Ultra Trail du Mont Blanc: Seven valleys, 71 glaciers, 400 summits around the Mont Blanc

on Tuesday 24 August 2010
by Francesco Macchi
photo by © NewsPower Canon

Foto Ultra Trail du Mont Blanc 2008

Ultra Trail du Mont Blanc 2008

Doing the Tour du Mont Blanc, from Chamonix to Courmayeur, allows one to discover an incomparable universe, the impressive and magical high mountains; it is sharing the eternal dream of the pioneers, crossing the magical gardens of Gaston Rebuffat and the stories of Roger Frison Roche and discovering the intimate geography of the summits: the roundness of the Mont-Blanc, the ridge of Bionnassay, the Noire de Peuterey, the Dent du Géant, the wall of the Grandes-Jorasses, the northern and southern peaks of the Aiguille du Tour, the Aiguille Verte, the vertical of the Drus.

The range is a permanent show of rocs, water ice and light. From the Chamonix Valley to Courmayeur, from the wild Val Ferret to Bovine, along the French, Italian and Swiss sides, the track ventures between pastures, glaciers et peaks, crossing the Cols du Bonhomme, Seigne, Grand Ferret, and Balme. The astonishing theatre of nature plays its best role. Successive forests on slopes, oaks, beeches, fir, spruce, pine trees, suddenly faint replaced by juniper moss and likens. On the ground, flowers are blooming: gentians, carnations, rhododendrons, sulphur anemones, sempervivum.

The North Face Ultra-Trail du Mont-Blanc is worldwide a unique event in the world of trail. The North Face Ultra-Trail du Mont-Blanc invites you to live an adventure out of the ordinary by participating to one of the 4 races that we offer :

• UTMB® : approximately 166 km and 9 400 m of + altitude change- 46 h max
start Friday 28th August at 6:30pm from the centre of Chamonix Mont-Blanc

• CCC® : approximately 98 km and 5 600 m of + altitude change - 26 h max
start Friday 28th august at 10:00am from the centre of Courmayeur (Italy)

• Sur les Traces des Ducs de Savoie : approx. 105km and 6700m + altitude change
Start Saturday 29th august at 5:00am from the centre of Chamonix Mont-Blanc

• La Petite Trotte à Léon : approximately 250 km and 18 000 m +altitude change
Start during the night of 25th august from the centre of Chamonix Mont-Blanc

This event is the outcome of a long life dream and a passion for Ultra-Trail, shared by an increasing number of runners from the whole world. Its realization is possible thanks to the friendship that links the population of the French, Italian and Swiss municipalities of the pays du Mont-Blanc.

The figures for the enrolments of this 7th edition of The North Face Ultra-Trail du Mont-Blanc confirm the trend of previous years. Indeed, the stricter registration conditions and more demanding regulations put into place this year didn’t keep away the fans of The North Face Ultra-Trail du Mont-Blanc who will once again come this year from all over the world.

Between the 4 races, the Europeans stay in first place: France is still ahead with 68% of registrations, followed by Italy 9.6%, Spain 6.5%, United-Kingdom 4.6%, Switzerland 3.6%, Germany 3%, and Belgium 2.8%. The United States are in 8th place with 40 runners enrolled. An interesting point is the strong increase of Japanese competitors who until now were excelling mainly in endurance road races. They were only 6 in 2008 and will be 33 in 2009.

51 nationalities will be present with competitors coming from Venezuela, Latvia, Argentina, India, China, South Corea, Chili and Iran…. Between the 4 races, there is a predominance of men (89%). The TDS beats the current record of the UTMB (8%) with 15% female enrolment.