For folks who completed the “famous” Cushman Six route I made the shirt, I designed as a gift to Scott and Chris who accompanied me on the initial run, available for everyone. Yes, anyone can wear the shirt now, but only those who completed the full Cushman Six route and are listed on the FKT website should wear it. But, I’m not gonna check, just judge from afar – we warned.

Steve Larese for Outside Business Journal:

VF Corporation is laying off 300 employees and eliminating 300 open positions…

This comes with the caveat that:

VF reported an increase in total income to $2.3 billion for Q1 FY 2023.

So clearly a company growing revenue must layoff its employees.

And further:

The North Face saw an increase of $500 million, while Vans revenue declined almost $1 billion.

Clearly the “outdoors” are the new “street”.

And another thought:

VF seems to be letting The North Face go all in on their athlete team and they are increasing their trail running shoe offering. This might not be good news for Altra, another one of the brands in their portfolio. It’s direct competiton and The North Face clearly has a bigger visibility, by a mile. This could be a reason on why we haven’t seen much from Altra lately. No new event sponsorships, no big athletes on podiums.

A thought that popped into my head this weekend as I was following and covering UTMB this year:

What Chamonix and UTMB is to trail running, Yosemite Valley and El Capitan is to climbing.

The images that this race provides are unlike any others. The exhilaration and inspiration it creates reminds me of the hey days of 80’s rock climbing in Yosemite Valley. Yes, mountain climbing had existed in the Alps and the Himalayas long before the stone monkeys ascended to the Valley and did they crazy climbs. And as such, Western States will always be considered the cradle of ultra trail running, but just like Yosemite climbing culture redefined how we look at and what we think of mountain climbing, racing UTMB redefines running ultras. I am not trying to take away anything from other races, but these performances and these visuals of mountain runners we’ve experienced and seen this past week will define our sport for many years to come.

Kilian Jornet on Instagram:

…Eat, eat and eat more. A ultratrail is a eating challenge while running and hiking on nice places.

This blog is not meant for training tips and advise, but this one made me smile… and also sit up and think about my fueling strategies for long runs.

Singletrack – Episode 250:

Beast of Big Creek 2022 DFL Champions Dawn Golden and Jacque Hooyer are in the house. They join Singletrack to chat about training routines, how they decide on what races to run, and their major marathon projects for this fall. And of course the main conversation is around racing up and down the trails of Mt. Ellinor, joys and cheers at the aid station, and that special feeling of finishing last, but still being celebrated as winners.

LINKS

• Dawn Golden on Instagram
• Jacque Hooyer on Instagram
• Beast of Big Creek will be back for 2023.

Damian Hall about Jasmin Park’s UTMB:

Most inspiring @UTMB performance? For me it was @jasminKparis. She didn’t have the race she hoped for, but she lives her values. The @thegreenrunnerz co-founder took low-carbon travel and diet options, and eschews sponsorship. Oh and she’s effing nails.

In her own words:

I’m grateful and happy that my attempt to run UTMB in a climate conscious fashion received a share of the public and media attention this week, and I sincerely hope that it will be a catalyst for action in the running community and beyond, towards a fitter planet for all.

This is the challenge of our times. How can we engage in these global sporting events when our planet is melting down. Air travel, sponsor swag, non-recyclable waste create an unsustainable carbon output that increase the melting of the very glaciers we love as backdrops for these incredible images we’ve seen of runners run in the shadow of Mont Blanc this weekend. Hiding under a rock is not the solution either, but we gotta try harder.

… The @ComradesRace lets the top women start on one side of the road and the top men on the other side. The men are very courteous. Comrades is the largest and most diverse ultra in the world! I wish the American and international media recognized it more. Gold standard.

 Comrades does everything they can to make their event accessible, welcoming, and affordable to everyone! They have affordable entry fees for African runners, club support, and even a program for underprivileged runners. 

Comrades is an Ultra, yes. And needs more global attention, yes. We’ve conflated trail/mountain/ultra running into one and as the sport grows, a diversification will help the media and the average population make more sense of it and tell better stories.

Liam Tryon did the work on Twitter, I did for Western States and Hardrock a few weeks ago:

A shoe (or apparel, if no shoe) sponsorship breakdown of all of the top 10 (male and female) finishers of this week’s #UTMB races (includes OCC, CCC, TDS and UTMB), with info sourced from live.utmb.world/utmb and/or the athlete’s social media, based on my best understanding:

Overall, combined from all 4 #UTMB2022 races:
Hoka – 10
Salomon – 9
Adidas Terrex – 9
The North Face – 9
Brooks Running – 5
ASICS – 5
NNormal – 2
Scarpa – 2
Scott – 2
Merrell – 2
ON – 2
Arcteryx – 2
Evadict – 2

Here’s what I replied to Liam:

Adidas is funny to mean. They have such a successful athletes program but I know no one personally that TRAIL runs in Adidas shoes. I don’t know what shoe is good for what distance and I don’t know who stocks them.

Clearly Adidas is the big success story here, especially if you realize that Nike is nowhere in that mix. The Adidas athlete team is on fire, well-managed and successful. But! How is that marketing translating into sales? We know the names of the best shoes by many of the other brands. We know where to buy the shoes and we know the basic differences in shoes styles and features. For Adidas? No clue. No idea about any of the names, or the features, or the prices, or where to buy them (except maybe directly in adidas.com). Adidas is winning races, but not sure this is a winning strategy going forward?

UTMB, the full circumnavigation of the Mont-Blanc is why we’re here in Chamonix, why we’re glued to the screens and frantically refreshing our social networks. The race is 170 kilometers and 10,000 ft of vertical gain. There are tougher races in the world, but there aren’t any that are also attempted by over 2,500 people each year. The 2022 edition saw 838 DNFs with many notable runners not making it far due to getting sick or injured or just plain not making it.

Here are the top three women:

1. Katie SCHIDE – USA 23:15:12
2. Marianne HOGAN – Canada – 24:31:22
3. Kaytlyn GERBIN – USA – 25:07:44

This was the North America show, through and through. And while we’re joking about a curse on why the American men seemingly are unable to win this race the women continue to dominate and are almost making a mockery of this storyline. Of course there isn’t a curse, and there are other reasons, and one of them is named “Kilian Jornet” but this will be for a separate post.

And the top three men:

1. Kilian JORNET BURGADA – Spain – 19:49:30
2. Mathieu BLANCHARD – France – 19:54:50
3. Thomas EVANS – Great Britain – 20:34:35

Top American man was Jim Walmsley in 4th and in 21:12:12.

Kilian and Mathieu broke the 20hrs for the first time in the history of the race. The weather was favorable and the two pushed themselves do obliterate the competition in what had seemed like a surefire win for Jim who lead after the Grand Col Ferret by 12 min. Man, this race is so long and in ultras so much can happen in the span of many miles and many hours. It was another incredible show to witness.

Full results can be found here.

I forgot to post the CCC results amidst the flurry of events that transpired this weekend, which included my birthday as well.

A wild race that winds through the well-known “Grande Randonnée du Tour du Mont-Blanc (GR TMB)” trail.

CCC is UTMB’s second most popular race with 101 kilometer distance and 6,100 meters vertical gain. 1,900 runners begin their race in the Italian town of Courmayeur on Friday 26th of August at 9am. From Italy this race travels along the UTMB course to Switzerland before making its way to Chamonix, where all races finish.

Here are the top three women:

1. Blandine L’HIRONDEL – France – 11:40:55
2. Sunmaya BUDHA – Nepal – 11:45:44
3. Abby HALL – USA – 12:12:56

American Abby Hall makes it onto the podium – congrats. She’s the second American making it onto a UTMB 2022 podium, after Dani Moreno grabbing third in this year’s OCC.

And the top three men:

1. Petter ENGDAHL – Sweden – 09:53:02
2. Jonathan ALBON – Great Britain – 10:16:26
3. Andreas REITERER – Italy – 10:23:16

Top American was Caleb OLSON in 13th place and 11:13:24.

Full results can be found here.

“Stupidest, most fun thing I’ve done in my entire life.”

They finished the 15km in 03:39:37 and 534th place. Amazing!

Singletrack – Episode 249:

Matt Urbanski is back on Singletrack and he’s calling in from freakin’ Chamonix. Jealous! Matt just ran the Hardrock 100 and is here to share what it means to toe this extraordinary start line for the first time and run alongside the legends of our sport around this mighty mountains in the San Juans in Colorado. We chat about what makes a race so remarkable that people want to sign up for it year after year, and of course, I had to ask Matt a bit about the atmosphere in Chamonix in these last few weeks before the biggest event in trail and mountain runnings.

LINKS

• Team Run Run
• Matt Urbanski – running coach
• Team Run Run on Instagram

OCC is the “shorter Swiss version” running from Orsiéres via Champex to Chamonix. 1,200 runners embarked on the 56 Kilometer race with 3,500 meters of elevation gain. The race started Thursday 25th of August at 8:15am.

This year’s OCC was clearly the ‘Spanish Show’ with the top 2 spots for the women and men going to Spanish runners.

Here are the top three women:

1. Sheila AVILÉS CASTAÑO – Spain – 06:10:16
2. Núria GIL CLAPERA – Spain – 06:16:03
3. Dani MORENO – USA – 06:17:05

Yes, Dani Moreno is the first American who’s made it onto a podium at the 2022 UTMB events. Amazing performance, congrats!

And the top three men:

1. Manuel MERILLAS – Spain – 05:18:29
2. Antonio MARTÍNEZ PÉREZ – Spain – 05:21:01
3. Robbie SIMPSON – Great Britain – 05:24:00

Top American man was Justin GRUNEWALD in 12th and in 05:56:08.

Full results can be found here.

A couple of things before we dive into the numbers:

I tried a variety of ways of getting these numbers. Each trail race event lists their entry lists in a different way. Some make it easy, some have small fields and few runners and getting info is straightforward. Yes, I could try reaching out to events management to ask for that data in official capacity as journalist, but I see myself more as a blogger with a passion. Having said this, with UTMB I do have official press credentials and contacted the UTMB press office, but haven’t had any luck getting that information, seems they see me as just a blogger too. I also tried pulling that data manually from the public-facing entry list on the official UTMB website but I gave up trying to pull 10,000 names into a spreadsheet. Well, Liam Tryon reached out to me on Twitter and shared his list – thank you for doing the herculean job of getting this info put into a spreadsheet. The data is just for the big daddy UTMB race, but this gives us a good starting point.

According to official 2022 Entrants List there are 2811 starters taking on the full 171 kilometer loop around Mont-Blanc.

• 2538 men – 90.3%
• 273 women – 9.7%

I don’t even know what to say. I really don’t. This is so pathetically low. I would love to see how many women runners register for the lottery and how this could get balanced out. Speechless.

According to the official historical results listed on the UTMB website for the main UTMB event

• In 2021 there were a total of 1521 finishers and 111 or 7.3% were women.
• In 2019 there were a total of 1555 finishers and 144 or 9.2% were women.
• In 2018 there were a total of 1776 finishers and 166 or 9.3% were women.

Well, while being so entirely baffled I decided to dig a bit more and pull out more numbers for all the UTMB events, but just for the US runners. Remember there are 10,000 total runners and the website did not make it easy to get this data. If there’s interest I can expand on this and add additional countries, just let me know.

There are a total of 562 American runners registered to run this year’s UTMB events. 404 are men or 71.9%, 158 women or 28.1%. This breaks down among the various events like so:

UTMB: 199

• Men: 170 – 85.4%
• Women: 29 – 14.6%

CCC: 151

• Men: 111 – 73.5%
• Women: 40 – 26.5%

TDS: 62

• Men: 42 – 67.7%
• Women: 20 – 32.3%

OCC: 79

• Men: 44 – 55.7%
• Women: 35 – 44.3%

PTL: 16

• Men: 14 – 87.5%
• Women: 2 – 12.5%

MCC: 13

• Men: 7 – 53.8%
• Women: 6 – 46.2%

ETC: 39

• Men: 14 – 35.9%
• Women: 25 – 64.1%

YCC: 3

• Men: 2 – 66.7%
• Women: 1 – 33.3%

So overall and even just for the main UTMB event the US slightly bucks the overall trend here.

There were a total of 22,853 entry applications for this year’s UTMB events and over more than 100 nations are represented. The US sits in 5th place of most runners represented with France, Spain, Italy and the UK taking the 1-4 spots.

Just like in other trail race events I’ve studied over the last few month, the shorter races see a higher women participation. This makes think that in some ways this imbalance is still very much a societal issue and not just an events policy issue. But regardless of what happens in our societies and regardless of what the math spits out after the lottery process is concluded, the events managers would do well to sit down and ask themselves on how they want their events to look and feel and what image they want to portrait to the world. The most drastic and simple solution is offered by the High Lonesome 100 race out of Colorado: Have two lotteries. One for men and one for women. That’s how you get gender parity and have your race be truly representative of humanity and of the world we want to live in.

Thanks again to Liam Tryon for providing me with the initial data dump.

As much as the consensus in the general public is that COVID is over, clearly it’s not. And while we might not see the insane deaths we saw at the beginning of the pandemic, thanks to the vaccines and mutations, and other factors, clearly people are still getting sick. And it doesn’t matter where you stand on the issue, we all are excited for these big races. As runners we train, spend a lot of money and time getting ourselves to these places and having it all be taken away from us but this stupid virus is more than just unfortunate. We can’t let ourselves get lulled into the belief that this is ‘the new normal’. This situation still very much sucks. It sucks for race directors wanting things back to normal, wanting people to gather, enjoy community, and wanting runners to give their best at each race. It sucks for runners and it sucks for us as spectators. We love this sport and we love following along, rooting for our favorites, and wanting to see a stacked field dueling it out at the top. It’s too soon for us to let our guards down.

Lots of articles abound highlighting the top runners and their chances at the big race at this year’s UTMB events. In this one Liam Tryon dives into some fascinating numbers I’ve not seen before. Tables! Stats!

• Who has a chance for “the double” (Western States and UTMB in one year).
• Why going out too fast early in the race can lead to disaster.
• A look at the historical French dominance at UTMB.

The TDS is “The Wild Alternative”. (TDS is an acronym for “Sur les Traces des Ducs de Savoie” (following the footprints of the Dukes of Savoie). This race started in Courmayeur on Tuesday the 23rd of August at middnight and runs for 145 kilometer with a massive 9,100 meters of elevation gain. The race had 1774 starters and runners are currently still arriving in Chamonix, but the top runners have made it to the finish line.

Here are the top three women:

1. Martina Valmassoi – Italy – 22:42:47
2. Claudia Tremps – Spain – 22:59:38
3. Katharina Hartmuth – Germany – 23:22:18

Top American woman is Stacey Marion who ran with her sister Jessica Marion and they arrived in 52nd and 53rd place in 27:11:41 and 27:11:42 respectively.

And the top three men:

1. Ludovic Pommeret – France – 18:37:04
2. Joaquin Lopez – Ecuador – 19:32:09
3. Elias Kadi – France – 19:49:51

Top American man is Matt Palilla in 20th and a time of 23:13:35.

Full results, as they happen can be found here.

This arrived via an official press release this morning:

At 01:30am CET on Tuesday 23rd August, the UTMB Mont-Blanc Race Committee was informed that a PTL runner had a serious accident near the Refuge de Plan Glacier. The runner was with his team on an official trail, which is secured for the PTL and marked throughout the year, between the Col de Tricot and the Refuge de Plan Glacier. 

The rescue helicopter team responded to the scene, following which they confirmed the death of the runner.   

This is already the second year in a row that someone died running the UTMB events. Last year a Czech runner fell to his death running the TDS, which prompted a partial halting of the race.

ETC stands for Experience Trail Courmayeur and is a brand new race out of Courmayeur. Almost 800 runners raced the new course covering 15km and 1,300 meters of elevation gain in the Italian Alps. The race started on Tuesday 23rd of August at 2pm.

This race already concluded and here are the winners for 2022:

The top three women:

1. Ikram Rharsalla – Morrocco – 01:49:24
2. Perrine Abadie – France – 01:50:36
3. Nadia Re – Italy – 01:51:47

Top American was Amanda Basham in 5th in 02:00:32, and not just woman, but overall top American!

And the top three men:

1. Jan Margarit Solé – Spain – 01:24:05
2. Ruy Ueda – Japan – 01:24:52
3. Maximilien Droit Du Chapois – Belgium – 01:26:17

Top American man was William Zimmerman in 153rd and in 02:31:14.

Full results can be found here.

This policy was regarding the management of accredited media and access to elite runners:

The UTMB Mont-Blanc has decided to apply the following access rules to the restricted areas of the OCC, CCC, and UTMB races: an accreditation will be required for the first 10 women and 10 men of each race. This change is applied as of today.

Sometimes pointing out egregious corporate policies online has an immediate positive outcome. Good.

Sophie Power, founder of SheRaces, who we featured before, has the scoop:

Though it still isn’t in the terms and conditions, or on the website. There hasn’t been an announcement. But UTMB as an organisation have confirmed to me that women will have the opportunity to defer their places for up to 2 years – if only we can raise awareness to let them know to ask!

Baby steps, but moving in the right direction.

UTMB’s big team race, the PTL, is underway as of Monday August 22nd at 8am. The PTL begins and ends in Chamonix and cover close to 300 kilometers and a mind boggling 26,500 meters of vertical gain. Around 100 teams, with 2-3 people, began this massive trek and aren’t expected to arrive back in Chamonix for several days. They have 150hrs, and 30min to complete the loop.

Craig Thornley, RD for Western States is at the starting line with Joe Steinmetz, Matthew Keyes and the team ‘Rusty Nails‘.

The MCC is a race with 40 km distance and 2,300 meters of vertical gain. It started Monday, 22nd of August at 10am in the Swiss town Martigny-Combe and finishes, like all the UTMB races in Chamonix. The daytime only race was created for volunteers and local inhabitants.

Of the 972 starters the top finishers already arrived under the blue arch in Chamonix.

Here are the top three women:

1. Candice Fertin – 04:24:22
2. Oksana Riabova Riabova – 05:04:02
3. Alanis Duc – 05:08:44

Top American Zoe Rom came in 70th overall and 5th woman in 05:29:20.

And the top three men:

1. Ludvik Fernandes – 03:54:00
2. Baptiste Ellmenreich – 04:08:49
3. Mattia Colella – 04:10:20

Top American man is Timothy Fitzpatrick in 06:50:38 and in 282th place.

Doug Mayer of Run the Alps came in 438th in 07:29:43.

Full results can be found here.

The team that made ultra race coverage what it is today, iRunFar’s live coverage is a must-follow this UTMB week.

Named ‘Kjerag’:

Because this shoe is truly made for every runner, at every level. Our design team worked side-by-side with world-class athletes like Kilian Jornet to create a shoe that’s made to be uncatchable, whether you’re scrambling across technical trails or training on the road—just about anything.

Still don’t like the look of it, but I’m listening.

Alongside Kjerag, we’ll be launching a range of apparel and accessories, all born from the same strong beliefs. Lightweight, breathable clothing made for intense activities at every level, and for less strenuous activities. All the clothing designs are timeless, and made to be (very) durable—because the less we all replace our gear, the better for the planet. 

Available in the Fall of 2022.

Another finishing team: Gina Dempsey and her friend Brenda. This is the first all women’s team that completed the route, and Gina made a video of their run.

For the last two years Gina’s been dreaming of completing this route. Kudos on getting it done!

It’s been a busy summer on Cushman Six so far.

Jonathan Hadlock just grabbed the solo, unsupported FKT on my Cushman Six route:

Went solo. Not many water sources. The back trail going from Elenor to Copper is easy until bear camp.  Bear camp is where you cut over to Mount Rose and there is a good water source at the bottom of the gully. I went through 3 liters  to get from Big Creek to there and 3 liters from there until the end. I lost the trail completely a mile or two after bear camp and followed GPS to Copper Mountain and from Copper mountain to Wagon Wheel Lake is also a long bushwhack. Other than the bushwhacking it was a very fun and scenic route. Enjoy.

Incredible time: 13h  55m  8s.

Before we dive into nonstop UTMB coverage here in the Electric Cable Car headquarters we shouldn’t forget this weekend’s Leadville 100 race in Colorado.

According to official 2022 Entrants List there are 816 starters total. (These numbers are pulled from Webscorer.) I knew that Leadville is a big race, but this number still surprised me. This makes Leadville one of the biggest ultras in the US, and certainly one off the biggest 100 mile races in North America.

• 625 men – 77%
• 174 women – 21%
• 17 other – 2%

Another ‘not great’ gender split here. But gotta give kudos that Leadville added the ‘other’ category and is allowing folks to register as non-binary, para female and para male. The future is diverse, colorful, and beautiful.

ITRA’s program seeks to encourage the trail running community to join forces, working together to reduce the environmental impact of our sport. It should also be the role of each stakeholder in our sport (i.e., organizers, participants, volunteers, sponsors, suppliers, and partners) to find ways to share ideas and know-how on sustainability and green practices. The responsibility rests with each of us. By being eco-responsible, we hope that trail running can make a positive contribution to environmental conservation and educate the public on the need to be mindful of the impact of our activities on the planet. It is our responsibility to protect the environment for future generations to enjoy.

I’m committed to get Rock Candy Running to operate carbon neutral within the next few years. Most of the core objectives ITRA is challenging race organizers to adopt Rock Candy has already implemented. Excited to learn and do more.

This links directly to a Google spreadsheet!

Found this very helpful tool via the ITRA newsletter. Put together by RACE ID, this spreadsheet allows you to input your event metrics and get a estimate of how much carbon your events emits and how many trees it takes to offset your and your racers emissions. Stay tuned for data for the two races I’ve put on so far this year.

Jen Sotolongo for the Seattle Times:

(Trisha) Steidl’s “Five Volcanoes” attempt officially began Monday, July 11, at 9:02 p.m., and stretched 84.5 miles with 43,000 feet of elevation gain. Before last month’s feat, the accomplished ultrarunner, mountaineer and former Seattle University cross-country and track coach had summited each of the five peaks but had never run more than 50 miles or completed that much elevation gain in a single, extended effort. 

Love projects like this one, where logistical challenges are just as tough to overcomes as physical ones.

Short film by Matteo Pavana and Marco Zanone and posted on the La Sportiva blog.

Flight Mode tells of a life outside the pressures and mechanisms typical of the social network, reiterating the importance of a return to the connection with ourselves before that with others, of respecting the times dictated by the natural world and not by the virtual one. 

One of the favorite subjects for Europeans to create media for: complain and question social media.

Amanda Loudin for Outside Business Journal:

What we’ll see in-store, now that the strategy is in motion, is first and foremost an explosion of product offerings in the category. REI’s shelves, from now on, will feature no fewer than 50 different running brands. As recently as last year, the co-op’s running-shoe line mostly ended with trail models; now, members will be able to find everything they need for road running as well: On Running, Brooks, New Balance, Saucony, and many others in addition to the longstanding offerings of Salomon, Merrell, and Hoka One One.

Running… so hot right now.

Love that Walla Trail’s Hamster Endurance Runs was covered in the local Cascadia Daily by Cassidy Hettesheimer.

“The community is incredible,” Walla said. “People come out to see those last finishers. That’s something I love about the ultrarunning community. There are runners of all ages, body types …  It’s incredible to see how far you can push the body and the mind to go, and to have this community rallying around you to do it.” 

Yes, that is what the ultrarunning community is all about!

HOKA has eleven (11!) events scheduled during the upcoming UTMB week in and around Chamonix.

From group runs to yoga sessions to athlete meet and greets. Hope you are not planning on running any of the UTMB races, because you could just jump from brand event to brand event and have a grand ol’ time in Chamonix over the next couple of weeks.

PS: To view the event schedule be sure to visit the British Hoka site, the US version doesn’t show the full list.

Hoka launched a limited edition, all gender “UTMB color way” of the new Mafate Speed 4 shoe.

Kind of a nutty looking shoe, even for me.

A new type of ultra event by François and Carline D’Haene.

Brian Metzler for Trail Runner:

Instead of running UTMB this year, D’Haene and his wife, Carline, are in the final stages of launching a unique new community-focused ultra-distance event in the Beaufortain mountains, near his home in France. In the Ultra Spirit event, September 9-11, there will be 25 three-person teams competing together and running approximately the same amount of time as other teams — 6 hours on Friday, 11 hours on Saturday, and over 5 hours on Sunday — with a variety of different routes and 10 unique team challenges sprinkled throughout the middle of the runs and during the night.

Beaufort, the town at the center of the Beaufortain mountains is François and Carline’s new home, after they sold their vineyard a couple of years ago. The area is just an hour and and half from Chamonix. So for anyone who wants a very different mountain experience after the madness of UTMB they can add a few days to their vacation and travel a bit south east.

I love that there’s space in our sport for folks to continue to innovate and create unique new running adventures, that are at the hear just that, running adventures, but also push the boundaries and offer a new way of enjoying the mountains and help create community.

A side note about the Trail Runner article:
Found it funny that the article had several outgoing links to various news articles, Broken Arrow, Ragnar and other things, but not an actual link to the ‘Ultra Spirit’ website, which can be found here. Wonder if that’s an oversight or an editorial decision.

Singletrack – Episode 248:

In this episode we take a new look at the difference between trail races in Europe and North America. German trail runner Steve Auch joins us and shares his experience running the Zugspitz Trail, Lavaredo, Squamish and The Rut. His dream race, is and will be Western States, until the lottery gods finally grant him his wish.

LINKS

• Steve Auch’s website
• Steve Auch on Instagram
• Steve Auch on Strava
• Cover photo by Brian McCurdy

Natalie Berry writing for UK Climbing:

Rapidly deteriorating conditions across the European Alps due to rising temperatures are forcing mountain guides, their clients and independent teams to change their objectives as the risk of rockfall, avalanches and serac collapses increases. Some normal routes up major peaks are no longer being sold by guiding companies as the impact of climate change and the current heatwave becomes clear following a tragedy on the Marmolada this month and a spate of incidents and near-misses during the high season.

Many bucket-list summits and classic lines – which typically bring guides the most income – are currently off the cards. 

The new normal.

Jan Beutel, professor at Universität Innsbruck and UIAGM mountain guide on Twitter:

The crevasse is opening more and more on the Breithorn summit as the ablation area of 2022 steadily heads for the very top. Trick question: Is it gonna stay or go? 

In a follow up to the above tweet he writes that there’s no present danger from this. Mountaineers can see it and work around it. And there’s no exposure to existing infrastructure if the glacier breaks off.

On a big screen device like an iPad or an Android tablet you can experience richer texture and detail while planning routes and analyzing your training data. Read on to learn more!

…

Update: In addition to iPads and Android tablets, you can also use Suunto app on Mac computers with M1 and M2 processors!

One of the overlooked aspects of our GPS watch handling is that watches need their own apps, but we mostly use it to sync data to Strava. Suunto keeps investing into their own apps, which allows them to be independent from Strava, which most folks probably won’t notice as Strava is sort of default platform for our activities.

New-to-me tool:

Upload GPS tracks to create courses and define waypoints (aid stations, landmarks, junctions, etc.) along the way.
Share your course for others to study the route and create their own pacing plans.

Not a huge number of races currently on the service, but it looks very interesting.

The 2023 Western States Golden Ticket races were announced:

UTMB 171K France, Italy, Switzerland, August 26, 2022

Javelina Jundred Presented by HOKA 100M Arizona, October 29, 2022

Doi Inthanon Thailand by UTMB 100M December 9, 2022

HOKA Bandera 100K Texas, January 7, 2023

Tarawera by UTMB 102K New Zealand, February 11, 2023

Black Canyon Presented by HOKA 100K, Arizona, February 18, 2023

The Canyons by UTMB Presented by HOKA 100K, California, April 28, 2023

These tickets are *HOKA* Golden Ticket races, and the selection of races really shows this.

Folks on Twitter are missing an East Coast offering here. And it does look somewhat lopsided, with three international races and the other four in the southwest of the US.

Another cool little movie published on Black Diamond’s website of BD employee Remco Graas traversing the famous Nordkette above Innsbruck, Austria.

This is a cool example of how European “get into” mountains. You might grow up far away from them, visit them on holidays with family, reluctantly enjoy them and later discover a deep sense of love for the mountains, it’s cultures and your own ability to move and experience adventure among these incredible landscapes.

Connects well to this week’s episode of Singletrack, where I chat with Steve Auch from Germany who also didn’t grow up in the mountains and also moved there to experience them every day.

Following the trend that every runner must also have their own podcast. Yours truly included, of course.

Why is it okay for these high alpine expeditions to trash the places they travel through? I understand that things might get left behind in case of an emergency, but this seems to be just normal “I got my summit, now I’ll take the helicopter back to the airport and I’m off to my yacht” mentality. This blows, hard.

A couple of days ago I posted an article about using public transportation, here’s UTMB’s official guide, that is literally 66 pages long, telling you the where, how, and what on taking the bus during UTMB week. It’s detailed, and it’s a lot, and it’s kind of awesome.

Speaking of awesome places to stay:

The home previously referred to as Hiker Haven for PCT thru hikers is for sale in Baring, Washington.

A bit on the backstory:

Nestled in dense forest in the shadow of the Cascades, the Dinsmore Hiker Haven welcomed thousands of PCT hikers to Baring over 20 years.

You just gotta read the whole story. It’s such a beautiful example of the best of our humanity.

From their press release:

It’s happening! Our next LOGE is underway and coming to South Fork, Colorado! If you haven’t been, it’s the Southern Colorado mecca for skiing, fishing, and chilling. It’s the last stop on the way to Wolf Creek ski area and its’ legendary snowfall. You’ll be in awe of the hiking views of the San Juans Mountains, the idyllic trout streams and the abundant wildlife. We can’t wait to show you around and share those old school Colorado vibes.

Trail runners always need chill places as basecamps for their adventures and LOGE have great ones. Years ago when first traveling around the US the only reasonable places I could find were dusty B&Bs, corporate chain hotels along freeways, and questionable haunts straight out of a true crime show. LOGE saw that need and is taking some of these dilapidated motels and fresh breathing hipster vibes into them. They are not the only ones, but I love this trend. More of it.

Doug Mayer from Run the Alps has a quick and helpful list for Americans traveling to Chamonix for UTMB on UltraSignup News. To put in perspective what UTMB means for Chamonix:

The village, really just a few square kilometers in size, houses 4,000 or so residents. A similar number of Chamoniards live in the outlying villages of Les Houches, Servoz, Argentière, Le Tour, and Vallorcine. The last week of August, however, that number goes up — way, way up — by another 100,000 people.

The short summary of his suggestions:

Respect the locals and use the bus.