Angeles Crest 100

Angeles Crest is one of the original American 100s, and in 2026 it is not the point-to-point people recite. Highway 2 storm damage and the Eaton Fire closed the Wrightwood start. AC100's own status pages say the race starts and finishes at Loma Alta Park in Altadena, the first Altadena start in race history, out to the high country and back, threading around fire closure. Demand is 4 because 100 miles of San Gabriel trail, heat, rock, and a reroute still constitute a mountain 100. It is not 5 because the altitude is modest and because a course held together with tunnels and truck roads is a different ask than the classic Wrightwood line.

Worth is 4. We are scoring the 2026 race that exists, not the poster of the race that cannot. The San Gabriels are still a reason to fly if you live outside Southern California and you want this particular wilderness-over-Los-Angeles feeling. They are not a reason to pretend the historic point-to-point is intact. Organization confidence is high: ac100.com has been unusually explicit about closures, maps, and cutoffs. That is the opposite of hiding a bad year.

Date and fee stay on official and UltraSignup pages. If your identity is the Wrightwood start, wait for a year they can go back. If your identity is 100 miles in the San Gabriels, this is still a destination, with an asterisk written by the forest, not by us.

The 2026 line uses Loma Alta, the Gabrielino, Josephine, Red Box, a turnaround near Mt Hillyer, then Chantry, Wilson, Mueller Tunnel, Sam Merrill, Millard. That is a lot of names for a year that could not start in Wrightwood. AC100 published the change instead of pretending Highway 2 was open. We will not invent a 2026 date or a fee; ultrasignup and ac100.com have both. Heat still decides Southern California 100s even in October. Rock still decides the descents. History still matters, and history is not a substitute for the course that will actually be marked.