The two GPX downloads. Both carry identical geometry (the official RideWithGPS
route 56633050, 4,878 points, unrounded) and the same 89 cue and 7 aid-station waypoints.
They differ only in the elevation stream. Official course GPX is the default: RideWithGPS
DEM elevation, passed through byte-for-byte, reproducing the
published 13,457 ft gain figure. Measured-elevation GPX replaces that with barometric
readings from a 2025 race recording across the 68.9 mi the two courses share (ground new
in 2026 keeps DEM). Barometric readings were measured on site rather than modelled. After removing
the recording’s own drift and locking each lookup to a single 2025 pass, they imply
13,007 ft of gain — 450 ft less than the terrain model. Use the default unless you
specifically want measured point elevations.
Sources: 2025 — David Roche’s Strava race recording (“Leadville 100 Mile CR, 15:12:30”); 2026 — official RideWithGPS route “2026 LT 100 RUN” , as listed on the Leadville 100 site. That route was revised between 14 and 18 Aug 2026 : 0.7 mi either side of Twin Lakes (race miles 38.6–39.4 out, 64.9–65.6 back, up to 350 m from the old line) was re-drawn onto the line the 2025 course used, which is why those two stretches no longer appear as changed sections. Everything here — the map, the profile, both downloads — is built from the revised export; the file itself carries only the route’s creation date, so the edit is dated by when it appeared, not by the GPX. Surface types (paved / unpaved / unknown) are from the RideWithGPS route’s per-point surface data, which derives from OpenStreetMap and was captured before the revision.
* How the elevation numbers are made. Gain is counted by walking the elevation stream and
adding every rise that exceeds ±7.85 m, which filters sensor and sampling noise. The ±7.85 m
figure is not arbitrary: it is the value at which the official 2026 route reproduces the organiser’s
published 13,457 ft, so it is calibrated to their method. The same threshold is used everywhere here.
Official reads elevation from the 2026 route’s terrain model — a value looked up from a
digital elevation model at each point, never measured on site. Measured replaces that with
barometric readings recorded by a device carried through the 2025 race, applied across the ground the
two courses share and left as terrain-model data on ground new in 2026. The 2025 column is barometric
in both views, because a barometer is the only record of that run — which is why the Official pairing
compares two different kinds of measurement and the Measured pairing does not. The gap between the two
matters, so two things are done before any lookup. The recording’s barometric drift is removed
using the fact that it starts and finishes at the same intersection, and each lookup is locked to
one 2025 pass at a time. Both are necessary because much of the course runs out and back: the two
2025 passes sit within metres of each other but were recorded hours apart, and mixing them injects
that drift as climb that never happened. With that done the barometer reads 450 ft
less gain than the terrain model, and stays below it at every filtering threshold. Treat the
individual totals as method-dependent, and the Measured pairing as the one to compare years with. Shared sections are drawn once, following the 2026 line. “Changed” = farther than ~70 m from every point of the other year’s track, for at least a quarter mile.
Aid-station miles, cutoffs and crew access are from the 2026 Run Course tab on leadvilleraceseries.com (station list and mileage as of Aug 18, 2026): 12 stations, and crewing is allowed only at Outward Bound, Half Pipe and Twin Lakes Village (each visited twice; Twin Lakes is shuttle-access only from Outward Bound). Cutoff times without a day are Saturday; the course cutoff is 30 hours. Drop bags go to five on-course locations : Turquoise Dam, Outward Bound, Half Pipe, Twin Lakes and Winfield — marked 🎒 on the map and ✓ in the table. Carter Summit and Hope Pass take no drop bags. The stop first published as Pipeline at mile 29.6 is now Half Pipe at 31.8, the name its drop-bag list already used and the same name the 2025 course’s aid station carries. It is placed at that 2025 aid, which the 2026 line passes 18 m from, and the chart’s revised mileage confirms the spot independently: 31.8 and 72.8 against 31.7 and 72.6 on the GPX. Where chart and GPX still disagree most is either side of Outward Bound — the chart makes those legs about a mile longer than the track does.