Mount to Coast™ Named Presenting Sponsor of the BADWATER® 135 Ultramarathon

Mount to Coast will also sponsor AdventureCORPS’ Badwater Salton Sea, Badwater Cape Fear and the Cape Fear Marathon & Half

Oak Park, Calif. (Feb. 4, 2025) – Mount to Coast™, the first performance shoe brand to specialize in ultra running and long-distance pursuits, has been named presenting sponsor of the 38th annual Badwater 135 Ultramarathon, AdventureCORPS President Chris Kostman announced Saturday. 

“No running race on the planet tests both shoes and runners more than the Badwater 135,” said Kostman. “With our event in its 38th year, finally there are shoes not only worthy of the world’s toughest foot race, but they are truly game-changers, providing both comfort and performance in levels previously unknown. Badwater runners, our staff, and I have not only found Mount to Coast shoes to be astonishingly comfortable and light-weight, but they actually help us run to our true potential.”

“It’s an absolute honor to be the presenting sponsor of arguably the most iconic endurance running event in the world,” said Mount to Coast U.S. Country Manager Doug Rosenberg. “The challenge of Badwater 135 – asking athletes to transcend physical, mental and spiritual boundaries – captures the very essence of Mount to Coast’s mission. We’re incredibly excited to support runners’ endurance journeys as a partner with AdventureCORPS in this celebrated event and three other Badwater branded races throughout the year.”

Badwater 135, considered “the world’s toughest foot race,” will be held July 7-9. The 135-mile course begins at Badwater Basin in Death Valley National Park, which marks the lowest elevation in North America at 280 feet below sea level and concludes at the trailhead to the Mt. Whitney summit, the highest point in the contiguous United States. The race route covers three mountain ranges for a total of 14,600 feet (4450m) of cumulative vertical ascent and 6,100 feet (1859m) of cumulative descent. There is a forty-eight-hour time limit for the event. Winners will be crowned as the world’s 135-mile champions.

Saturday morning, February 1, the pool of 100 athletes selected to compete in the event was announced via an AdventureCORPS Facebook livestream event. The full roster of selected participants – which includes two-thirds rookies and one-third Badwater 135 veterans – will be finalized by February 17 and published on AdventureCORPS website. In this year’s race, 23 nations and 25 American states will be represented. 

In addition to Badwater 135, Mount to Coast will also be the presenting sponsor of three other AdventureCORPS races in 2025: Badwater Salton Sea, Badwater Cape Fear, and the Cape Fear Marathon & Half. Runners may register for those events now at RunSignUp.

To learn more about Badwater 135 and AdventureCORPS races, please visit the Badwater website.

Please direct Mount to Coast media inquiries to New Local PR Founder and Account Director Anna Avery at anna@newlocalpr.com. 

About AdventureCORPS

AdventureCORPS® has made its name producing the world’s toughest endurance races and events in dramatic, remote locations that few people would ever visit, let alone run across. Held under the Badwater® banner, these events have allowed adventurous runners to explore Death Valley, Cape Fear, Salton Sea, Anza-Borrego, and the Mojave Desert in the USA, as well as the Mustang region of Nepal, the Yunnan Province of China, and the Republic of Artsakh. Over the decades, Badwater races have become a way of life. 

About BADWATER® 135 Ultramarathon

Globally recognized as the world’s toughest foot race, the Badwater 135 Ultramarathon – hosted by AdventureCORPS – is a pure athletic challenge of athlete, shoes, and support crew versus a brutal 135-mile / 217km stretch of highway and a forty-eight hour time limit. Spanning from Death Valley to Mt. Whitney, CA, 100 selected athletes will traverse from the lowest elevation in North America to the trailhead of the Mt. Whitney summit, the highest point in the contiguous United States.

About Mount to Coast™

Mount to Coast is a technical footwear brand specializing in long-distance running and biomechanics research to challenge the limits of ultrarunning. Founded for athletes who transcend distance, Mount to Coast integrates innovative materials inspired by various industries to engineer footwear offering exceptional comfort, support, energy return and durability. Its first two models – the R1 and S1 – crafted with insights from Mount to Coast’s Run Research Lab, are award winning, record-breaking shoes, vigorously tested in highly challenging races and evaluated by elite athletes. 

Oak Park, CA – AdventureCORPS® is pleased to formally announce its partnership with Fisher Space Pen® of Boulder City, NV and to recognize Fisher Space Pen – American-made pens originally created for the space program – as the Official Pen of Badwater®, the world’s toughest brand and the world’s toughest races.

AdventureCORPS and Badwater only partner with reputable brands with similar values and which already have a proven track record among Badwater athletes. In this case, AdventureCORPS Chief Adventure Officer and Race Director Chris Kostman has been a fan and user of Fisher Space Pens for as long as he can remember. Although Chris never lived out his childhood dream of becoming an astronaut, he’s remained a staunch advocate of space exploration and all things NASA.

Fisher Space Pen rose to prominence when founder Paul Fisher invented a retractable, pressurized pen called the Anti-Gravity 7 (#AG7) that worked flawlessly in zero gravity aboard the first manned Apollo mission in 1968. Five decades later the company continues to thrive with pens still flown aboard every manned space flight.

Besides organizing the world’s toughest races, Chris has worked as an archaeologist across the Middle East and South Asia, is a technical cave diver, and has competed in wintertime snowshoe races across Alaska. Through it all, he’s been a Space Pen user.  “These pens write upside down, under water, in temperatures as cold as 30 below and 250 above, in zero gravity, and they essentially last forever! Fisher Space Pen is an iconic American brand built to perform in extreme conditions, so a partnership with Badwater is an absolutely perfect fit,” said Kostman.

As a result of this partnership, all entrants in all four BADWATER races, including the legendary STYR Labs Badwater 135 on July 18-20, Silver State 508 ultracycling race on September 17-19, and Badwater Cape Fear on March 18, 2017 are receiving Fisher Space Pens which feature a laser etching of the BADWATER® brand logo. The feedback from the runners who received them already at the May 1-2 Badwater Salton Sea has been, well, out of this world.

“Fisher Space Pens are the most extreme writing instruments – both in and out of this world. We are proud to be a partner with BADWATER on their extreme races! Do something worth writing about,” commented Matt Fisher, VP of Sales for Fisher Space Pen, and the grandson of the founder and inventor, Paul C. Fisher.

More info at http://www.spacepen.com 

It’s no coincidence that the Fisher Space Pen display boxes look like the surface of the moon! Fisher Space Pens have been carried on every manned NASA mission since Apollo 7!

Oak Park, CA – AdventureCORPS® is pleased to formally announce its partnership with Farm To Feet™ Socks of Mt. Airy, NC and to recognize them as the Official Sock of Badwater®, the world’s toughest brand and the world’s toughest races.

AdventureCORPS and Badwater only partner with reputable brands with similar values and which already have a proven track record among Badwater athletes. AdventureCORPS first learned of the American-made Farm to Feet socks from Pam Rickard, a veteran of Badwater Cape Fear and Badwater Salton Sea who is a big fan of these wool socks made in her home state of Virginia. Rickard sent two pair to Chris Kostman, the BADWATER race director, and he wore them every day while running the eight-day Badwater Presents Mustang Trail Race in Nepal last October. He came away with happy feet, no blisters, and totally impressed. Kostman said “I have long been sold on merino wool because it is simply the best fabric to put against the skin: it almost has ‘artificial intelligence’ because it ‘knows’ whether the wearer needs to be warm or cool. It’s wicking property is unparalleled, and one can wear wool for several DAYS before it starts to stink! These Farm To Feet socks are the ultimate for the training and racing that the world’s toughest athletes take on!”

All entrants in all 2016 BADWATER races, including the legendary STYR Labs Badwater 135 on July 18-20 and the Silver State 508 ultracycling race on September 17-19, are receiving Farm To Feet Socks and the feedback from the March 19 Badwater Cape Fear and May 1-2 Badwater Salton Sea sock wearers has been incredible favorable.

Farm To Feet is committed to goal of creating the world’s best wool socks by exclusively using an all-American recipe: US materials, US manufacturing, and US workers. Using a domestic supply chain, Farm To Feet manufactures premium products with the highest quality materials, while minimizing the impact on the environment.

Get a 15% discount when you order Farm To Feet by mentioning BADWATER at www.farmtofeet.com