The winter solstice gets a short shrift among the calendar of holidays: quiet and starry, it is too often skipped over in the hectic rush up to Christmas and New Year's. But it is a day and a night unlike any of the rest in the year: when night is at its longest, the importance of the comforts of home and warmth and friendship is at its biggest, too. With those comforts within reach, the long night itself becomes velvet-inviting, rather than cold and foreboding, no matter what the weather.

Event Details

Please join WVMTR and HRDO in celebrating the 2026 Winter Solstice with an all-night run in Helvetia, WV. The run and clock will start at sunset on Saturday, 19 December, 5:02pm, and stop at sunrise on Sunday, 20 December, 7:35am. We will run together and alone to complete as many laps of the Helvetia Historic Trail as we can in that time. If you've never run through a night before, this is a great place to figure it out.

This will be a fun run and not a race---but there will be some small recognition of whoever chooses to run the most complete laps and whoever runs the fastest single lap during the night, and we'll keep track of how many laps we complete as a group.

You do not need to be a member of WVMTR to join us for this run! All runners must be 18 years of age or older on the day of the run, but family is welcome at the aid station.

Please check out the frequently asked questions for more nitty gritty details, or send us an email if you have questions that aren't answered!

Potluck Aid Station

Runners and their crew will have access to the Star Band Hall throughout the night to use as an aid station and gathering place. We will provide some basic hydration and typical ultra aid station fare, but please consider this event as a potluck and bring both useful and less-useful-but-fun things to share with your fellow runners.

If you've got a favorite camp bowl / mug and spoon / spork / fork situation, bring that along, too, so we can cut down on trash.

Event Size

Helvetia is a small town without much lodging or many facilities, and the Star Band Hall is a small hall, so this event is limited to a small number of runners. That is a hard cap that will not be increased, so do not drag your feet about signing up for too long. There will be a wait list and, while there are no guarantees about these things, in the past every runner who has put their name on the wait list at least got a chance to sign up before the run.

Trail Info and Maps

The Helvetia Historic trail is a 2.9 (ish) mile loop starting and ending at the Star Band Hall in town. It heads up the first paved then gravel Old Helvetia Road to a hairpin left on to double track farm road. Part of the way up that double track hill, you take a gentle left for the last mile or so back to town on unimproved county road, with just a little bit of pavement again at the very end. In not-quite-three miles, you gain and then lose some 550 ft of elevation. It is marked with red circular metal blazes (shown on the second link below), and will also be blazed with reflective tags for the event.

We will travel the trail in a counter-clockwise direction, which is what is described above. We'll make sure that you know where to go on the first few laps so that you'll be set for the night.

You can find more information about it and a topo map at the links below, but after the first few laps you will know it like the back of your hand.

• https://caltopo.com/m/21A62EQ
• https://www.helvetiawv.com/service-page/helvetia-historic-trail