The Official Summer Outdoor Extreme Endurance Event Bucket List
You're sick of waiting all year for summer — anticipating the life-changing transformation of body and mind that you assume comes along with sunshine and longer days, not consistent, year-long hard work — just to do the same things you do every season, watching it slip away all too fast. You sit on the couch. You stare out the window. You enviously scroll social media, feeling contemptuous toward everyone who accomplished what you couldn't. Haven't you had enough?
It's time to take back your life — your freedom. If you want to intentionally get outside more this summer, transform your mind and body, see new corners of the globe, make lifelong friends and memories that are absolutely infinite, completing any tough, taxing, endurance-based event — especially in the rugged outdoors — is the perfect solution.
Related: Every Extreme Endurance Event on the 2023 Schedule
The unbreakable beings behind Peak Races and Spartan Extreme Endurance designed each of the following bucket-list events to push you past your breaking limit, to reconstruct human potential, and to build iron resolve. They are not for the faint of heart or will, and, in some cases, you may even have to sign a waiver acknowledging that death is a real possibility. If you truly think you have what it takes to tackle something so extreme, here's the most epic summer bucket list to which you'll ever commit.
Want to take your summer to the next level, but don't feel quite ready for an Extreme Endurance event? Commit to any of our other functional fitness, trail, or obstacle course races this summer for the perfect introduction into The Hard Way!
Outdoor Extreme Endurance Events and Races in Summer 2023
June 3-4, 2023
Monterey 4-Hour Hurricane Heat
The Hurricane Heat is a mainly team-based endurance event that was born in 2011 when Hurricane Irene made race conditions practically impossible — except, of course, for a select few die-hard Spartans who showed up anyway to, quite literally, weather the storm. Today, Hurricane Heats accompany traditional obstacle course race weekends across the country and world, and feature grueling physical tasks, problem solving, leadership challenges, and individual performance tests under extreme conditions.
June 10-11, 2023
Cincinnati 4-Hour Hurricane Heat
June 25 to July 3, 2023
11. Camp Spartan (June 25-July 1; a kids-only event)
This is more like Shackleton's Endurance than any old summer camp. At Camp Spartan, a military-style boot camp for kids ages 10-17, we turn children into adults. Over five intense days, Spartan kids will be tired, hungry, and cold for 15-16 hours daily, and they'll work with veterans from Mt. Warfare school, Olympic wrestlers, and even Ivy League horticulturists. If you're ready to stop coddling your kids and raise real warriors, this camp will teach them that anything is possible if they put in the work.
12. The Summer Death Race (June 30-July 3; adults only)
The Spartan Death Race is the world's toughest race with iterations in both the summer and winter each year, and has seen just 10% of its racers complete its absolutely brutal itinerary in the past 10 years. Racers arrive at Riverside Farm in Pittsfield, Vermont hacking only a short (but oddly specific) packing list of items and blissfully unaware of the challenges they will face in the coming hours, or even when the race will begin.
Though there is no set length of any one Death Race, a typical iteration lasts around 72 hours and features soul-shattering tasks like hauling immense weight up the infamous Shrek's Mountaintop, completing 26.2 miles of barbed wire crawls or burpees, and memorizing mind puzzles while incredibly, deliriously sleep deprived.
Related: This Is Why You NEVER Show Up Early for the Spartan Death Race
Sept. 16-17, 2023
Seattle 4-Hour Hurricane Heat
Vermont 4-Hour Hurricane Heat
