UTMB 2025 Lottery Numbers and Observations

For the 2025 lottery UTMB shared an email with the press (currently not available online, if they post it I will link it here).

The highlights:

25,000 lottery applications were submitted – a 30% increase from last year.

• 2023: 16,998
• 2024: 19,100
• 2025: 25,000

Broken down by race and compared to last year:

• UTMB: 8,975 (2024: 7,200)
• CCC: 6,341 (2024: 5,400)
• OCC: 9,805 (2024: 6,500)

Personally, I’m glad I ran OCC when I did. If this increase continues it looks like it’s going to be incredibly tough to get into the event in the coming years.

Of note: UTMB has not increased their capacity since 2006 to protect the environment and preserve the logistics in and around the Chamonix valley – there are only that many people this area can sustain.

And the most important paragraphs for folks interested in toeing the line in Chamonix:

6.4 – The average number of Running Stones collected by 2025 UTMB applicants has risen significantly from 5.4 in 2024, with similar upward trends seen in the CCC and OCC, now averaging 4.4 and 3.2 Running Stones respectively (compared to 4 and 2.8 in 2024). As the UTMB World Series expands, providing more opportunities for runners to earn Running Stones closer to home, applicants are increasingly optimising their lottery chances. This upward trend is also evident among those selected, with average Running Stones reaching 8.9 for UTMB, 5.7 for CCC, and 4.7 for OCC.

Will be fascinating to see how this trend continues, and if it grows at the same rate, will UTMB want to or be forced to make changes to their lottery and or stone system.

More numbers:

• 121 nationalities will be at the racing in Chamonix this summer. That’s almost the same number as an entire race for many US events.
• Charity bibs sold out in under an hour. (285 in 2025 compared to 260 in 2024.) There’s no price to high to pay for folks to run around Mont Blanc.
• MCC, the event initially offered to JUST local runners is now being opened to the public, with locals getting 24hr priority access.

Women participation percentage:

• UTMB: 9.7%
• CCC: 18.8%
• OCC: 29.1%

The overall number is about the same as for 2024. I only have the finisher percentage for 2024 of the corresponding races to compare these numbers to:

• UTMB: 12%
• CCC: 21%
• OCC: 30%

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UTMB’s numbers and communication philosophy doesn’t allow them to share as much detail as the other big lotteries of Western States and Hardrock. So for folks treating this lottery like a “live event with betting pool” not getting the same insights can be a bit frustrating. But it would be fun to gain some more insight into what percentage or total number of bibs UTMB keeps for elites and direct entries. For example UTMB grants 210 runners automatic qualification to the Finals via each of the Majors.

During each UTMB® World Series Major Event, a total of 210 spots are available for the UTMB® World Series Finals.

210 spots x 4 Majors = 840 entries.

Further there are 50 races on the calendar, minus 4 Majors and the Finals. This makes 45 regular events.

The top 3 male and female finishers in the 50K, 100K and 100M categories automatically win their place at the Finals.

So, roughly calculated that’s another 810 entries.

45 events x 3 races x men + women = ~ 810 (it’s actually less as not every UTMB event has all three categories of races).

And then there’s the “qualification with the UTMB score”:

In addition to the Top 3 qualifications for Events and Top 10 for Majors, all runners who obtain a UTMB Score (*) higher or equal to the one mentioned in this table, on one of the races of the UTMB World Series circuit in the 50K, 100K or 100M categories, will be qualified for the final of the same category.

How many runners is that? Total, per race? No idea. There’s no list or an easy way to search for. I made a quick spot check for the Arc of Attrition, the first race of 2025 and the 4th place finishers of the 100M race for both the men and women did NOT receive the required Index to get a direct entry.

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In 2024 the Finals had the following number of starters:

• UTMB 2,761
• CCC 2,270
• OCC 1,764
• Total for the Finals: 6,795

So for roughly 7,000 spots for the Finals at least 1,650 + the Index score qualifications are reserved for elites and very fast runners. My guess is that’s around 25% of the entries. So without looking at the stones and how that changes your luck in the lottery, maybe we can say that for the 25,000 lottery applications (folks wanting to run one of the Finals races) there are 5,000 entries available via lottery, which gels with UTMB’s graph they shared mentioning 5x pre-registered athletes vs. available bibs.

Last year I got to experience Chamonix during UTMB week for the first time, this year I’m opting for Cortina d’Ampezzo in the Dolomites instead (hopefully I can make that happen!) but I’m already scheming of how to get back there because behind all these numbers and figures UTMB creates truly a magical experience of trail running in the shadow of Mont Blanc.