summer but found it to be about what I expected – long, steep and spectacular with towering walls lined by dense, wet vegetation on either side. Eventually the trail switchbacks above tree line into the large open bowl below San Joaquin Ridge, then turns east before cresting Wasatch Pass.

Wasatch Pass, just south of 13er Wasatch Mountain, with half the vert for the race already over and done with.

Descending into Bridal Veil basin. It was a near-perfect morning for running.

From Wasatch Pass the route turns north again and descends down the Bridal Veil doubletrack road to the race’s first aid station. It felt good to switch gears and descend a few thousand feet, because immediately past the aid station the course transitions to another steep, 3,000 ft climb.

Bridal Veil aid.

On one of the many steep switchbacks below the ridge between Ajax and Telluride Peaks.

Past Bridal Veil we split off the Black Bear Pass road and began climbing a series of switchbacks up the large slope dropping south off Ajax Peak. I continued to feel pretty good throughout this second climb, and had begun passing many of the back-of-the-pack 40 mile runners who had started half an hour before the 24 mile runners. After finally finishing off the grunt to the top of the ridge, it was time to head east out across the traverse the race calls the, “Mile and a Half of Sky”.

Good ol alpine ridge scrambling at 13,000 ft. Even for people used to this type of terrain at this altitude, it’s a tough stretch the likes of which you won’t find in too many other races.

The final section up to the race’s high point, Telluride Peak.

The ridge is exposed to the north and rugged enough that it required dropping off to the south and traversing around a few towers. This section is such a commitment from a safety standpoint the race stations multiple volunteers with radios and med kits out along the mile and half of ridge.

Summit of Telluride Peak (13,514 ft), a newly ranked 13er I hadn’t done. Or so they tell me…

From Telluride Peak the course descends to Imogene Pass, following the west segment of the Imogene Pass Run down into Savage Basin to the historic Tomboy Mine site. Past the aid station there’s one final climb up to the top of Mendota Pass where the route joins the Hardrock course back down to Telluride.

Just below Imogene Pass with Telluride Peak in back.

Climbing up into Marshall Basin through more mining ruins from a bygone era.

Mendota Pass and the final bit of vert for the day. Just over 9,000 feet climbed in 20 miles.

Myself and a few other runners struggled with the final climb up to Mendota Pass enough to where audible commiseration was occurring among a few of us. The day had finally heated up and the elevation gain in the sun was becoming a grind, but for 24-milers the top of the pass marked the end of the climbing. From there it was just one big descent over the last 4 miles to town.

Descending off Mendota.

It was hot, my quads felt surprisingly shot, and the descent was steep and rocky. Thankful to have poles I was able to make quick work down to the streets of town. From there it was a short jog back to the park and the finish line.

I finished in 6:35:21 which was good enough for 6th place male and 8th overall. Amazingly enough the very next person to cross the finish line was Steve, capping off his effort on the 13-miler and first ever trail race. Congrats Steve! Full race results can be found here.

Post-race pilsner.

After hanging out for awhile and watching runners from all three distances cross the finish line, we shipped out to Colorado Boy in Ridgeway with the rest of Steve’s family who had come down for the weekend to camp and hang with us. Then it was back on home for me, while Steve and Co stuck around for another day at Ridgeway State Park.

All in all this was probably my favorite race I’ve done to date. The challenging and scenic course, the steepness catering to more of a hiker’s skillset and the overall grassroots, small town feel of the race made it so. I think I’ll be back, and Steve is already talking about the 24-miler for next year as well.

And with that it’s time to jump back on the mountain bike for the rest of the fall. Cheers 😉