Ultra-Trail du Mont-Blanc


The Ultra-Trail du Mont-Blanc is a single-stage mountain ultramarathon, first held in 2003, that follows the route of the Tour du Mont Blanc.

Description

It takes place once a year on either the last weekend in August or the first weekend of September in the Alps. It follows the route of the Tour du Mont Blanc through France, Italy and Switzerland. It has a distance of approximately, and a total elevation gain of around. It is widely regarded as one of the most difficult foot races in the world, and one of the largest with more than 2,500 starters. It is one race during a week-long festival based around Chamonix in France, and is a race of the Ultra-Trail World Tour. The races have strict entry and qualification requirements attained by accumulating enough race points through qualifying trail races over the previous two-year period. In 2016 and 2017, 42% and 34% of runners did not finish the UTMB race.
While the best runners complete the loop in slightly more than 20 hours, most runners take 32 to 46 hours to reach the finish line. Most runners will have to run through two nights in order to complete the race.
Since 2006, a second race Courmayeur - Champex - Chamonix has also been organised, and a third race was added in 2009: "Sur les Traces des Ducs de Savoie". A fourth shorter "running" event - Orsières - Champex - Chamonix - was added in 2014.
La Petite Trotte à Léon is a non-competitive team event started in 2011. Each team is made of two or three members for safety. The route and direction of the course change every year. In 2015, it was run counterclockwise.
Today, the races consist of the following;
The route follows the Tour du Mont Blanc hiking path that is usually completed in 7 to 9 days by hikers. This is a loop around Mont Blanc.
It starts from Chamonix and goes up to the Col de Voza to reach Les Contamines, which is the first life base. It then climbs to the Croix du Bonhomme before going back down to Les Chapieux. The path then runs up to the Col de la Seigne to enter Italy, and follows the ridge of the Mont-Favre before going down to Courmayeur, the second life base. It climbs again to the Refuge Bertone and Arnuva before reaching its highest point, the Grand Col Ferret, which also marks the border with Switzerland. The path goes down again to Praz de Fort via La Fouly before reaching the third life base, Champex d'en Bas. The last part includes two rather low cols: Bovine and Les Tseppes, separated by Trient. On the descent to Vallorcine, the path re-enters France and crosses Argentière before finishing at Chamonix, its starting point.
The route varies slightly every year, sometimes for safety reasons. In 2010, the route was 166 km long with a total elevation gain of 9500m.
A more detailed profile can be found on the official web site: .

Participation and results

The race's popularity and its entry rate grew significantly since it was first held. The number of entrants doubled from 700 in 2003 to 1,400 in 2004. In 2005, the limit of 5,000 runners was reached 7 months after registration opened.
In 2006, the organisers decided to create the CCC in order to allow more runners to take part. The registrations were sold out in only 2 weeks.
In 2007, it was decided that runners must qualify, by running qualifying races beforehand gaining points. That year the limit of 5,000 runners was reached less than 24 hours after registration opened.
For the 2008 event, 6,000 runners registered in only 8 minutes, 5 months before the race.
For the 2009 event, the qualifying criteria were tightened to limit the number of qualifying runners, and a draw was introduced to make entry fairer, giving an equal chance to all qualifiers, and making registration more orderly. Despite the stricter criteria, 10% of qualifying entrants were still denied a place, so the organisers raised entry standards still further for the 2010 event so that selection would be based more on capability and experience than luck of the draw.
The 2020 edition of the race was cancelled due to the coronavirus pandemic, with all registrants automatically receiving a 55% refund and given the option of reserving a spot for 2021, 2022, or 2023.

Ultra-Trail du Tour du Mont-Blanc

Ultra-Trail Courmayeur-Champex-Chamonix

Ultra-Trail Sur les Traces des Ducs de Savoie

Orsières-Champex-Chamonix

Results by nation

UTMB

#Nation1st2nd3rdPodium
1 United Kingdom5106
2 USA5016
3 France32914
4 Spain17412
5 Switzerland1214
6 Italy1102
7 Luxembourg0213
8 Czech0101

CCC

#Nation1st2nd3rdPodiums
1 France64515
2 United Kingdom2316
3 USA1214
4 Sweden1102
5 New Zealand1001
5 Switzerland1001
5 China1001
6 Spain0347
7 Italy0112

Logistics