Bad weather disrupts the Ultra Trail du Mont Blanc

Last night, August 27th at 6:30pm in Chamonix, France, 2300 ultra-marathoners exited the church square and headed down the main street to begin the famed Ultra Trail du Mont Blanc circumnavigating the166 kilometers and 9500 meters of elevation gain around the roof of Europe.

Roughly three hours later the course was closed due to bad weather. Heavy rains, fog and snow up on the col de la Seigne was the main cause in addition to rock fall and mud slide hazards on course. Stolen course markers are also rumored to be part of the problem. Runners were held in St. Gervais until race organizers made the final call to return all runners to Chamonix in good health.

The Traves de Ducs de Savoie (TDS) scheduled to begin at midnight was also canceled.

There are four races in total being held between Tuesday August 24th to Sunday August 29th. In addition to the Ultra Trail, the CCC (Courmayeur, Champex, Chamonix) runs roughly half the distance and elevation gain of the Ultra Trail. The TDS is a cross between the two distances with 111 kilometers and 7000 meters of climbing. For the multi-day challenge, beginning a few days before the main event the Petit Trotte a Lyon done in teams of two or three runs 240 kilometers with 18,000 meters of elevation gain and descent - this course has no ranking, just a diploma for finishing the massive effort.

Hundreds of volunteers are dispersed around numerous aid stations in three countries (France, Italy and Switzerland) assisting some 4000 runners as they partake in one of the famed ultra marathon courses in the area.

Participants were devastated at the prospect of not achieving their goal after training for so many months. Some seemed to understand the decision while others such as previous UTMB winner, Kilian Jornet, lamented the fact that for such a powerful race organization perhaps an alternative course could have been arranged in case of bad weather. To read more on Kilian's thoughts click here (French).

Kilian also speaks out on how more and more of the mountain course organizers are removing technical sections for safety reasons changing the face of the sport perhaps in his opinion for the worse. He and a few other Team Salomon runners upon hearing of the race cancellation planned instead to travel to Italy and compete in the Trofeo KIMA, the Skyrace Ultra World Championships.

Abruptly at 10:17 am this morning, race organizers chose to restart the UTMB on the shorter course of the CCC (98 k and 5600 meters) with around 1500 of the original 2300 competitors on the start line. Runners will compete throughout today under continued rainy skies. For final results click here or to follow the race live, click here. For more great videos in English with U.S. runners, click here.