Really insightful comments from an elite trail runner, winner of the Diagonale des Fous and second place at UTMB in 2024, sharing his approach to the business side of the sport:

One thing is certain: I don’t appreciate over-communication. I try to use my energy for things that make sense. Our sport is currently going through a form of adolescent crisis. It had its childhood with figures who put us on the right track. A new generation will have to take up the torch, but it’s pulling apart, there are frictions linked to growth. I am not aligned with certain things I observed at UTMB 2025. It’s not related to the organization, and it remains the No. 1 race I dream of, but we get the impression that the UTMB of influence has taken over the UTMB of performance. I don’t want to contribute to a development of the sport that would move in that direction.

Here’s your answer to the entire dilemma of elite runners vs. influencers:

I decided to reinvest 20% of the bonuses I will receive via my partners by paying an independent press officer to help me capitalize in a virtuous way. In my mindset, it’s not: you win – the media become interested in you – you respond. I am part of an entrepreneurial approach. The idea is to build a lasting structure. I sometimes talk about this with young trail runners: you have to invest in yourself. It’s not easy because success is very volatile and we lack visibility. It’s a risk if things go badly. But if things go well, it’s a foundation.

We still don’t have hard numbers for what these wages for top trail runners actually amount to, but hearing what Baptiste is able to build for himself shows that there’s clearly enough to follow a strategy that goes beyond just showing up at any podcast that sends out an invite.

How has it been a full year already? 2025 is coming to close. A lot has happened in our sport, and a lot has stayed the same. What better time to travel back and relive the best of the year, just like I did last year on Electric Cable Car? Join me over the next coming weeks as I’ll look the year Twenty Twenty-five in monthly installments. I highlight the best storylines and weave together a snapshot of the important trends for our sport, our favorite hobby and past time, and culture we call trail and mountain running.

Wanna get a taste and refresher of last year’s Re:Run – jump into the archive for 2024.

In their latest “Tribune” (newsletter) Lucas Nanchen, member of the PTRA board and a Swiss lawyer specialized in sports law, calls on coaches to step up their responsibility to their athletes and our sport:

Coaches have long been seen as mentors, tacticians, and motivators. But in modern trail running, especially when they recruit and manage athletes from developing countries, they carry a responsibility that goes far beyond training plans and race-day tactics. They become intermediaries between opportunity and exploitation – and, in some cases, between clean sport and doping.

This is a post clearly directed at the latest doping scandal from a few months ago. The findings resulted in a suspension of Joyline Chepngeno, but put her coach Julien Lyon, rightfully into the crosshairs. Especially since the coach is Swiss, the race the doping was caught was a Swiss race and Lucas is a Swiss lawyer, who also serves as the Legal Counsel of Sierre-Zinal and the International Ski Mountaineering Federation.

A clean future for trail running will not come from control alone, but from conscience – the conscience of those who guide, inspire, and protect the next generation of mountain runners.

We’ve seen now a few instances where coaches have moved themselves into the spotlight after an important win by an athlete. Let’s hope they aren’t just in for the glory, but also understand the bigger responsibility they carry, for their profession, their athletes, and our sport as a whole.

Heather Mayer Irvine for Runner’s World:

Actor Shailene Woodley will break out her running shoes for the thriller, Ultra, directed by Victoria Negri and inspired by true events from Negri’s life.
…
Woodley’s character, Eve, will take on the Badwater 135, the notorious 135-mile ultramarathon through California’s Death Valley in July. Eve is grieving the death of her twin sister. According to reports, the plot follows Eve who, like any ultramarathoner understands, is battling the elements and her own inner demons. And, of course, trying to stay ahead of other runners. 

But a runner, donning white—which is typically what Badwater runners wear to combat Death Valley’s heat—pursues Eve, slowly and consistently gaining on her.

Sounds on par for what one would expect of a story Hollywood would make if they’re take on the topic of ultra running. I cannot wait to watch this one and take apart all the weird little details. So many podcast episodes will be made around it.

Via press release:

The year-long legal saga over a Grand Teton speed record, which drew national attention to overcriminalization, concluded after President Donald J. Trump pardoned the mountain runner.

Who would’ve ever thought we’d read the words ‘Trump’ and ‘mountain runner’ in the same sentence.

Long live the autopen.

Ultra-Trail Shudao by UTMB, another new event for the UTMB World Series for 2025 happened this week in northern Sichuan, China. The podiums for the three races were made up entirely of Chinese athletes, which made this event very much a local race for local athletes. Here are your 2025 podium finishers of the three races, as well as the total number of runners for the event broken down by gender.

DSD 100K (100K – 3 Stones) – Full Results

Women:

1. Yalan WU – China – 11:10:44
2. Gexia YU – China – 11:26:06
3. Wenrong ZHENG – China – 11:39:38

Men:

1. Tao LUO – China – 08:56:47
2. Jianjian YANG – China – 09:00:35
3. Rongchao GU – China – 09:57:57

MSD 50K (50K – 2 Stones) – Full Results

Women:

1. Ting ZHANG – China – 04:37:34
2. Qiong LUO – China – 04:38:56
3. Kaili FAN – China – 04:47:48

Men:

1. Guidu QIN – China – 03:44:26
2. Ruqin WANG – China – 03:51:10
3. Peng TIAN – China – 03:56:41

ESD 20K (20K – 1 Stone) – Full Results

Women:

1. Chunxia LI – China – 02:12:31
2. Jie WU – China – 02:13:52
3. Xiaoyan LIU – China – 02:24:38

Men:

1. Chaohai QI – China – 01:40:16
2. Zhengqiang XIONG – China – 01:41:55
3. Xinpeng XIANG – China – 01:43:59

Below are the overall numbers for this year’s Ultra-Trail Shudao:

• DSD 100K Starters: 797. DNF: 38 + Finishers: 759. Women 207 (27%), Men 552 (73%).
• MSD 50K Starters: 1,744. DNF: 19 + Finishers: 1,725. Women 648 (38%), Men 1,077 (62%).
• ESD 20K Starters: 845. DNF: 5 + Finishers: 840. Women 402 (48%), Men 438 (52%).

Ultra-Trail Shudao by UTMB saw a total 3,386 starters and 3,324 finishers. 1,257 (38%) women and 2,067 (62%) 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 2026).

Next up is Translantau in Hong Kong, China on 14-16 November, 2025. For a full list of UTMB World Series events visit the ECC UTMB World Series events calendar.

Puglia by UTMB joined the series for the first time this year and offered Europeans a last chance for collecting some stones close to home before the end of the year. One performance worth highlighting is Elísa KRISTINSDÓTTIR from Island, who won the Ginosa RivoltaTrail 35km women’s race and came in third overall.

Here are your 2025 podium finishers of the four races, as well as the total number of runners for the event broken down by gender.

I Sassi di Matera 140km (100M – 4 Stones) – Full Results

Women:

1. Anastasia DAVYDOVA – Neutral Athlete – 16:35:08
2. Shari WILKEN – Germany – 19:45:34
3. Karolina OBSTÓJ – Poland – 20:50:51

Men:

1. Marek CAUSIDIS – Czech Republic – 13:36:37
2. Davide CHERAZ – Italy – 14:09:16
3. André JONSSON – Sweden – 14:25:11

Le Maioliche di Laterza 85km (100K – 3 Stones) – Full Results

Women:

1. Daniela ROTA – Italy – 08:56:48
2. Caroline-Claudia ERHART – Switzerland – 09:05:53
3. Sorcha LOUGHNANE – Irland – 09:08:11

Men:

1. Fredrik BRUSETH TORELI – Norway – 07:10:38
2. Andreas REITERER – Italy – 07:20:20
3. 3. Tobias BAGGENSTOS – Switzerland – 07:20:57

Castellaneta Underground Trail 50km (50K – 2 Stones) – Full Results

Women:

1. Margherita VITALI – Italy – 04:21:20
2. Ioana Madalina AMARIEI – Romania – 04:23:43
3. Sofiia POROKHNAVETS – Ukraine – 04:24:37

Men:

1. Daniel PATTIS – Italy – 03:43:10
2. Mattia BERTONCINI – Italy – 03:45:27
3. Riccardo BORGIALLI – Italy – 03:51:46

Ginosa RivoltaTrail 35km (20K – 1 Stone) – Full Results

Women:

1. Elísa KRISTINSDÓTTIR – Island – 02:36:48
2. Nora SERRES – Norway – 02:49:01
3. Aifer IBADULA – Norway – 03:00:29

Men:

1. Petter ENGDAHL – Sweden – 02:23:44
2. Nicholas BOUCHARD – Italy – 02:32:37
3. Victor DURANDE – France – 02:36:56

Below are the overall numbers for this year’s Puglia by UTMB:

• 140km Starters: 260. DNF: 119 + Finishers: 141. Women 8 (6%), Men 133 (94%).
• 85km Starters: 505. DNF: 67 + Finishers: 438. Women 60 (14%), Men 378 (86%).
• 50km Starters: 706. DNF: 52 + Finishers: 654. Women 160 (24%), Men 494 (76%).
• 35km Starters: 382. DNF: 12 + Finishers: 370. Women 134 (36%), Men 236 (64%).
• 10km Starters: 97. DNF: 0 + Finishers: 97. Women 58 (60%), Men 40% (XX).

Puglia 2025 saw a total 1,950 starters and 1,700 finishers earning a total of 3,556 stones. 420 (25%) women and 1,280 (75%) 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 2026).

Next up is Translantau in Hong Kong, China on 14-16 November, 2025. For a full list of UTMB World Series events visit the ECC UTMB World Series events calendar.

Jürgen Wetzstein for velobiz.de (autotranslated):

In the dealer letter, which is available to velobiz.de and signed by Michael Hullik, Managing Director of W. L. Gore & Associates GmbH, Gore cites economic reasons for this drastic step, which is now announced after “careful consideration and in-depth analysis of the long-term prospects”. “For more than 40 years, we have been trying with great commitment and considerable investment to successfully position the Gorewear brand in an extremely competitive environment. But despite all these efforts, we see no realistic way to achieve our business policy and financial goals sustainably,” the traders are informed in the letter.

German company Gore invented Gore-Tex in the 80s and will continue to focus on their B2B market, but their end-user brand Gorewear, which in recent years also included trail running gear is leaving the market.

The year is slowly winding down and I am prepping a bunch of work looking back and the last few month and the road ahead. There will be a lot more data and stories coming out in the coming weeks, but I thought I’d throw a link up to my good ol’ Electric Cable Car UTMB World Series Calendar as it has received significant updates in the past few weeks.

First off some numbers on the actual UTMB World Series. Here’s where we’re at now:

• 62 Events
• 4 Majors, 1 Finals
• Europe: 29
• Asia: 13
• North America: 11
• South America: 5
• Oceania: 3
• Africa: 1

(as of 04 November 2025)

UTMB added over a dozen new events in 2025 – so far. A couple events had been on hiatus and moved to a new date, a few events the Series lost. UTMB also added a new Major – In Oceania.

There are six more events on the calendar for the month of November and the rest of 2025, including the Asia Majors in Chiang Mai, Thailand.

In 2025 I have updated the calendar fourteen times. I made some changes to the layout and hopefully made it more useful and readable as things shifts around.

The Trail Running Film Festival is gearing up for their tour in the spring of 2026. This time around they are looking for someone from the public to help jury the films for their official selection:

We’re looking for a couple of amazing people to come help us review, judge, and select our incredible films for the 2026 global film tour.

If you love trail running films and wanna help inspire the global community, this is your chance.

Finally! Germany gets its first UTMB event. Race organizers Plan B sells their wildly successful event in Garmisch-Partenkirchen to the UTMB Group. I received both emails this morning, from UTMB and Plan B and wanted to spend a bit more time on this announcement then the usual World Series addition I’m sharing here.

Zugspitz Ultra Trail is already a widely successful event with over 5,000 participants. It sells out every year and there absolutely wasn’t the need to bring the event to the Series, per se. According to communication I received this is somewhat of a “retirement plan” by the main organizers Heini und Uta Albrecht, who will stay on the team as advisors for a few years.

For 2026 Zugspitz will keep its sponsors Salmon and Led Lenser. This somewhat unusually looking arrangement isn’t that uncommon (Lavaredo has La Sportiva as title sponsor!) and hopefully a sign that brands ease up on their turf wars and allow some collaboration for the health of the sport.

Plan B also sold the widely popular Transalpine Run event to the UTMB Group. This seven day stage race happens to coincide with UTMB week in 2026. It’ll be VERY interesting how UTMB will manage this event moving forward.

The sentiment of the German trail running community is split on this announcement. Hannes Namberger and Ida-Sophie Hegemann gave supportive and excited quote to go along with the press release. Some other voices share concerns – very German to do so – on the actual need of the World Series addition to Zugspitz. My take is that this move will help attract an international audience to the event. Is that bad? Should Zugspitz have stayed a regional classic? Maybe. If it’s harder for locals to get into the race than I understand the crumbling. But the notion that I reject is that UTMB is here to eat the world. Big races might increasingly feel the need to join the series, yes. But aren’t there still enough smaller event, locally organized, on similarly stunning trails that still exist? And if UTMB is unable to increase the numbers significantly and on top of it raises entry fees then this creates the perfect umbrella effect for local, smaller events to thrive in the same eco-system.

I probably got a few more thoughts in the coming days as I read what people are saying in various forums. Now I gotta go pack my bags… checking on flights… let’s race the beautiful Zugspitz arena!

Two additions to the World Series were announced today, but these require two separate posts. For one, Oman is back. First event, that I can think from the original Ultra-Trail World Tour that didn’t immediately get added to the World Series when UTMB changed the format but was added now, a few years later. This event had only been added late to the original Ultra-Trail World Tour, right during COVID and seemed heavily promoted and supported by Oman Tourism. The event sort of appeared out of nowhere. I also believe only one edition was held back then.

Seven years after its last appearance on the Ultra-Trail® World Tour, Oman by UTMB will return to the global circuit as part of the UTMB World Series on December 10-12, 2026.

Building on the legacy of Oman’s flagship annual mountain event – Himam Trail Run Race – the comeback of this event marks a meaningful renewed collaboration shaped by authenticity, and community.

Now for 2026, the event is back, with all 4 major distances. This is UTMB’s only event on the calendar for the month of December. No registration timeline is announced yet.

When Trump took office for a second time earlier this year and shortly after threatened the whole world with tariffs, the language used by outdoor industry professionals to describe the situation and how to deal with it still had this tone of respect for the office of the president. Every article from these first view month always sounded like “good old American capitalism”: America can only win, and businesses will always take advantage of any situation by outsmarting the government. But in this article posted by Shop Eat Surf X Outdoor (what a name!) the tone seems to have shifted. Just the title alone:

Next Up in the Trump Tariffs Saga — the Supreme Court

The word ‘saga’ sounds dismissive, and Trump isn’t titled ‘President’.

If we’ve all gotten used to anything, it’s the unpredictability — tariffs can unexpectedly reach gale-force speeds or just as unexpectedly drop down to a level that feels navigable. Trump’s own whims, and negotiations with world leaders, have created much of the confusion, but the legal system has added to the turbulence as lawsuits against the tariffs work their way through judicial channels.

An acknowledgment that the US is currently not just in “uncharted territory” and might experience some “headwinds” or has to “navigate choppy waters”.

Trump has his own arguments, of course, and isn’t afraid to share them in his typical fire-and-brimstone style…

This almost sounds mockingly.

The articles ends with an interview with shipping expert Rathna Sharad who concludes with the statement:

It’s a really terrible situation for the retailer too, because now they have a real margin issue. It could be, for example, $100 to return this product back to the merchant, which may not be worth it [based on] their wholesale cost, so they may have to just destroy that item. It’s not good for anybody.

That is correct, it is not good for anyone. The sooner we can get our heads wrapped around it and stop making excuses in the hope that American exceptionalism somehow is going to win the day, the faster we can find a path forward.

Eliud Kipchoge, one of the greatest road runner’s of all times, announces his retirement from the official racing circuit while giving a sneak peek at his latest project:

During the next 2 years, Eliud competes in 7 marathons on all continents. And you can join him!

Not much info is public yet, other than the invite to join him running a marathon on one of the seven continents. The goal here is to raise awareness and spread his love for running.

What would this look like for our trail running world? What would a “retirement project”, which is also a continued activation opportunity for his sponsors and a fundraising play for his foundation – all good things, I might add – look like for the GOATS in our sport? Is that something Courtney would pursue? Or are Kilian’s projects, like his ‘States of Elevation’ one more suitable for a trail runner moving away from the most competitive events and embracing a next stage in his/her career?

Shortly after Sabrina Stanley blockbuster announcements of becoming an OnlyFans athlete she was diagnosed with cancer. The trail media has made great hay over her OnlyFans signing, but hasn’t really kept up with the story since. Women’s Health has a great article:

While I wanted to share my journey, I’m very much still in the midst of it. There is a constant internal struggle over how and what I want to share on any platform, including OnlyFans. Right now, I want to focus on the present and hope to share more of my story when I can look back from a healthier place, both mentally and physically. Even so, as a sponsor, OnlyFans has been so amazing. From the day I signed with them, I’ve felt supported and free in a way that I never have with other sponsors. Since my diagnosis, that has not changed at all, and they’ve been empathetic and understanding of my situation.

It’s a story full of heartbreak and hope and one worth paying attention:

In a sport where even elite performance rarely pays, I found the backing I needed in an unexpected place: OnlyFans.

Kullamannen by UTMB is in many ways the exact opposite event compared to Mallorca on the same weekend. Not just on the opposite side of Europe, this event is also known for its dark days, broody weather and mystique that is very much not “vacation island” vibe. And that is exactly why people love this event and come back to it every year. it’s one of the fastest events to sell out each year. Kullamannen is truly one of the most unique events on the UTMB World Series circuit and a clear testament that joining the UTMB World Series doesn’t mean a race will lose all its local and unique charm. This year didn’t disappoint with a brutal 52% DNF rate in the 100M race.

Below are your 2025 podium finishers of the four races, as well as the total number of runners for the event broken down by gender.

Ultra 100 Miles (100M 4 Stones) – Full Results

Women:

1. Hanna AHO – Sweden – 17:59:21
2. Anne-Sofie POLLESTAD – Norway – 18:32:13
3. Eevi BENGS – Finland – 18:32:41

Men:

1. Christian MALMSTRÖM – Sweden – 16:18:22
2. Alexandre BOUCHEIX – France – 16:34:44
3. Jakob ÅBERG – Sweden – 17:03:29

Sprint Ultra 100 km (100K 3 Stones) – Full Results

Women:

1. Anna-Stiina ERKKILÄ – Finland – 09:12:02
2. Caroline ALMKVIST – Sweden – 10:20:25
3. Simone HAASTRUP – Denmark – 10:41:35

Men:

1. Tuomas KARI – Finland – 08:36:19
2. Aasmund KJØLLMOEN STEIEN – Norway – 08:46:02
3. Joe FARRELLY – Great Britain – 08:52:45

Seventh Seal (50K 2 Stones) – Full Results

Women:

1. Agnes JOSEFSSON – Sweden – 03:56:00
2. Amanda NILSSON – Sweden – 04:06:34
3. Josefin RAKOS – Sweden – 04:33:28

Men:

1. Oscar CLAESSON – Sweden – 03:32:40
2. Pierre GALBOURDIN – France – 03:34:15
3. Andrew HEYES – Great Britain – 03:35:03

North Shore (20K 1 Stones) – Full Results

Women:

1. Frida VIKSTRÖM – Sweden – 01:26:28
2. Emma LEMMINGER – Denmark – 01:31:38
3. Nelly JANSSON – Sweden – 01:35:57

Men:

1. John KINGSTEDT – Sweden – 01:11:21
2. August MOLLÉN – Sweden – 01:13:17
3. Enda CLOAKE – Irland – 01:15:10

Below are the overall numbers for this year’s Kullamannen by UTMB:

• Ultra 100 Miles Starters: 650. DNF: 336 + Finishers: 314. Women 44 (14%), Men 270 (86%).
• Sprint Ultra 100 km Starters: 464. DNF: 119 + Finishers: 345. Women 65 (19%), Men 280 (81%).
• ‌Seventh Seal Starters: 465. DNF: 25 + Finishers: 440. Women 98 (22%), Men 342 (78%).
• North Shore Starters: 552. DNF: 3 + Finishers: 549. Women 187 (34%), Men 362 (66%).

Kullamannen saw a total 2,131 starters and 1,648 finishers. 394 (24%) women and 1,254 (76%) men reached the finish line. A total of 3,720 UTMB stones were collected.

Next up we’re heading to Italy and China for a doubleheader weekend with two new events on the Series with Puglia and Ultra-Trail Shudao on 07-09 November, 2025. For a full list of UTMB World Series events visit the ECC UTMB World Series events calendar.

November is the perfect time for Europeans to hit the Mediterranean coast and escape the incoming winter on the rest of the continent. One of the premier places to visit, offering lots of cheap flights there is the island of Mallorca, part of Spain. UTMB is partnering for a World Series event there – the Mallorca by UTMB – since last year. There have been some route changes, freak storms and organizational rearrangements, but this year the races went off without a hitch and under sunny skies.

Here are your 2025 podium finishers of the four races, as well as the total number of runners for the event broken down by gender.

Serra de Tramuntana (SDT) (100M 4 Stones) – Full Results

Women:

1. Isla SMITH – New Zealand – 18:12:55
2. Julie MARINI – France – 19:13:34
3. Charlotte FISHER – Great Britain – 19:43:39

Men:

1. Hannes NAMBERGER – Germany – 13:37:31
2. Théo DETIENNE – France – 13:57:13
3. Nicolas GOURDON – France – 14:38:23

Camins de pedra seca (CPS) (100K 3 Stones) – Full Results

Women:

1. Sonja KINNA – Germany – 11:58:35
2. Ana CERVAN – Spain – 12:18:22
3. Julia DAVIS – GBR – 12:23:58

Men:

1. Tobias GEISER – Italy – 09:37:31
2. Gautier BONNECARRERE – France – 09:51:12
3. Andreas RIEDER – Austria – 10:11:49

Els Tres Mils (ETM) (50K 2 Stones) – Full Results

Women:

1. Isabell SPEER – Austria – 06:02:57
2. Candice FERTIN-BACCON – France – 06:06:17
3. Emelie FORSBERG – Sweden – 06:11:49

Men:

1. Marcos RAMOS GONZALEZ – Spain – 05:04:55
2. Thomas BUTEZ – France – 05:14:51
3. Mario OLMEDO – Spain – 05:17:05

Camins de s’Arxiduc (CDA) (20K 1 Stones) – Full Results

Women:

1. Núria TARRAGÓ CLOP – Spain – 02:26:54
2. Eszter CSILLAG – Hungary – 02:27:30
3. Angels LLOBERA – Spain – 02:35:58

Men:

1. Jan TORRELLA OLLER – Spain – 01:56:19
2. Alvaro GARCÍA BERNABEU – Spain – 02:05:11
3. Damian RAMIS PONS – Spain – 02:05:19

Below are the overall numbers for this year’s Mallorca by UTMB:

• SDT Starters: 337. DNF: 94 + Finishers: 243. Women 19 (8%), Men 224 (92%).
• CPS Starters: 643. DNF: 116 + Finishers: 527. Women 74 (14%), Men 453 (86%).
• ETM Starters: 651. DNF: 60 + Finishers: 591. Women 133 (23%), Men 458 (77%).
• CDA Starters: 597. DNF: 46 + Finishers: 551. Women 194 (35%), Men 357 (65%).

Mallorca saw a total 2,228 starters and 1,912 finishers. 420 (22%) women and 1,492 (78%) 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 2026).

Next up we’re heading to Italy and China for a doubleheader weekend with two new events on the Series with Puglia and Ultra-Trail Shudao on 07-09 November, 2025. For a full list of UTMB World Series events visit the ECC UTMB World Series events calendar.

Every year since 2015, as October came around I’ve done the same thing: I went online, found a poster calendar for the new year and ordered one of my favorite books at the same time. Over the years I’ve ordered this calendar from my friend’s bookstore directly, until shipping became prohibitively expensive. Then I ordered via Amazon.de (The German version) – and yes, I hated myself a bit for it, but for this type of stuff this global “Buy’N’Large” store is still really good. Some years this shipping took weeks. There was at least one year where I didn’t receive my calendar until late January. This year, for the first time I was worried. I was worried that the tariffs would fuck up this annual tradition of mine and put an end to the happy ritual of looking at these beautiful places in far away lands. It didn’t. Amazon shipped amazingly fast and no tariffs were added – shipping was bit more expensive than usual – but it’s worth it, for me.

That calendar has been hanging now for years in the dining area of our kitchen – even through a couple of house moves – and it has always been the same: “Hütten unserer Alpen” (Huts of our Alps) – a calendar the DAV – the Deutsche Alpenverein (German Alpine Club) sells with photos and descriptions of various huts in the Alps. I could get a different calendar each year, but I don’t. If I couldn’t get this calendar anymore I don’t believe I would just replace it with another random one – I’d be stumped. Over the last 11 years – and now 2026 is the twelfth – I’ve had this calendar up for the entire year, and as the new year comes around I cut out the photos and keep the beautiful images of these huts on top of mountains during the various seasons of winter, spring, summer and fall. The book I ordered at the same time is called Berg and is the annual magazine of the DAV. It’s a hard cover book collecting the best stories of the year. It’s meant to be a connection point for the members of DAV – one of the largest nonprofit organizations in the world. The DAV owns and maintains over 300 of these huts, many of them for over 100 years. With members from all over Germany, and Austria and South Tyrol folks are putting in countless volunteer hours to keep these huts working and a warm welcoming place in remote places on top of mountains and along rugged trails. There’s another, longer story worth sharing about the background of these huts, how they came to be, and how they shape the landscape of the Alps, but this is for a different post. What I want to talk about is this simple action of always having the same calendar in my house, year after year. (Well of course not exactly the same, the calendar has new photos in it each year, but the size, the idea, the subject matter stays the same.) In today’s world filled with impermanence, with momentary flukes, with too many transient things, this calendar brings me joy everyday. Constantly we are encouraged to chase the new thing, the latest trend, experience something fresh. Sometimes encouraged and often forced as the thing we love and identify disappears, gets bought, closes up shop or changes course.

Maybe, ordering the same calendar year after year is just a sign of me getting older and slower. Maybe I am just yearning for permanence and simplicity; for beauty, that’s unique and can’t be growth-hacked to death?

This Ain’t a Gift Guide

This is the calendar (DAV Shop) and this is the book (DAV Shop). And I wouldn’t want to live without it. I hope you too find these simple treasures in your life that bring you this joy and help you ground yourself in some permanence amidst all the insanity we’re experiencing each and every day. And I hope that more people create art and media that isn’t just primed to bring the next 15 minutes of fame, but is meant to endure. A thing that can create tradition, and permanence, and something that one can rely on and trust to be there for them each and every day.

New Youtube channel by and with my favorite trail runner Hannes Namberger. I don’t subscribe to many channels, but this one is an insta-click.

Danielle Kaye for the BBC:

Athletic shoe company On is facing a lawsuit from US customers who claim that its popular sneakers make a “noisy and embarrassing squeak”.

Some people just return a product that doesn’t work for them… others are lawyering up. This is whining on the highest level. Seems to be the trend of the century.