UTMB week 2018 just around the corner

The years biggest trail running events are under a week away

featured in News & reviews Author Brian Kieran, Chamonix Editor Updated 18 April 2022

The Ultra Trail du Mont Blanc is a series of trail running competitions that start in a little under a week in Chamonix, with thousands of International competitors descending on the valley.

With just days remaining before the start of the event, the excitement is mounting in the villages and along the trails of the Mont Blanc countryside. The international athletes arrived several weeks ago to get to know the itinerary. The Chamonix trails are particularly busy with all these amateur runners who arrive several weeks ahead of the UTMB to test their equipment, acclimatise, identify the difficulties, but also rest before D-Day. It is also the time for the organisation's final preparations before the launch of the week of festivities on Monday, August 27th with the starts of the PTL.

24% of the top elites are running under the American banner, more than ever the Unites States wants first place in the UTMB. Amongst them, the winner of the Western States 2018, leader in the ITRA ranking, Jim Walmsley, and his compatriots Hayden Hawks, Tim Tollefson and Zach Miller. But Spain also likes the UTMB. Another big favourite, Kilian Jornet, has set his sights on a fourth victory, a record, or Luis Alberto Hernando, world champion of trail-running, would also like to win his first UTMB. The Frenchman Xavier Thévenard is also one of the favorites and has already shown that one can count on him at the big meets.

For those of you that might not know what it's all about, here's a quick run down of the races, the numbers of competitors and what they'll be doing:

UTMB [Ultra-Trail du Mont-Blanc] : 3 countries - 170km and 10 000m ascent in semi-autonomy. 2300 runners at the start on Friday August 31st at 18:00 from Chamonix to Chamonix in 46hrs max
CCC [Courmayeur-Champex-Chamonix] : 3 countries - 100km and 6 000m ascent in semi-autonomy. 1900 runners at the start on Friday August 31st at 09:00 from Courmayeur to Chamonix in 26 1/2 hrs max
TDS [sur les Traces des Ducs de Savoie] : 119 km and 7 250m ascent in semi-autonomy. 1 600 runners at the start on Wednesday August 29th at 06:00 from Courmayeur to Chamonix in 33hrs max
PTL [la Petite Trotte à Léon] : 3 countries - around 300km and 26 000m ascent in complete autonomy. A non-stop event without ranking open to 100 teams (250 runners max). Starts Monday August 27th at 17:30 from Chamonix to Chamonix in 142hrs max
OCC [Orsières-Champex-Chamonix] : 53 km and 3 300m ascent in semi-autonomy. 1200 runners at the start on Thursday August 30th at 08:15 from Orsières to Chamonix in 14 hrs max

You can find more details on the UTMB website here.