Traversing rivers, glaciers and three different countries, Europe’s most relentless race is a symbol for human endeavour. To finish it is to win
“The Tour du Mont Blanc? I walked that a few years ago and it took me 10 days. You’re running it in one go? You’re joking!” This is what people usually say when you tell them you’re going to do a race around Mont Blanc.
To the non-runner, it seems a bit unlikely that people should do this sort of thing for fun. But for many runners, the Ultra-Trail du Mont-Blanc (UTMB) has iconic status, appearing on countless bucket lists. There are longer races and those with more elevation (Italy’s Tor des Geants is 330km long with 24,000m of ascent); courses with more difficult conditions (Badwater, in Death Valley, USA, takes place in temperatures of over 50C); and running events that go on for longer (Morocco’s Marathon des Sables takes six days). But the UTMB has something particularly special about it, with a distinct cachet for ultra runners.
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