THE SIREN SONG OF MONTBLANC For centuries, climbers, philosophers and poets have proclaimed a wellspring of enchantment. Now UTMB is spreading the message to runners. BY YITKA WINN

The UTMB is a kaleidoscopic circumnavigation of the , through , Italy and Switzerland. PASCAL TOURNAIRE PASCAL

18 JANUARY_2016 TRAILRUNNERMAG.COM | | TRAILRUNNERMAG.COM JANUARY_2016 19 The week before I am to run Europe’s famed Ultra-Trail du Mont-Blanc, several friends and I get to talking late one night with a grizzled Frenchman.

self-described wine aficionado, the man has a brawny face, thick with the kind of sun- Aspackled wrinkles one earns from a lifetime working outdoors. His teeth are crooked and coated in a thin film of spittle. From a silver flask, he pours us shots of plum liquor and proceeds to tell us stories in rambling French— impervious to our lack of understanding. My friend Elodie, who speaks the language fluently, translates as much as she can for us between the man’s breathless, elated sentences. He’s explaining how years of drought are good CLOCKWISE FROM ABOVE: And they’re off in the 2015 edition of the UTMB; the eventual women’s champion, Nathalie Mauclair, is pictured in pink. Poles and for grapevines. The less water there is, the in Degraves’ truck began smoking. in one marvelous fell swoop? compression garments are commonplace. Industrial-strength cowbells provide encouragement and European ambience in the towns and along the course. deeper into the soil the roots must delve Within minutes, it burst into flames. “At this time, we had no idea what to find it. In this way, the rich textures Temperatures in the tunnel rapidly was organized in the United States,” says races that take place the same week. of the earth are better imparted to the soared to 1,800 degrees Fahrenheit. Michel Poletti, one of the visionaries who As cultural historian Rebecca wine, drawn up from some otherwise Everything in the tunnel was incinerated, now serves as co-race director with his “Pilgrimages make it possible to move physically, Solnit writes in her book, Wanderlust, unreachable depths. including 38 people trapped inside. It wife, Catherine. “We did not know about through the exertions of one’s body, step by step, “Pilgrimages make it possible to move “It is good for the plants to suffer,” Elodie took five days for the temperature to Western States. But we did know about physically, through the exertions of one’s translates. “The wine is richer that way.” cool enough for local rescue personnel to Grand Raid de la Réunion”—founded in toward those intangible spiritual goals that body, step by step, toward those intangible The man pauses to draw a breath, enter the tunnel, and three years before it 1989, a 162-kilometer race on a French spiritual goals that are otherwise so hard immersed in thought. Then he chuckles reopened to the public. island off the coast of Madagascar—“so are otherwise so hard to grasp.” to grasp. We are eternally perplexed and adds something. Elodie translates: The tragic fire also marked the demise we knew it was possible to organize such by how to move toward forgiveness or “Like the poets.” of a previously successful relay-style stage a race. It was just an adventure at that The Tibetans have a word for this summit; even renowned climbers like healing or truth, but we know how to Or ultrarunners, I think. race around Mont Blanc. Starting and point, just to try to do it.” kind of journey: kora, a meditative, Reinhold Messner have declined offers walk from here to there, however arduous finishing in , the race passed They had no idea how long it might take circumambulatory journey in which from the Chinese government to make a the journey.” n a sense, the Ultra-Trail du Mont- through Italy and Switzerland on its for someone to run the 153-kilometer pilgrims are transformed by the entity first ascent.) Blanc, or UTMB—a 170ish-kilometer circuitous route through the . Teams route they’d plotted out. Michel guessed (often a mountain, lake or place of In her memoir, Runner, five-time y boyfriend and I arrive in foot race that circumnavigates of seven could compete. For logistical 38 hours would make a reasonable cutoff. spiritual significance) they circle on UTMB winner Lizzy Hawker writes, “I Chamonix on a gloriously I Western Europe’s tallest peak, the reasons, the closure of the tunnel forced (After the first year, they extended it to foot. The pilgrimage can be further didn’t realize during that first race in 2005, sunny morning in early 15,771-foot Mont Blanc—is a phoenix suspension of the race. When the 46 hours and, to allow more time, shifted enhanced by “prostration”—the act of but for me this is what the Ultra-Trail du M August. Our friend Doug that rose from the ashes of disaster. organizers tried to resume it in 2002, the race’s start from Saturday morning to bowing or kneeling, and a term that Mont-Blanc embodies. It is a celebration, Mayer, a fellow Trail Runner contributor Just before 11 a.m. on March 24, 1999, only one team signed up, so they canceled Friday evening.) also means, according to Merriam a pilgrimage, a circumambulation—it who owns a trail-running tour company a Belgian truck driver named Gilbert it altogether. To their surprise, in 2003, more Webster, “complete physical or mental is a kora for those who choose. … A in the Alps, takes us on a sweltering Degraves left the French mountain That summer, a small group of than 700 people signed up for UTMB’s exhaustion; collapse.” pilgrimage is often associated with a jaunt up the vertical-kilometer course. hamlet of Chamonix with a truckload of friends and runners in Chamonix began inaugural running. For centuries, pilgrims have traveled physical journey, but it is also a search for It is a 2.3-mile route with 3,280 feet (one flour and margarine. Bound for the Italian wondering if there was a way not only to Tibet’s 21,788-foot Mount Kailash to moral or spiritual significance.” kilometer) of climbing. We hike out of town of Courmayeur on the other side of to revive the race, but also to improve it. or years, trekkers had already complete a loop around it on foot (see Perhaps it is this hope—of some kind the narrow valley on dizzying, zigzagging Mont Blanc, he entered the 11-kilometer Much of the course could be shifted from been coming to Chamonix to “Running in Circles,” October 2015, Issue of transformation at the flanks of a singletrack. When this gives way to tunnel that burrows through the belly of roads to trails. And, they wondered, what complete the circuit of trails 107). To do so is to honor the Tibetans’ mountain—that now draws 7,500 runners precarious rock ledges, we scramble the massif. if they challenged individuals—rather around Mont Blanc in an 8-to- belief that climbing the peak would be from more than 80 countries to Chamonix higher by clutching to metal cables and F TRAPPE MATT TRAPPE (ALL) MATT Deep inside the tunnel, the cargo than teams—to complete the entire loop, 10-day pilgrimage. sacrilege. (No one has ever stood on its each August for UTMB and the four sister ladders drilled into the mountain.

20 JANUARY_2016 TRAILRUNNERMAG.COM | | TRAILRUNNERMAG.COM JANUARY_2016 21 “The jagged aiguilles flank the blindingly white hump of Mont Blanc’s summit like sentries in dark veils ...” ABOVE: Mid-pack UTMB runners are treated to two sunrises. RIGHT: A cooling dip during the 2015 UTMB.

Incredibly, we are not the only ones distant but directly beneath our toes, the beginning with the first year, 2003, “running” this trail today. glistening glaciers and their crystal-blue when terrible weather translated to only “A lot of people in Chamonix come run seracs opposite the valley from us, and 67 of the more than 700 starters making Forget Bend or Boulder or Flagstaff. If our sport this on their lunch breaks,” Doug tells us. the jagged aiguilles (translated, literally, the complete circumambulation of This makes more sense later, when I “needles”) that flank the blindingly Mont Blanc. Given that I can hardly has ever had a so-called “trail-running capital learn that most places in Chamonix shut white hump of Mont Blanc’s summit like hear Philippe speaking over the rain, down for two or three hours in the middle sentries in dark veils. Dozens of colorful it seems rhetorical to ask his thoughts of the world,” Chamonix is it. of the day. Lunch breaks tend to be a little paragliders drift soundlessly through the on why so many people tend to drop longer on this side of the pond. air around us. out midrace—typically about half the This year is different. Two days before comes strength … and from the strength And trail runners are everywhere. field—but I do anyway. the race, the fog lifts and the air sizzles arises pleasure.” Seeing someone decked out in trail- t is the last day we see the sun “I think the weather is a significant with heat. So dry and balmy is the weather I am a grapevine, I tell myself, willing running gear at the grocery store here— for a while. For the better part of factor, because it makes it so much forecast that the race organization sends to suffer in the name of richer wine. I am head-to-toe spandex, flanked with three weeks, a thick blanket of harder,” he says. In 2011, he remembers, an email warning us that temperatures a mountaineer. I am a pilgrim. trekking poles and a bulging hydration I clouds muffles the landscape. Rain the rain, snow and mud was so intense could rise to 35 degrees Celsius (95 Whatever I am, I am ready. pack—is as common as seeing someone pours incessantly. On one such dreary that it washed out part of the course and Fahrenheit) on Saturday. We are advised UTMB is really like a road marathon in yoga pants at Trader Joe’s back home. afternoon, Doug and I meet up for café au required a bonus-miles reroute through to carry twice as much water as originally with a trail ultra tacked on at the end. Chamonix boasts a number of lait with Philippe Plantié. Philippe, now the Swiss town of Martigny. suggested, and cool off our bodies in The first 20 miles or so are mostly rolling through my legs. The sky is so clear that specialty trail-running shops, a dedicated 52 and a resident of nearby Les Houches, He points out, though, that the bleak mountain streams. and runnable. Many are even paved with when the full moon rises Friday night, its trail-running club and an extensive has run UTMB every year since 2003 finisher stat from the inaugural year is a asphalt or cobblestone. They are fast, light is reflected by the bright shawl of race calendar that brings thousands of (with one exception, in 2009, when he bit misleading. The weather was rotten, ast races have, at times, crowded and supercharged with the snow draped over Mont Blanc. I no longer runners to local trails on many summer instead opted to run the 119-kilometer and race organizers had told runners reduced me to a mess of tears energy of the throngs of spectators in need my headlamp to see. weekends. In recent years, a number of Sur les Traces des Ducs de Savoie, or that they could try for the whole loop and blisters and pleading with every town along the way—Les Houches, foreign-born athletes like Kilian Jornet TDS, one of the UTMB sister races). if they wanted, or they could stop in P the universe to get it over Saint Gervais, Les Contamines. They TMB is a race made famous and Emelie Forsberg have moved to We take cover under a large patio Courmayeur and still be credited with a with. So, from the moment I set off from cheer us on by the nationality flags on by its difficulty—its relentless this valley to pursue their careers as umbrella at an outdoor café. While we race finish (in a separate rankings list). the famed church square in Chamonix our race bibs—“Go, go, go USA!”—and climbs (some 32,000 feet of professional mountain runners, climbers talk, rain hammers down all around us In other words, several hundred runners for my jaunt around the rooftop of cry out, “Bon courage!” over the ceaseless U vertical ascent), its notoriously and ski mountaineers. in violent, icy sheets. I watch miniature didn’t drop out mid-race so much as agree Europe, I await suffering. Steel my mind clamor of cowbells. I wolf a handful of erratic weather, its Friday-evening start Forget Bend or Boulder or Flagstaff. rivers and lakes crop up in the cracks of to run a shorter race. for it. Perhaps even anticipate, with a pineapple chunks at the aid station in that requires even elite athletes to run If our sport has ever had a so-called the cobblestone and wonder how many Due to terrible storms—and in the smidge of eagerness, the opportunity Saint Gervais, only to discover they’re through one night—and the rest of us “trail-running capital of the world,” minutes the ultralight waterproof jacket context of several weather-related deaths to plumb my own depths for untapped cubes of cheese. mortals, two. Chamonix is it. I plan to run with at UTMB will keep me at other European trail races in recent reserves of tenacity. And then the crowds thin. Night falls, Its precise course varies slightly from At the top of the trail, breathless and dry in rain like this. years—the 2010 edition was canceled After all, as Victorian mountaineer solitude settles in and climbing begins year to year, but generally falls between drenched in sweat, we take it all in—the Indeed, “rain like this” has plagued mid-race. In 2012, the course was Edward Whymper wrote in his 1871 in earnest. I enjoy the change of pace in 166 and 173 kilometers. (This year,

cloudless sky, the town of Chamonix nearly every edition of UTMB— shortened due to dangerous weather. TRAPPE (ALL) MATT book, Scrambles in the Alps, “Out of toil my muscles, the slow burn that snakes perhaps to compensate for the lack of

22 JANUARY_2016 TRAILRUNNERMAG.COM | | TRAILRUNNERMAG.COM JANUARY_2016 23 their accomplishment. It was the beginning of the valley’s celebration of suffering as a handmaiden to triumph. In Scrambles in the Alps, Whymper waxed poetic on how “patient, laborious toil” in the mountains helps us “come back to our daily occupations better fitted to fight the battle of life and overcome the impediments which obstruct our paths, strengthened and cheered by the recollection of past labors.” A nod to the valley’s tradition of alpinist ethics, UTMB has always championed this kind of self reliance. As Catherine American Zach Miller celebrates his victory in UTMB’s 101-kilometer sister race, CCC (Courmayeur Champex Chamonix). Spectators line the course in the towns. “The real spirit of UTMB is not the Saturday when the winner arrives in Chamonix. It is Sunday morning Poletti says, the race pays homage to “the or afternoon when all the runners arrive, everyone together, after two nights of not sleeping … and they are happy,” says co-race director Michel Poletti. individual, the possibility for a person to storms, we get a bonus climb after Col de adventurous souls from around the right idea of it,” wrote Windham. “I know be well in life.” la Seigne that tacks on a few kilometers of world for centuries. of no one thing which I have ever seen indifferent in their majesty (sometimes In keeping with this spirit, pacers are steep, midnight scree scrambling.) In 1741, two Englishmen, William that has the least resemblance to it.” fatally) to their human admirers. It is 13 hours in, and not permitted. Runners must saddle It’s not the toughest race in Europe, Windham and Richard Pococke, Their romantic reports—published In 1786, two Frenchmen—Michel I am still waiting for themselves with several pounds of let alone the world; others are far more “discovered” the valley—then only widely in literary journals—inspired Gabriel Paccard, a doctor, and Jacques mandatory equipment, such as head- technical, remote or at higher altitudes. sparsely populated, primarily by monks generations of explorers, alpinists, Balmat, a hunter and crystal collector— the inevitable suffering to-toe waterproof gear, additional long- Neither is it the longest race, nor the and farmers. Clad in hobnail boots travelers, painters, philosophers and made the first successful ascent of sleeve base layers, two headlamps with oldest. But for all that UTMB lacks and saddled with ample wine for the poets from all over the world to come Mont Blanc. When they returned to begin. So far, the spare batteries, an emergency blanket, a in difficulty, longevity or historical journey, the men set off to explore the see what all the fuss was about. Over home from their journey, they were race has felt more like cell phone and numerous other sundries. significance, its hometown more than glaciers on foot. time, thousands grew enamored with thoroughly frostbitten, sunburned UTMB has grown into a kind of compensates. Chamonix has been luring “I am extremely at a loss how to give a the valley’s mountains and glaciers, MICHEL COTTIN (LEFT); MATT TRAPPE TRAPPE MATT and snow-blinded—but exultant in dancing than running. de facto world championship of trail BE FIRST. #1 Plantar Fasciitis ALWAYS Sleeve for Runners FIRST.

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FACEBOOK.COM/ICEBUGUSA • [email protected] • 855.201.7694 www.OS1st.com // 844-413-5457 and ultrarunning, and a proving ground for many elite international athletes—but the race organization has never The Spaniard asks if this is my offered its fastest runners prize money. first time running UTMB; he “It is more important to finish than to be fast,” says Michel Poletti. “The real spirit of UTMB is not the Saturday when tells me it is his second. When we the winner arrives in Chamonix. It is Sunday morning or afternoon when all the runners arrive, everyone together, after reach the final stretch, he drops two nights of not sleeping … and they are happy.” back and whispers, “Go, you first. hen the sun rises on Saturday, it casts a This is your moment.” kaleidoscope of colors over Mont Blanc. The summit is more rock than snow from my Brit draws up next to me and asks, “You all right? Fancy a W vantage point at Arête du Mont Favre, and salty biscuit?” the gray rock is cast in fierce shades of orange, red, pink The sun sets again, and rises a second time over Mont Blanc, PHOTO: SKYE MARTHALER and yellow that spread rapidly like the fire they resemble. and I am still running—battered by a harsh wind, now, on my I am mesmerized. way to the final aid station at La Flegere. Sleep deprivation has It is 13 hours in, and I am still waiting for the inevitable set in and I feel drunk myself, catching my toe on every rock suffering to begin. So far, the race has felt more like dancing in my path. than running. The relentless climbs set me into a meditative I pause for a moment to admire the sinking moon, and a rhythm. The steep descents have me catapulting down the woman flies by me, full throttle. I try to keep up with her, and mountain with joy. in doing so, discover new strength in my legs. Later, the day’s temperatures climb and the sun becomes a I can see Chamonix twinkling beneath my toes now, just as I merciless tormenter. I dunk myself in every stream, pond and could the first day I arrived in the valley. Local runners are out puddle I pass. The heat slows me—but, still, I feel good. for their morning jog up the mountain, and they congratulate Midway down the descent from Grand Col Ferret, an us, beaming as we go by. 2016 emergency aid station has been erected to help mitigate the As 12 kilometers of relentless downhill pounding gives way heat. I’m guzzling water when I hear the slow, parched croak to blissfully flat terrain, a Spanish runner falls in step with me. DION SNOWSHOES of a voice. We round a corner and begin the final winding route through “Yitka … is that you?” the streets of Chamonix, surrounded by thunderous cheers on U.S. NATIONAL SNOWSHOE The voice is coming at me from—yes, the ground beneath all sides. We have been running for 38 hours. the aid-station table. I see a familiar face, American runner CHAMPIONSHIPS Sean Meissner, who looks roughly as though he’s been hit by ust a few hundred meters now,” he says. We run harder. February 26th-28th, 2016 in Ogden, Utah a bus. He’s crumpled against a large tent, curled in the fetal My legs burn. In Scrambles in the Alps, Whymper position in the only spot of shade within sight. His face is caked addressed the question that he, as a mountaineer, was Only USSSA membership is required to with salt crystals from dried sweat. J so often asked. It is one that we, as trail runners, also NEW in 2016 - He squints at me and chuckles, slowly, when he sees what often face—the question of why we do it, and whether our be eligible to participate in the National Champion- must be a look of horror on my face. I overcorrect with a broad toiling in the mountains “repays” us. ship events! Join today! smile and the ridiculous question of, “Heeey, how’s it going?” “We cannot estimate our enjoyment as you measure your “Not so great,” comes the obvious answer. wine or weigh your lead; it is real nevertheless,” Whymper EVENTS INCLUDE: He tells me he’s been throwing up all afternoon and has been wrote. “My scrambles amongst the Alps have repaid me, for 5km Junior National Snowshoe Championship, lying on the ground here for hours. He doesn’t know what to they have given me two of the best things a man can possess— 10km Senior National Snowshoe Championship, do. I reach down to help him up, forgetting the weakness and health and friends.” Half Marathon National Snowshoe Championship, exhaustion in my own body for a moment; as I struggle to pull The Spaniard asks if this is my first time running UTMB; New in 2016 - Marathon National Snowshoe Championship, him up, we both nearly go tumbling into the side of the tent. he tells me it is his second. When we reach the final stretch, he Kid’s Kilo, Citizen’s 5km Run/Walk We leave the aid station together and when he throws up drops back and whispers, “Go, you first. This is your moment.” and 4 x 2.5km Snowshoe Team Relay. again, it’s a bright shade of crimson. I protest, feeling we should finish together—but he won’t “Don’t worry!” he says, slurring like a drunk. “That’s not hear of it. He just smiles at me, and off I go, flying into the Saturday events take place at Powder Mountain Ski Resort blood. I’ve been drinking shots of beet juice all day.” exultant embrace of a city that, for centuries, has been and Sunday events at Snowbasin Resort. There’s more cheer than misery in his face as we continue preaching the gospel of the mountains. our long, slow tumble into Switzerland. Check out all event details at www.visitogden.com\snowshoe or 17 more hours, I run, and wait for suffering to YITKA WINN is a freelance or www.snowshoeracing.com. catch me. But for 17 more hours, it eludes me—or writer and contributing editor at I elude it. Whenever it threatens, fellow runners Trail Runner. She thanks fellow Questions? F swoop in to bat it away. Once, I sit by the side of contributing editor Doug Mayer Email [email protected]. the trail to massage my aching calves for a few minutes. for his immense help in conducting

No sooner have I made myself comfortable than a jovial YITKA COLLECTION WINN interviews for this story.

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