The objective: to finish first on a course of more than 168 kilometers and 10,000 meters of positive altitude to climb, then descend in less than 46 hours and 30 minutes! From 22 to 28 August 2022, this race starts at 6 pm in the city of Chamonix, which requires participants to spend two nights along this trekking trail.
UTMB® Chamonix: a running race for the best long-distance runners
THEUTMB® Chamonix is a difficult 171-km race that brings together the great champions of long-distance running. Extremely challenging, it requires each runner to spend two almost full days competing on a track and over an altitude difference of more than 10 kilometers. It is therefore one of trekking courses that gets the most attention.
With nearly 10,000 participants and more than 2,000 volunteers, the UTMB® welcomes numerous spectators. Activities are organized in the villages and a lounge dedicated to the discipline is set up. The Franco-Swiss-Italian border vibrates to the rhythm of the races. All the enthusiastic participants gather around their Passion for trail running. Consult the UTMB® official website to register.
7 races during the event
Around the ultra-trail in the Chamonix Valley and the Mont-Blanc massif, other races have developed in parallel. These races serve as an opening until the real competition begins. They are much more accessible to the general public, although some remain very demanding! This is the case of the TDS, “In the Footsteps of the Duke of Savoy”, which is a Mont-Blanc trail of 145 kilometers and 7,300 meters of altitude difference.
Among the other trails organized as part of theUTMB® Chamonix, we find:
- Chamonix-Courmayeur-Champex (CCC) : a 101-kilometer race over 6,100 meters of altitude difference.
- Orsières-Champex-Chamonix (OCC) : a similar Mont Blanc trail, between 40 and 70 km for 3,500 meters of altitude difference.
- La Petite Trotte à Léon (PTL) : a walking endurance test that covers more than 300 kilometers over 25,000 meters of altitude difference in more than 150 hours (all in complete autonomy).
- La Martigny-Combe in Chamonix (MCC) : a race open to volunteers and local inhabitants in the spotlight over a 40 km course.
- The Youth Chamonix Courmayeur (YCC) : race between 5 and 15 km for the youngest (born between 1997 and 2005) who want to become familiar with trail running.
Admission conditions to the Chamonix-Mont-Blanc ultra-trail
Difficulty obliges, the organizing jury of theUTMB® Chamonix have set conditions for registration, with the “ITRA Points”. The ITRA, International Trail Running Association, delivers points to participants of other trails around the world. Depending on the length and difficulty of these courses, the first in the ranking will obtain a certain number of these points that they can then use for the Race du Pays du Mont-Blanc.
For a chance to participate in theUTMB® World, you have to recover the 15 points necessary to participate in the UTMB and therefore participate on average in two long trails and one medium trail. However, this number of courses to be completed may change according to successes and failures. Since it is a very demanding race, in case of abandonment, a runner can go to the checkpoint the nearest.
With the increase in the number of applications to participate from year to year, the jury had to increase the admission requirements: with 6,400 participants for only 2,300 bibs, a Draw has now been put in place. While it can take between one and two years for a runner to get points, this draw requires runners to generally wait 3 to 4 years in order to participate in theUTMB® Chamonix : it is therefore the event of a lifetime, since it is not possible to participate every year.
