Writing for Outside Run:

As a Chamonix resident, I understand the competing interests at hand. All of us who live here know climate change more intimately than most. In the mountains above our homes, permafrost—the frozen water that holds the mountains together like glue—is melting. As a result, Chamonix’s famed aiguilles, or rock spires, are literally crumbling before our eyes. Last August 30th, a massive collapse happened not far from the iconic Aiguille du Midi peak. The tramway to the summit is one of France’s most popular tourist attractions. In one video that went viral on social media, a voice can be heard saying in French, “The Aiguille du Midi cable car is on borrowed time.”
…
If participants in the day’s proceedings needed any reminder of the urgency of the issue, they got it when the press conference concluded and they stepped outside Maison UTMB. Just an hour earlier, at the start of the conference, Chamonix reached its high temperature for the day—86 degrees Fahrenheit, about 26 degrees warmer than average. The skies were soot-filled from Canadian forest fires, over 4,000 miles away. The day’s air quality index was 79, giving the region a rating of “poor.”

This.

Had missed this announcement from earlier in the year, but since we’re talking about environmental efforts here today I thought it be worth posting:

COROS repairs and exchanges are designed to be fast, hassle-free, and sustainable—so you never have to train without a device for long. Simply send us your device, choose your refurbished replacement, and we’ll take care of the rest. Plus, every returned device is refurbished to “like new” condition, meaning we’re keeping more COROS products in circulation and reducing waste.

How this works is that you don’t get your watch repaired and returned – cause that would take too long – but you send yours in, and select a refurbished replacement. Coros then ships all returned products in bulk to a factory in China where they get refurbished and put back into circulation.

Smart concept – I like it.

The Pro Trail Runners Association issued a statement in response to UTMB’s Mobility Plan and Environmental Commitments announcement:

We support the UTMB’s efforts to reduce the environmental impact of their main event in Chamonix, which serves as a proof-of-concept for their global series. While we are not in accordance with all of the specific actions proposed, we acknowledge and support the planned measures aiming at reducing CO2 emissions caused by travel and by the event itself.

First off, the PTRA calls UTMB’s announcement a ‘travel policy’, which in it of itself is a big tell from what angle they are approaching this. And I am not dissing them here at all. Looking at the policies UTMB puts forth and checking on how these affect the runners is their stated goal.

The PTRA points to a few things that they wish for UTMB to clarify, with the main focus being the angle of accessiblity:

Further work needs to be done to attempt to reconcile the reduction of emissions and environmental impact, while still ensuring accessibility and inclusivity.

I took a brief look at the PTRA’s document titled ‘Environmental Boundaries for Trail Running Competitions‘ to see if I could find any comments around traveling to events, which surprised me a bit as it’s well-known that participant travel is the biggest “issue” when looking at the carbon impact for sporting events.

At a press conference this week UTMB announced several updates, improvements, and a renewed commitment to their climate goals focusing mainly on their biggest contributor: ‘transportation’.

Getting tens of thousands of people to Chamonix, France each year is a challenge and one the region around Mont Blanc is severely affected by. Any events manager knows that collecting plastic wrappers and minimizing garbage, while important, has little impact on the overall carbon footprint of an event where people travel from near and far.

One big caveat up front: This announcement and policy addresses the Finals in Chamonix and isn’t (yet) a policy for the World Series and all their races around the world. But clearly, the team must’ve been thinking about how these policies can be expanded to the other races in their series and how this will affect the series going forward.

UTMB’s solution is twofold:

First off, and that has been something that the’ve been working on and improving every year, is the mobility plan during the week of UTMB in and around Mont Blanc. Creating a working model for runners, crew and spectators to get from valley to valley, from start line to finish line and all the aid stations in between. Moving tens of thousands of people through these small hard to access towns isn’t easy and finding good policies that don’t just enable, but clearly outline how to curb excessive travel is paramount.

Mobility has been central to our environmental approach since 2004, when our dedicated transport plan – now known as UTMB Mobility – was introduced to reduce private car use across the Mont-Blanc valleys.

While the results have been encouraging, the reality is stark: travel to the Mont-Blanc region accounts for nearly 86% of our total carbon footprint each year, whereas local transport during the event makes up just 2%.

So, today’s news is really about the second point and bigger impact: how do folks get to the UTMB Finals in Chamonix?

Whenever environmental practices and sustainability goals are discussed there’s always someone entering the conversation who’s moving the goal post. Any effort made by an individual or organization is not good enough in someone’s eye or is not meeting their expectation or personal approach to what should be done to combat a changing climate and rising temperatures. But the beauty of combating climate change is that EVERY action in that direction does make an impact. We’re all fighting the same issue and while we might not have the same approach or focus, every action does have an effect. And at the very least, it gets us talking, it gets us focused on trying to safe our planet.

So, what big news did UTMB’s announce today?

LOTTERY BONUS: Runners who follow the organisation’s recommended low-carbon travel route will benefit from a 30% higher chance of selection in the lottery.

How will this work?

At registration our dedicated tool will help you identify the most efficient low-carbon route from your location. Train, bus, shared transport – every option will be considered to guide you toward the most sustainable journey.

If you commit to the suggested route, you will automatically receive the 30% lottery bonus. To ensure the system remains fair and transparent, you’ll simply be asked to provide proof of travel after registering (e.g. a train ticket, bus ticket, etc.).

Oh and there will be questions, like this obvious one:

What if someone lies?

Sanctions are under discussion and will be announced before pre-registration.

So, this is clearly an ambitious plan. One that aims to address the biggest problem events managers face in trying to curb carbon emissions for their events. I want to give kudos to UTMB for trying to address this and come up with a solution. It will be seen how this will be implemented and what effects this will have. But like with putting up recycling bins at aid stations, just creating the awareness brings already change – which is important.

The other news here is that this is the first time since the introduction of their stone system that UTMB is offering an amendment to it. How will all this affect the lottery? No idea, and I am sure while UTMB modeled some of this out, they also don’t know for sure, but hope that this number is enough of an incentive for runners to choose a more environmentally friendly option of travel.

The second piece to this announcement is a bit hidden and will create some controversy:

Carbon contribution will become mandatory for all runners at HOKA UTMB Mont-Blanc 2026, based on the emissions from their journey between home and the event.

UTMB is doing more here, but I pulled just the piece out that’s affecting participants directly.

Each participant will have to contribute up to the amount of emissions linked to his or her journeys.

The cost varies according to the mode of transport used and the distance covered between the rider’s address and Chamonix. The price per tonne is €25/tonne of CO2eq.

Here are a few concrete examples of the most represented populations (round-trip):

• France: between <1€ et & max 10€ (depending on your departure city and mode of transport)
• Italy, Spain, United Kingdom: max 20€
• USA: between 45 € and 70 €
• Asia: between 65€ and 75€
• South America: about 85€
• Australia: between 100 and 130€

When looking at this from the angle of carbon emissions, these numbers feel reasonable. But looking at it from a participant point of view this feels like a tax, or almost a tariff, to speak in terms currently floating around the news cycles. Is this fair? Is this equitable? Does this feel like favoritism?

I don’t have a good answer here. We want our sport to be a welcoming celebration on a global stage. We want to invite and include people from regions who are traditionally less represented and financially don’t have the same spending power. But I also don’t want to beleaguer UTMB here with all the nuances as I want to celebrate their leadership in this. No other organization in our sport is addressing this issue or offering any other solutions.

There’s a cruel and real juxtaposition here

On one side UTMB’s stone system forces people who want to compete in the Finals to travel to very specific races which could mean, for folks living in certain regions, that they have to travel more and farther than with the old point system. (But we also don’t have data to really support this assertion – it just feels that way.)

Just last week I read a comment Catherine Poletti made on social media expressing her heart-brokenness about the disaster that struck Blatten in Switzerland a few weeks ago and I believe that the fear, by people living in these mountain valleys, is real. Climate change affects us all. And in these valleys folks are dealing with retreating glaciers and disappearing permafrost which will transform and potentially upend life as we know it in the Alps. When driving the first time into the Chamonix the Mer de Glace hangs imposingly above the town and one stops in awe. But folks who’ve lived in these valleys for generations know that the mountains are treacherous and need to be respected. Much of what we’ve done over the last century has been about keeping us as individuals safe as we explore these inhospitably peaks, but with rising temperatures around the globe it feels like nature is reminding us who’s in charge here on this planet. We’re just guests and are being told to behave accordingly.

And with this sentiment, I want to respect UTMB’s perspective and attempt at a solution here. I want to be a guest in Chamonix again soon and I am fortunate enough that these new policies aren’t prohibiting me – either ideologically or financially – from going back again.

There’s a lot going on between Palisades, Olympia Valley near Lake Tahoe all the way to Auburn in Northern California at the end of this month. And what should all this activity be called? It’s clearly not JUST about Western States anymore. In fact, increasingly this one single race almost feels like an afterthought when compared to the flurry of other activity that is being promoted around the event. There’s the Broken Arrow Skyrace the week prior, and TrailCon in between, and of course countless of activation events and media plays all happening in those ten days between June 19th and 29th, 2025.

Here’s a list of links to events and happenings, so buckle up:

• Broken Arrow Schedule
• TrailCon Schedule
• Western States Race Week Agenda
• Freetrail’s Tailgating Schedule
• Mountain Running Fest, presented by Donner Party Mountain Runners
• UltraSignup’s Tahoe Week
• Blood & Beauty – Borderlands WSER coverage
• Shitinthewoods’s shummit shots

I’ll be adding more links as I find them.

Death Cab for Cutie’s frontman Ben Gibbard just got off the waitlist for Western States and right after the Speedland collab drops, nice. The shoe, the GS:TMT is celebrating Issaquah, Washington’s famous Tiger Mountain Trail. Does this mean we’ll see Speedlands at this summer’s music festival season?

Lei Takanashi writing for Business of Fashion in another article behind a paywall:

• Hoka’s year-on-year sales growth slipped to 10 percent in its most recent quarter, representing a significant deceleration, while On reported strong growth of 43 percent.

This might be Hoka’s first slip. Will be fascinating to see if this is a one time miss or the beginning of a trent.

• The two brands have taken distinct approaches, with Hoka focussing on performance running while On has expanded into other categories, and now face different challenges in appealing to either lifestyle consumers or those seeking innovative footwear.

I just had a conversation with someone about this that Hoka as a brand started off selling shoes for “running around Mont Blanc” and only later expanded into the “shoes for nurses and Disneyland crowd”. On (to me) started as a lifestyle sneaker brand that only recently has shown serious ambitions to make shoes for athletes that have the ambition to win races. Is this the deciding factor for these business performance? I don’t think so, but this article confirmed my perception, so I thought it was worth pointing out.

Linking straight to a PDF:

While female participation in trail running grew by 1% last year, bringing women to 29% of our database, there is still significant work to be done in fostering a more balanced and supportive environment.

One of the newer focus points the results of this survey is surfacing, and something that I’ve seen before mentioned but to want to highlight here because I find it a fairly easy win for the sport is this one:

5) Realistic Cut-Off Times & More Ability Levels
Avoid overly strict cut-offs, especially early in the race, as they can disproportionately impact women. Ensure shorter races are beginner-friendly, allowing for run-walk participation and a wider range of ability levels in races.

Not every race has to be “gnar gnar deathly hard” and not every race is in such challenging location that cutoffs have to be enforced for the safety of the volunteers.

At the 62nd annual Northwest Regional Emmy® Awards Ethan Newberry aka Ginger Runner won an Emmy in the ‘Sports – One-Time Special’ award category for his Director’s Cut of The High Route with Kaytlyn Gerbin and Jenny Abegg.

If you want to watch the full acceptance speech you can jump to timestamp 45:43 on the embedded video.

Congrats Ethan and team.

The event in the heart of “Sound of Music-land”, around the mountains in Salzburg, Austria has long had an allure of international runners. This year’s edition is no different. Over a dozen different countries take the podium and completely outdo the contingent from the home country Austria. A special shout out to my friend Nicky Bass Mølholm from Denmark who ran the mozart100 and finished in 165th place. Congrats Nicky!

Find all UTMB coverage on my dedicated UTMB page here.

For full results visit the UTMB website, below the top runners by race:

mozart 100 120KM (100M – 4 Stones)

Women:

1. Claudia TREMPS – Spain – 13:46:07
2. Michaela LISHAKOVA – Slovakia – 14:26:23
3. Stefanie SCHERER – Deutschland – 14:49:13

Men:

1. Pablo VILLA – Spain – 11:36:27
2. Bartosz GORCZYCA – Poland – 11:43:11
3. Manuel HARTWEG – Deutschland – 11:52:09

mozart Ultra 92KM (100K – 3 Stones)

Women:

1. Anna TARASOVA – Spain – 09:59:21
2. Tereza HUDCOVA – Czech Republic – 10:38:21
3. Anete SVILPE – Latvia – 10:40:44

Men:

1. Andreu SIMON AYMERICH – Spain – 08:33:20
2. Andrzej WITEK – Poland – 08:37:08
3. Tobias GEISER – Italy – 08:43:23

mozart Marathon 45KM (50K – 2 Stones)

Women:

1. Michelle HASSEL – Deutschland – 04:13:39
2. Tuğçe KARAKAYA – Türkiye – 04:25:20
3. Laurie PROULX – Canada – 04:28:30

Men:

1. Hans-Peter INNERHOFER – Austria – 03:24:23
2. Johannes NUSSBAUMER – Austria – 03:30:25
3. Sammy Rotich CHELANGAT – Kenia – 03:30:26

mozart Light 37KM (50K – 2 Stones)

Women:

1. Maria Elisa LEGELLI – Deutschland – 03:28:27
2. Isabelle OBLOM DELATTRE – Sweden – 03:45:36
3. Klara MALIKOVA – Czech Republic – 03:57:50

Men:

1. Jan KUNDÖRFER – Deutschland – 03:09:48
2. Jakob HOCHRADL – Austria – 03:13:03
3. Nils BERGMANN – Deutschland – 03:14:37

mozart Half Marathon 23KM (20K – 1 Stone)

Women:

1. Stephanie FILION – Canada – 02:13:21
2. Franziska FREDL – Deutschland – 02:22:53
3. Barbora HYNKOVA – Czech Republic – 02:23:55

Men:

1. Lukas EHRLE – Deutschland – 01:35:38
2. Ryunosuke OMI – Japan – 01:37:59
3. Max RAHM – Deutschland – 01:45:01

Below are the numbers broken down by distance and gender:

• ‌mozart 100 Starters: 518. DNF: 150 + Finishers: 368. Women 41 (11%), Men 321 (87%)*.
• ‌mozart Ultra Starters: 507. DNF: 92 + Finishers: 414. Women 68 (16%), Men 374 (90%)*.
• ‌mozart Marathon Starters: 776. DNF: 20 + Finishers: 756. Women 192 (25%), Men 572 (76%)*.
• ‌mozart Light Starters: 348. DNF: 8 + Finishers: 340. Women 113 (33%), Men 228 (67%).
• ‌mozart Half Marathon Starters: 383. DNF: 3 + Finishers: 380. Women 165 (43%), Men 215 (67%).
• ‌mozart City Trail Starters: 134. DNF: 0 + Finishers: 134. Women 81 (60%), Men 53 (40%).

*A couple of these numbers show some small inaccuracies on the UTMB website.

mozart100 by UTMB saw a total 2,666 starters and 2,392 finishers. 660 (28%) women and 1,763 (74%) men reached the finish line and earned themselves their respective stones and an UTMB index (or directly punched their ticket to the Finals in Chamonix for 2025).

Next up on the UTMB World Series calendar are two events: Trail du Saint Jacques along the Santiago de Compostela in France on 13-15 June, and Andorra 100 in the tiny mountain country of Andorra in Southern Europe on 12-15 June, 2025. For a full list of UTMB World Series events visit the ECC UTMB World Series events calendar.

This week I was trying to link to two stories in two local papers that talk about trail running, and in both instances the numbers of popups and paywalls I was presented with prohibited me from even reading the full article. And further if these stories are behind paywalls, what’s the point of sharing them here, I concluded. Anyway, I am linking them anyway:

• The Seattle Times posted a story about Cougar Mountain and how that park was saved through the efforts and donations of a trail race series.
• The San Francisco Chronicle ran a story about the historic DipSea race and how a teenager might win it.

Traditional news papers have to make money through subscriptions, I get that, but this is such a user hostile experience and if an article is on the open web there should be a way to access the content for folks NOT living in the region without having to become a subscriber. I don’t have the answer but this, what is increasingly happening on news sites ain’t it. No wonder everyone flocks to social media platforms, as gross as their data mining exploitations are. And yes, linking to posts on social media is equally dumb and inaccessible if you don’t already have an account.

Announcement posted on Instagram:

Despite the collective effort, we acknowledge that the necessary conditions to deliver an event up to UTMB World Series standards in terms of quality, safety, experience, and logistics are not yet in place.

As a result, Quindío by UTMB will not take place as initially proposed, and at this time, no future edition is scheduled.

We continue to explore future possibilities and keep the shared vision alive.

The event was first announced along Chihuahua Mexico back in August during the pre-UTMB week press announcements. In January they paused registration for the event that was initially slated for May. Today it’s indefinitely pulled. This takes the number of UTMB World Series events to 53 including the Finals in Chamonix.

The ECC UTMB World Series Calendar is updated to reflect the change.

Found this by accident, but excited for it: UTMB is working on a full-fledged, standalone help center that gathers all the questions and answers for anyone interacting with their World Series: The runners, both elites and amateurs, race directors and possible sponsors.

Anyone who’s ever designed a website for multiple users profiles and stakeholders knows how challenging it is to address everyone and give them the tools to interact with the organization in the most efficient way. This is a really good idea and a slick solution to a challenging problem.

Michael founder of Atreyu Running Company calls it quits for the running shoe startup that made it all the way onto the shelves of REI.

We’ve all been wondering for years what brands will not make it in these crazy and turbulent times. This one is one of the first to fall. Sad day.

Canyon Woodward writes for Outside Run a response to the Black Canyon disqualification kerfuffle:

The rapid growth and influx of money into trail and ultrarunning has led to an unavoidable juncture. Many runners, myself included, were drawn to trail and ultrarunning because of “the spirit of the sport” and its grassroots, community-based vibes. Yet as elite fields swell, media attention balloons, and sponsorships and prize money grow, the professionalization of these races must be commensurate with the professionalization of the sport itself.

Canyon calls for specific solutions to what he calls a problem of ambiguity in our sport. These suggestions, which can be summarized with a call for more professionalization in our sport, all seem pretty reasonable to me and I agree with most.

A couple points Canyon makes I want to respond to individually:

• I don’t care that elites are faster and might not need all the required gear. If you want to compete you have to follow all the rules. Making specific rules that make it easier for elites because they are faster is adding exactly the kind of ambiguity back into the system that he’s trying to get rid of.
• My (very little) experience with the International Skyrunning Federation and the Skyrunner World Series is that if you as race director want your event to be part of that race circuit you essentially agree to race monitors and course marshals from the ISF to be there on race day to make sure everything is on the up and up. As I have not been able to afford the steep fees associated with being part of that circuit, I don’t know what this actually looks like in reality, but this in theory could solve the problem of race directors not knowing how to deal with event rules and the enforcement around them.

I bet the voices of our sport would have massively different expectations on this slow rolling toward professionalization here in the US if Westerns States would be a for profit business. Clearly they are BY FAR the most important event on the North American calendar and their Golden Ticket races are creating real professional competition for elite athletes. But, while Western States occupies so much of our mind space and influences so much of what is happening in the American racing scene, they have shied away to create broader guidelines and expectations around the professionalization or the support of the elite runners. Of course, you could say that it’s not their place and I don’t want to solely put this at their feet, but sometimes a leadership role is given to you, if you want it or not.

This website is three years old this week and as it has become tradition around here, it is time for some reflection, a performance assessment of sort, and a progress update if you will.

First of all, writing for Electric Cable Car is still super fun and rewarding for me. I love finding the important bits of news, the nuances, and the moments that define our sport and create our culture. The vision for this site hasn’t changed. As the sport grows, the media around it grows. And with that the trends and developments are easier to spot, voices become louder and more opinionated, and in turn I get busier. And so does this site.

Since the inception of Electric Cable Car I’ve hit the publish button over 1,500 times on this blogging platform and I’ve written over 286,000 words – that’s the equivalent of about a book per year. All this work has generated over 50,000 page views and 30,000 unique visitors. Yes those are total numbers, and yes that isn’t much in regular web traffic terms – and certainly not much if I am trying to get industry advertising dollars. But these are still my numbers and they are growing year over year. And given the amount of time I am dedicating to this site I am happy with them.

For the sake of this anniversary post I enjoy counting the numbers and words but the meaning of words and how they change in our perception is what really fascinates me.

Podcast:

The word podcast used to mean an audio show and that one listens to on an iPod – remember those? – and listed in the Apple Podcast directory. This all has changed. Most folks who still listen to podcasts do so in Spotify – the preferred audio player for most. And increasingly even more people equate the word podcast with YouTube video show hosted by (still mostly male) talking heads. Maybe this is where I show my age, or maybe it’s because I love audio shows I can listen to while out on a run, but I just can’t get into the whole podcasting as video show. I don’t consume them, and no, I will not put my show on YouTube. I know, I know, I miss a ton of traffic and “engagement” with my “content” but so be it.

Newsletter:

In the pre-Substack-era there were two types of electronic newsletters: marketing stuff and individuals who sharedg regularly their thoughts to their fans. Then Mailchimp bought a few of the smaller free services and began charging exorbitant about amounts of money for their email delivery service and that gave Substack the opening. By forgoing the business marketing angle – the one that gave Mailchimp the justification to charge that much for their service and by taking on an insane amount VC cash Substack was able to be free and thus folks frustrated with the algorithm of Instagram and the CEO on ketamine of Twitter needed a place to go. Substack was that place. Mostly because it was free and also because folks increasingly used Instagram to publish full blog posts and the Substack newsletter option was the ideal escape. Now folks have a website that’s also a newsletter, or a newsletter that’s also a website. Either way, someone posts and the follower gets notified via email. All this tech has existed for a long time. To be fair it did require some coding skills, or a monthly subscription, so I’m not dinging anyone choosing Substack for their newsletter, or website, but it ain’t what it used to be.

Endurance event:

The original endurance events had an element of geographic relevance to them. Badwater, Hardrock, Kullamanen, UTMB, and of course Western States. These events are iconic not just for the achievements of the athletes but the landscape runners traverse. There’s an element of ‘terroir’ – a sense of place. We just heard reports of how special Snowdonia really is and many of the Word Trail Majors aim to highlight the uniqueness of the place they are held in. A 100 miler in California is different to one in the Alps. You sign up for a race to experience a place. But the current rise of Backyard Ultras lift the endurance element from the place it’s held and focuses exclusively on the athletic performance. One can hold a Backyard Ultra on their personal ranch somewhere in Texas, and if a storm wouldn’t have put a stop to the event we wouldn’t have any geographic relevance to the place it was held at all. Backyard Ultras are a genius idea, and in some aspect this lack of terroir make them perfectly suitable to be a possible Olympic discipline. And one that would really highlight the endurance part of our sport so much more than increasingly shorter and shorter trail races on looped courses the way Golden Trails envisions trail running’s offering to the IOC. But for folks like me, who entered the sport for the adventure and exploration in beautiful places Backyard Ultras offer nothing. Yes, they would allow me to challenge myself in some aspect, but one I never considered to be the reason on why I’m in the sport. Is that bad? No, of course not. It attracts a different athlete, with different priorities. The sport grows and that will create new opportunities, new niches and this creates some bifurcation. Trail running isn’t like soccer or other team sports where there really is only one major set of rules of the game. Trail running in and of itself is a subset of running and that big tent of a sport offers so many variations from 100 meter dashes to long trail, multi-day fast packing adventures. Backyard Ultras is just loopiest adventure of all of them.

Professional athlete:

Much has been said already about the competition between the classical professional athlete and the media influencer. But I wonder where the actual different really is. In the most abstract sense an athlete is considered a professional when they are paid to perform. So, if you get paid to train in the hopes to get a first place at UTMB or if you get paid because you have a large following on social media and know how to share the story of your average 50K race placing somewhere in the middle, for me I see very little difference. Is one personal story more aspirational than the other? Is ones achievement more valuable than the other? I can see the reason for enviousness and it might be hard to swallow if brands put their money towards athletes that promise them a better ROI based on their social media following, but that’s a problem the brands and athletes need to solve by themselves. Elite athletes are born competitors and now have a new type of athlete to compete with, the game might just not be won during the actual race.

A word on the media, and especially the trail media:

Not just our sport is growing, but the media covering our sport is as as well. And for now, and this is a welcome sight. Our media is growing in width more so than in heights. What I mean is that while Freetrail directs most of the conversations with their business moves and Aravaipa is the only livestream provider there are plenty of other voices, opinions and views that are being heard, or at the very least spoken out. This is good for our sport. Consolidation, while inevitable is way too premature. Let trail running grow. And with it, the media covering it. Yes “more content” isn’t always the solution, but more voices and players are definitely welcome. (As long as they don’t steal other media outfits’ names.)

Alright, back to Electric Cable Car.

Last year I mentioned several attempts in covering trail races live. In my opinion this has all generated a mixed results so far. I recently restarted the ECC LIVE page for Cocodona250 this year and while I feel that there’s untapped potentional I have not hit my stride with it. There’s more exploring and experimentation to be done. We shall see where this goes. I mean, I certainly would give this another try for one of the most covered trail events, the Western States Endurance Runs, but this year during that weekend I’ll be in Italy in the Dolomites chasing my long dream of running among the mountains I had visited many times as a kid at the Lavaredo Ultra Trail. I suppose this live tracker thing will have to wait a bit longer.

Let’s kick off and welcome year 4 of Electric Cable Car, thank’s for being here.

In case you’re interested, here are my articles from the launch, and the first and second anniversary of Electric Cable Car:

• Electric Cable Car?
• One Year In
• Two Years of Electric Cable Car

Missed TRFF’25 in person? Now’s your chance to catch up:

June is here. And it’s TRFF Online Watch Party month! Grab a couch, and your friends. Watch, or relive the incredible films of our Global Tour 2025. Get your tickets, watch all month long, support the next generation of filmmakers.

Link to the full press release can be found here.

The UTMB World Series on Instagram:

The 300 residents of Blatten have lost everything: their homes, their personal belongings, their family heirlooms. The emotion is immense in the Loetschental Valley, but also in Valais, as this disaster reminds everyone of the fragility of our way of life and the increased dangers our habitat faces.
…
In this context, a donation of 10.000 EUR has been made through UTMB Cares as an immediate response to assist the people of Blatten in need.

Great gesture from UTMB, as many of the regions our trail races are running through are affected by the changing climate and will see more and more severe natural events.

Pre-hyped for days, announced today:

Today, we’re excited to announce a big new development for the sport that will debut at TrailCon in just a few weeks – the Trail Running Hall of Fame. 

Of note: an American Ultrarunning Hall of Fame already exists:

The American Ultrarunning Hall of Fame was originally established by The American Ultrarunning Association (AUA)that was founded in 1990 by Dan Brannen. In 2020, the Hall of Fame was transferred to ultrarunninghistory.com with Davy Crockett providing oversight.

Freetrail’s is different though, maybe:

Much of what Freetrail has done over the last few years is take existing concepts from other sports and repurpose them for trail running. 

Ultrarunning isn’t all that different from trail running and while Freetrail’s Trail Runner of the Year Awards have always had a more global and broader aim and one also focused on short distances, with this award the distinction isn’t as clearly defined, as of yet.

Dylan concludes:

We really hope the TrailCon Award Show becomes an important annual tradition with new Hall of Fame classes inducted each year. 

We shall see how this plays out. Clearly Freetrail’s HOF version will be different and has bigger (more commercial ambitions): There will be an award show (during TrailCon), a big time sponsor (Nike) is attached, and several other awards will be handed out, including a ‘Community Impact Award’ and a ‘Icon Award’

Looks too much like a gimmick to actually work, but someone in my family is desperate, so it’s worth a try. ‘heat it’ is a keychain widget that uses the battery of your iPhone to heat up and ‘zap’ the skin affected by the bug bite.

From their marketing language:

To relieve itch & pain, the affected skin area is briefly heated to around 124 °F. This chemical-free principle of local hyperthermia is medically confirmed.

1) Plug it into your smartphone port
2) Start the treatment and place it on the bite
3) Feel the itch relief!

These Germans are crazy.

Bonus: If you want a version of a tool like this and want it battery-powered and not relying on your iPhone, here’s one from another German brand, Beurer: the BR60 Insect Sting and Bite Relief, Bug Bite Healer (with convenient Amazon affiliate link so I earn a bundle!) Thanks Federico for sending this over and vouching for it.