Bigfoot 200 aid stations and map

Entry to the 200 is by lottery, a year ahead. The 2027 lottery was open from August 10 to 26, 2026, with the draw on August 28, and the race is sold out. You can join the waitlist on UltraSignup at no charge. If a spot opens you get an email invitation, and your card is charged only if you accept. The waitlist usually closes a month before the race.

The other way in is the Triple Crown of 200s, one registration for Tahoe, Bigfoot and Moab in the same year that skips all three lotteries and costs $300 less than entering each race. You must be 18 on race day. Refunds are 50% before April 1 and 25% through May 31, with none after that, and you can't pass your entry to another runner.

The 20M has no lottery. It costs $125 until December 31, then $135, and registration closes August 11.

Check-in, the finish and race headquarters are all at White Pass High School in Randle. Check-in is on Thursday, August 12, from 1 to 3:30 PM, with drop bags due by 5 PM and the mandatory meeting at 4. You'll see the medical team, have your gear checked, show the course GPX on your phone or watch, and have your photo taken for live tracking. Parking at the school is free for the whole race.

On Friday morning buses start loading at the school at 6:30 AM, leave at 7, and take about 2.5 hours to reach the start at Marble Mountain Sno-Park, near Cougar. The bus is optional. Mount St. Helens is about 52 miles northeast of Portland and 98 miles south of Seattle. The organizer's lodging list has campgrounds and a lodge around Randle and Packwood, and the Lone Fir Resort in Cougar, about 30 minutes from the start.

You don't need a crew. The organizer says many runners finish without one, and the aid stations are set up for runners on their own. If you have one, they can meet you at seven aid stations: Coldwater Lake, Norway Pass, Elk Pass, Road 9327, Quartz Ridge, Klickitat and Owens Creek, all of them reachable in a two-wheel-drive car. At Owens Creek they come in on FR 23, not Cline Road. Don't plan on meeting your runner at Chain of Lakes. The manual's coordinates table marks it open to crews, but its aid station chart says no crew there.

You get one crew vehicle, no more than 20 feet long and 8.5 feet wide, with the pass from check-in in the window. Trailers aren't allowed, and neither is an RV bigger than that. Parking is tight, so crews should use live tracking to arrive no more than half an hour before you, and leave when you do. The manual also asks crews to bring a tire repair kit or a spare.

Pacers can join from Elk Pass, at mile 67.2, and only at crew stations, and you can have one at a time. They wear a pacer bib, carry the same mandatory gear you do, and can't carry your food, water or gear. Two lines of the manual say pacing starts at Coldwater Lake, but its aid station chart and its pacer rules both start it at Elk Pass.

Down in the valley near the finish, August is warm: NOAA's 1991 to 2020 normals for Glenoma, west of Randle, are highs around 80°F and lows around 48°F. The course averages 3,758 feet, and the manual tells you to be ready for anything from 30°F to 100°F, with heat in the blast zone and cold, heavy rain, snow and high winds in the mountains.

The mandatory kit includes a hooded jacket, pants that cover your legs, a long-sleeve insulating layer, gloves, a headlamp with spare batteries, a water filter, 500 emergency calories, a phone, and a device with the course GPX. The race gives you a SPOT tracker, an emergency bivy and a wag bag, and you'll use the wag bag: waste on the trail has to go in one. The five sleep stations have tents or canopies with pads and blankets, and you can sleep up to six hours.