Germany’s Zugspitz Ultra Trail Joins UTMB

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!