The Shut-In Ridge Trail Run / Race is a 17.8 mile endurance running event that takes place in the mountains near Asheville, NC. The route begins in the

North Carolina Arboretum The North Carolina Arboretum () is an arboretum and botanical garden located within the Bent Creek Experimental Forest of the Pisgah National Forest at 100 Frederick Law Olmsted Way, southwest of Asheville, North Carolina near the Blue Ridge Par ...

and ascends approximately 5,000 feet, with a finish line at the top of Mt. Pisgah. The last two miles are steep and technical, to such an extreme that observers may see "runners hanging on to trees to keep from falling backward".

History

The Shut-In Ridge Trail Run event officially began in December 1980 when 64 runners ran the same 17.8 mile route that George Vanderbilt used to get from his Asheville mansion (

Biltmore Estate Biltmore Estate is a historic house museum and tourist attraction in Asheville, North Carolina. Biltmore House (or Biltmore Mansion), the main residence, is a Châteauesque-style mansion built for George Washington Vanderbilt II between 1889 a ...

) to his mountaintop hunting lodge. Shut-In Ridge is among the oldest running events in the USA.

References

{{Reflist Mountain running competitions Cross country running competitions