Wyoming
Highest Elevation Winter Ultra-Marathon Race In the US Is Wyoming's Grueling “Drift 100”
Beginning at the north end of Kendall Valley in Sublette County, Wyoming, the Drift 100 is a winter endurance race where competitors have 48 hours to run, bike or ski through a loop in the Wind River Mountains.
Held on the second weekend in March, the course follows a groomed snowmobile trail and traverses the Continental Divide. The course gains 9,000 feet in elevation and is the highest winter ultramarathon in the United States.
Among the hundreds of grueling endurance events held around the world, this one is no picnic.
Competitors told Cowboy State Daily that it’s a race they never forget and that real-world preparation and mental focus are critical.
Being fearless doesn’t hurt either.
Ginny Robbins, an endurance athlete from Victor, Idaho, said the way to complete the Drift 100 without turning into a popsicle is to keep your head in the race and don’t stop.
Robbins is the current women’s record holder in the runner category. She set that record in 2021 at 30 hours and 43 minutes. She has also done the race on skis and plans to compete on a fat bike next March to become the first racer to complete the Drift 100 by all three means of transportation.
Justin Kinner, an endurance athlete from Casper, said he wouldn’t go to the starting line of any race without being prepared to “put myself in the pain cave and dig out a new room.”
He remembers long hours of solitude without seeing another living thing and fighting through soft snow on Union Pass, making less than 2 miles an hour.
Kinner won the race in 2020 and established the men’s record, covering the course on foot in 29 hours, 36 minutes. That’s under 18 minutes per mile average over the 100 miles.
The Drift 100 gets its name from the Green River Drift, a 58-mile-long cattle drive that has followed the same path since the 1890s. The endurance race travels some of the same trails used by the cattle that move from private ranches onto the public land grazing pastures of the Wind River Range every spring and fall.
Signs along the trail encourage racers to “Keep Moooving.”
What’s The Allure?
It takes a special sort of fortitude to face the prospects of a 100-mile-long sub-zero slog down a snowmobile trail with a pocket full of gummy bears, a water bottle that’ll probably be frozen before its consumed, a sleeping bag, tent and few other safety related sundries.
Being comfortable isn’t part of the Drift 100.
Robbins said when she trains, which is generally at least a 5-mile run in the morning and something equally as challenging in the afternoon, her mind wanders. But during a race like the Drift 100, the focus has to be on taking care of herself.
“The crazy thing that happens when I set out on a 100-mile race is my body naturally regulates itself,” she said. “When I go out for a 10-mile run, I’m a sweaty mess when I get home. But when I start out on a race like the Drift, I know how to do all of the things like avoiding overheating to avoid having a bad race. It’s more about self-care than fitness level.”
She said part of what makes this race an endearing winter adventure is that it allows racers to be vulnerable in a wild place.
“The beauty of the Drift is there are people there keeping an eye on you, and that’s why I choose that event,” she said. “It’s a structured environment where you can push yourself.”
Practice How You Play
Kinner spent time training on Casper Mountain snowmobile trails in preparation for his record-setting run in the Drift 100. He went out alone during winter storms and at all different times of the day.
“I prepared by going out and putting myself in situations where I was alone for a long time, and I used all of my gear so that I was prepared for anything,” he said. “Putting myself in those training situations was pivotal for me.”
He didn’t know he was in the lead until he reached the halfway point and a volunteer told him. He’s not sure if he will run the race again. If someone beats his time it might trigger his interest.
Kinner has completed about a dozen ultramarathons. When he starts a race, he has no intention of stopping until he reaches the finish line.
“It’s always in the back of my mind that I can stop, pull out my sleeping bag and rest, but when you stop, the clock keeps going,” he said.
Drift 100 Racers Faced The Wrath Of Winter 2023
Racers were greeted with blizzard conditions at the start of this year’s race. The high winds, snow and subzero temperatures lasted throughout the first day of the race and exacted a heavy toll on the field. Many of them made it to the Strawberry Aid Station at the 25-mile mark, dropped out of the race and hunkered down for the night.
Others camped along the course and continued the race when conditions improved. They recorded times that were well off the pace established in previous races.
The conditions were so horrible race organizers decided to wave the 48-hour time limit that racers are given to complete the 100-mile course.
Robbins said when the snow quit falling, the wind picked up. She heard numerous trees falling as she ran through the forest. In the open meadows, if she wouldn’t have had trekking poles the wind would have flattened her.
“It was probably the most challenging conditions that I can imagine,” she said.
Of the 46 competitors who started the race, 11 finished. Among the finishers were six bikers, two skiers and three runners. The inaugural Drift 100 race was held in 2020. In the first two years, more than 70% of those who started finished. In 2022, 44% finished the race.
Finish times this year were well off the pace established during previous races. The 2023 overall winner, Seth Harney of Colorado, finished on a fat bike with a time of 31 hours and 24 minutes. The four previous overall winners completed the course in under 19 hours.
Mitch Helling of Laramie, who won the 2022 race on skis with a time of 21 hours and 36 minutes, needed more than 14 hours longer than that previous winning time to complete the course in 2023.
Among the runners, Ryan Bridger of West Palm Beach, Florida, recorded the best time in 2023 at 51 hours and 48 minutes. The female winner on foot was Pam Reed of Jackson with a time of 52 hours and 55 minutes, 13 hours slower than her personal best.
Racers who drop out and can’t return to the start line under their own power are charged a $200 fee for a snowmobile ride out. All racers are required to carry a beacon that records their position, a sleeping bag, tent, goggles and other safety gear. Some competitors wear backpacks while others tow sleds that are useful on the downhill sections of the trail.
A Feat of Organization
Both of the racers interviewed for this story heaped compliments on the race organizers and the dozens of volunteers for the time spent in keeping the course open and racers safe. Kinner said it’s unique that a winter race like this is supported by volunteers in such a remote place.
Keri Hull, her husband Darren and their friends Josh and Laura Hattan are the founders of the the Drift 100. The Hulls competed in several similar events when they lived in Alaska before moving to Pinedale.
“When we learned about the network of groomed snowmobile trails that are here, we thought why not have a race?” Keri said.
They limit the number of racers to 70 each year and they also mark out courses for a 28-mile race and a 13-mile race for competitors who don’t want to tackle a 100-miler.
Some people fly in from Europe and other countries to compete, but most of the competitors come from Wyoming and its neighboring states. For the 2024 event, there are racers from 16 states and Canada registered so far.
Hull said about 40 volunteers put in a collective 800 hours setting up the course, maintaining the course and taking care of racers who run into problems. The factors the knock most racers out are altitude sickness and dehydration.
John Thompson can be reached at: John@CowboyStateDaily.com
Chance of rain in parts of Wyoming on Sunday with some sun in the south. Breezy overnight with a chance of rain early. Highs from the mid 50s to near 80. Lows from the mid 20s to upper 40s.
Central:
Casper: Chance of rain, otherwise partly sunny and breezy today with a high near 71 and wind gusts as high as 34 mph. Partly cloudy and breezy overnight with a slight chance of rain before 8 p.m., a low near 43 and wind gusts as high as 31 mph.
Riverton: Chance of rain, otherwise mostly sunny and breezy today with a high near 72 and wind gusts as high as 33 mph. Mostly clear and breezy overnight with a slight chance of rain before 7 p.m., a low near 41 and wind gusts as high as 25 mph.
Shoshoni: Chance of rain, otherwise partly sunny and windy today with a high near 70 and wind gusts as high as 37 mph. Mostly clear and windy overnight with a slight chance of rain before 7 p.m., a low near 43 and wind gusts as high as 36 mph.
Southwest:
Evanston: Sunny today with a high near 61 and mostly clear overnight with a low near 33.
Green River: Sunny and breezy today with a high near 66 and wind gusts as high as 28 mph. Mostly clear and breezy overnight with a low near 38 and wind gusts as high as 24 mph.
Kemmerer: Breezy, gradually becoming sunny today with a high near 61 and wind gusts as high as 29 mph. Increasing clouds and breezy overnight with a low near 33 and wind gusts as high as 23 mph.
Western Wyoming:
Pinedale: Slight chance of rain, breezy, gradually becoming sunny today with a high near 59 and wind gusts as high as 28 mph. Mostly clear and blustery overnight with a low near 29 and wind gusts as high as 25 mph.
Alpine: Chance of rain, gradually clearing today with a high near 64 and wind gusts as high as 20 mph. Mostly clear overnight with a low near 35.
Big Piney: Breezy, gradually becoming sunny today with a high near 62 and wind gusts as high as 29 mph. Mostly clear and blustery overnight with a low near 27 and wind gusts as high as 25 mph.
Northwest:
Dubois: Chance of rain mainly after 1 p.m., otherwise mostly sunny and breezy today with a high near 57 and wind gusts as high as 37 mph. Mostly clear and windy overnight with a low near 34 and wind gusts as high as 40 mph.
Jackson: Chance of rain, gradually becoming mostly sunny today with a high near 62 and wind gusts as high as 20 mph. Mostly clear overnight with a low near 33.
Old Faithful in Yellowstone National Park: Rain likely today with a high near 50 and wind gusts as high as 24 mph. Gradually becoming mostly clear overnight with a chance of rain before 11 p.m., a low near 29 and wind gusts as high as 21 mph.
Bighorn Basin:
Thermopolis: Rain likely today with a high near 66 and mostly clear overnight with a slight chance of rain before 9 p.m. and a low near 43.
Cody: Rain likely, cloudy and breezy today with a high near 63 and wind gusts as high as 24 mph. Gradually becoming mostly clear overnight with a chance of rain before 10 p.m. and a low near 43.
Ten Sleep: Rain likely, breezy today with a high near 65 and wind gusts as high as 23 mph. Gradually becoming clear overnight with a slight chance of rain before 9 p.m., a low near 45 and wind gusts as high as 21 mph.
North Central:
Buffalo: Rain likely, breezy today with a high near 61 and wind gusts as high as 22 mph. Partly cloudy overnight with a slight chance of rain before 8 p.m., a low near 44 and wind gusts as high as 21 mph.
Sheridan: Rain likely, mostly cloudy today with a high near 64 and wind from 16-21 mph. Gradually becoming mostly clear overnight with a slight chance of rain before 9 p.m., a low near 38 and wind from 11-16 mph.
Big Horn: Rain likely today with a high near 62 and wind from 11-16 mph. Gradually becoming mostly clear overnight with a slight chance of rain before 9 p.m. and a low near 42.
Northeast:
Gillette: Rain likely today with a high near 63 and wind gusts as high as 26 mph. Partly cloudy overnight with a slight chance of rain before midnight, a low near 39 and wind gusts as high as 26 mph.
Newcastle: Rain likely today with a high near 69 and wind gusts as high as 23 mph. Partly cloudy overnight with a chance of rain before midnight, a low near 43 and wind gusts as high as 23 mph.
Upton: Rain likely today with a high near 67 and wind gusts as high as 22 mph. Partly cloudy overnight with a chance of rain before midnight, a low near 39 and wind gusts as high as 23 mph.
Eastern Plains:
Torrington: Sunny and breezy today with a high near 81 and wind gusts as high as 35 mph. Mostly clear and breezy overnight with a low near 48 and wind gusts as high as 30 mph.
Lusk: Chance of rain after noon, otherwise mostly sunny and breezy today with a high near 71 and wind gusts as high as 30 mph. Partly cloudy and breezy overnight with a slight chance of rain before 9 p.m., a low near 40 and wind gusts as high as 30 mph.
Midwest: Rain likely, otherwise partly sunny and breezy today with a high near 68 and wind gusts as high as 29 mph. Breezy, gradually becoming clear overnight with a slight chance of rain before 8 p.m., a low near 40 and wind gusts as high as 25 mph.
Southeast:
Cheyenne: Sunny and breezy today with a high near 75 and wind gusts as high as 40 mph. Mostly clear and breezy overnight with a low near 46 and wind gusts as high as 30 mph.
Laramie: Sunny and windy today with a high near 67 and wind gusts as high as 45 mph. Mostly clear and breezy overnight with a low near 38 and wind gusts as high as 40 mph.
Medicine Bow: Mostly sunny and windy today with a high near 68 and wind gusts as high as 50 mph. Mostly clear and windy overnight with a low near 37 and wind gusts as high as 45 mph.
South Central:
Rawlins: Mostly sunny and windy today with a high near 67 and wind gusts as high as 45 mph. Mostly clear and breezy overnight with a low near 40 and wind gusts as high as 40 mph.
Saratoga: Mostly sunny and windy today with a high near 68 and wind gusts as high as 45 mph. Mostly clear and breezy overnight with a low near 38 and wind gusts as high as 35 mph.
Hanna: Mostly sunny and windy today with a high near 66 and wind gusts as high as 50 mph. Mostly clear and windy overnight with a low near 38 and wind gusts as high as 40 mph.
Wyoming
Children’s Hospital Colorado hosts Wyoming Pediatric Mental Health Symposium in downtown Casper
CASPER, Wyo. — Children’s Hospital Colorado hosted the Wyoming Pediatric Mental Health Symposium, a first-of-its-kind event designed to shine a light on adolescent mental health in Wyoming and beyond.
The event, which took place over a two-day period May 13 and 14, was “designed for mental health, school, and healthcare professionals seeking to deepen their expertise in pediatric mental health,” according to a brochure from the hospital.
According to the FDA, pediatrics cover those ages 0-21, and that’s exactly who mental health professionals who attended the symposium wanted to reach. Professionals across a wide spectrum gathered at the Best Western Downtown to learn more about counseling and crisis centers, schools, hospitals, primary care practices and outpatient services. They received clinical updates and engaged in discussions regarding current, evidence-informed issues that impact the care of pediatric patients and mental health needs.
And, according to the professionals, there are a lot of mental health needs in Wyoming.
“We’re here to work with folks in Wyoming about pediatric mental health concerns,” said Sandra Fritsch, MD, MSEd, DFAACAP. “May is mental health awareness month, so what a great two days to be here to talk about that during this time, as well as the challenges for access to care for pediatric mental health that exists nationally.”
Fritsch said the goal she and her peers had was to increase knowledge and awareness for everyone who attended the conference, whether they work at a school or a hospital or are a community health worker. She said she wanted to foster a commitment in the community to have real, open conversations about pediatric mental health.
Geographic densities are big reasons that mental health assistance is so hard to find in Wyoming, Fritsch said. However, they’re not the only reasons.
“I think awareness and then knowing the resources you can tap into is really important when it comes to pediatric mental health,” she said. “I do think that we need to have a dedicated approach to increasing the workforce, and that’s the workforce of everyone, whether it be a community health worker who can do screenings, therapists who can be in schools, traditional therapists, child psychiatrists or psychiatric nurse practitioners who can help assess and treat. I think building workforce is something that’s really essential.”
Fritsch said that the suicide rate in Wyoming is staggering, especially for youth, but the pandemic reminded people about the notion of mental health and its importance among the community.
“It actually created awareness and opportunities for a conversation that more people are willing to engage in,” she said. “And the other thing, too, is the notion of putting the head back on the body. Looking at the whole being is really important, and seeing more of that from a prevention and early intervention standpoint, that’s what I would love to see a lot more of.”
Early prevention in adolescence, Fritsch said, begins with parents.
“How are we working with families before they’re even having kids?” she asked. “Being a parent is the hardest job in the world. It’s an apprenticeship program. It’s trial by fire. You think you’ve got it straight with one kid and then you get the next one and it could be completely different. So how do we help support that as well?”
Fritsch said there are no simple solutions, but there there are things people can try.
“One thing I would want is for families to have plans for how they’re together and when they’re together, how they’re off screen, etc.,” she said. “So family meal times, family activity times, things like that. And working on ensuring good, quality sleep I think is really important for all concerned, from that standpoint.”
She also said it’s important to help caregivers meet kids where they’re at developmentally.
“It’s about understanding that and promoting positive success and celebrating those successes and moving forward from that standpoint,” she said. “The other thing, too, is earlier identification and treatment for mild to moderate conditions. You can have anxiety as a preschooler. It’s different than what it looks like as an adult, but being able to address that may offset that depression you would otherwise have when you’re a teenager.”
Fritsch herself spoke at the symposium, heading a talk called “Assessment and Treatment of Depression in Pediatric Primary Care.” The following day, she gave a talk called “Putting Evidence Into Practice: Approaches for Pediatric Anxiety and Trauma Related Disorders.”
Both of these presentations offered insight into mental health needs across Wyoming, Colorado and the entire country.
“I just want people to have an awareness of the breadth of what our understanding of mental health is for the youth population,” she said. “How it can play out in the school setting, how it can play out in the primary setting, how it can play out in the community. And then I want to bring that information back to where they’re at and come up with some commitments to how they way want to do things differently based on what they’ve learned.”
For more information on pediatric mental health, visit www.childrenscolorado.org/.
Related
Sunlight Research Center’s Michael Nolan and Seraphina Feron provided research and data analysis.
by Angus M. Thuermer Jr., WyoFile
Thousands of acres southeast of Cheyenne owned by and associated with U.S. Sen. Cynthia Lummis lie in the path of Microsoft’s planned data center expansion, Laramie County property records show.
One of Microsoft’s existing data centers — a climate-controlled warehouse of computers, data storage and networks — sits southeast of Cheyenne on land the company purchased from the Lummis family in 2021. In April, the Seattle-area tech giant announced plans to buy 200 acres adjacent to its data center in the Bison Business Park and said it will purchase another 3,000 acres nearby.
Lummis, members of her family and companies associated with them own about 6,000 contiguous acres that almost surround the Microsoft center. Microsoft displayed a map Thursday at a Cheyenne community information session showing its 3,200-acre expansion extending into that Lummis family property.
Microsoft’s pending purchases land at the doorstep of one of tech’s biggest supporters in Congress. Lummis, known as the crypto queen of the Senate, has sponsored at least five significant cryptocurrency, artificial intelligence, blockchain, stablecoin and tech bills. Political action committees associated with her received $1.34 million, including from major cryptocurrency and tech interests, since Dec. 31, 2021 and July 2025, WyoFile and reporting partner the Sunlight Research Center have found.
Microsoft and members of Lummis family — the senator, her brother Doran and daughter Annaliese Wiederspahn — would not comment or agree to interviews about the development or their relationship to the project. The senator’s family has owned much of the expansion property for decades — some dating back to 1944 and before — and has a long history of ranching, real estate transactions and business operations in and around Cheyenne.
Wiederspahn is a board member of Cheyenne LEADS, a corporation dedicated to area economic development, including data centers.
Microsoft’s land-buy announcement comes as Cheyenne is quickly becoming a data-center hub — the city is weighing proposals for 40 to 70 new data centers, according to some estimates — amid questions among area residents about water and energy usage, plus sweeping changes to the landscape. Those concerns prompted the Cheyenne City Council to consider a moratorium on new data centers, but local officials ultimately voted against such a measure.
Lummis has heard those queries, she wrote in a September op-ed.
“During my travels across Wyoming, countless folks have approached me about AI and the data centers coming to our state,” she wrote. “I tell them the truth: If we don’t power America’s AI with Wyoming energy, China will build their AI dominance on their coal instead.”
Abundant energy and land
Data centers are large, climate-controlled warehouses that contain computers, data storage and networks — used by Microsoft to establish and maintain the Microsoft Cloud, where data is kept. “[Y]ou can store your photos, play Xbox games, video call with your family, and work on documents from anywhere and on any device, without needing a powerful computer,” the company explains.
While some data centers focus on storage, others focus on providing the computing power to operate artificial intelligence. Those servers can also be used for bitcoin mining.
Wyoming’s coal and potential nuclear power generation are a plus for energy-hungry data centers and AI, Lummis has stated. Wyoming’s cool climate and lack of corporate business tax also fuel data center development near Cheyenne. The state’s open land is another plus for data center development — and Lummis and her family own a lot of it.
“Folks have approached me about AI and the data centers coming to our state. I tell them the truth.”
Cynthia Lummis
Microsoft established its existing data center southeast of Cheyenne on 249 acres of Lummis-family land in the Bison Business Park in 2021, a subdivision created through a fast-track planning process. Arp and Hammond Hardware Co., whose president is Lummis’ brother Doran Lummis, carved out an adjacent 200-acre parcel in April 2025, a year before the tech company announced its intent to expand there.
Beyond that, Lummis’ family owns almost all the surrounding land — about 6,000 acres of it — including property mapped for purchase by Microsoft and displayed at Thursday’s open house in Cheyenne. The sprawling holdings, most of which are unirrigated rangeland, are owned by Lummis family companies Arp and Hammond, Lummis Livestock Co., Old Horse Pasture Inc. and Sweetgrass Land Co., Laramie County property records show.
The expansion, Microsoft said in an April statement, will be “strengthening Southeast Wyoming’s role as a growing hub for technology-driven economic activity, innovation and job creation.”
Crypto Queen
Lummis, elected to the Wyoming House of Representatives in 1979 at 24, was the youngest woman to serve in the Legislature. Voters then elected her to the state Senate, Wyoming treasurer and, in 2008, as Wyoming’s lone U.S. representative. She won election to the Senate in 2020, defeating Democrat Merav Ben-David with 73% of the vote.
Lummis announced in December she won’t seek reelection this year.
While in the Senate, Lummis has advocated for and sponsored legislation boosting cryptocurrencies — virtual money like bitcoin and stablecoins — and supported technology innovators, artificial intelligence and blockchain.
In 2021, “I founded the Financial Innovation Caucus to educate my fellow senators about the vast potential of emerging technologies to promote financial inclusion and build new wealth for all,” she said in a statement that year.
In December 2022, she placed her shares of Microsoft (valued between $15,000-$50,000) and bitcoin (valued between $50,000-$100,000) in a blind trust “to avoid any conflict of interest or appearance of any such conflict.”
Details about the land sale, including the price, have not been publicly disclosed.
This article was originally published by WyoFile and is republished here with permission. WyoFile is an independent nonprofit news organization focused on Wyoming people, places and policy.
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