2025 Races are Cancelled
On September 27th, Hurricane Helene swept through Western North Carolina, leaving the Black Mountain & Swannanoa Valley as ground zero for some of the most devastating damage in the region. We have had numerous discussions and questions regarding the races, held the last weekend in February for 26 years. Unfortunately, there is extensive damage throughout the trails that will greatly limit, if not outright prevent, volunteers from getting to any support stations. At this time, there is no plan in place to remediate the damage before March. In addition to the trail damage, the State Park itself is closed until March. Meaning there will be no summit possibility and no support staff from the State Park. All permits for the Blue Ridge Parkway in this area, have been put on hold as well. Combining this, with the recovery that Black Mountain, Montreat and the entire Swannanoa Valley are still actively engaged in, simply make the races untenable for 2025.
Registered runners have received communication on the status of their registration.
1. Donate to local relief efforts (We have identified two local groups!)
2. Defer to 2026 (We intend to be back, once the area has fully recovered!)
3. Full refund. This will be in the form of a check from Bill Pay in the mail.
New in 2022 - In response to the lack of advance guarantee of Summit access, all runners will sign up for the Marathon and if the Summit is available and covered with aid stations on race day, the first 250 runners that want to go to the summit for the full Challenge, and have reached the Parkway Marathon turnaround within the cut-off time, will become Challenge racers and will continue to the Summit.
In a normal year, there are less than 250 runners that reach the Parkway within the cutoff time, so this solution should give anyone who is capable, the chance for a Summit, if it is available to us.
We feel this is a better solution that having to deny folks the chance of a Summit because of a closure at the last minute.
9/1/2022 - Our first running of the new format in 2022 presented every race director's nightmare. A change to the course after the gun had gone off. Unfortunately, we are at the mercy of the safety personnel and their ability to effectively keep the runners safe in extremely variable conditions. We aim to let every runner get everything they want out of race day - But ultimately, safety takes precedence. We look forward to another run at the Highest Summit in the East this February!
9/1/2023 - In our second running of the new format, we again had some nasty changing weather on race day - But working with the Mitchell State Park team, we were able to give Challengers the Summit day they wanted! Now on to 2024!
9/1/2024 - We were not able to hit the summit but the winter conditions made it a challenge for all!
