Departure of the 2022 edition of the UTMB, the Ultra-Trail du Mont-Blanc, in Chamonix on August 22, 2022. FRANCK ODDOUX / UTMB
Thousands of runners in fluorescent shorts stamp their feet under a huge blue arch, where the logos of sports brands and cars are displayed. At the moment of departure, loudspeakers spit out the first notes of Conquest of Paradise, bombastic piece written by Vangelis for a film about Christopher Columbus. This is the well-oiled ritual of the Ultra-Trail du Mont-Blanc (UTMB), organized at the end of August in Chamonix (Haute-Savoie). Some purists denounce the too commercial turn taken by the competition, far from the promises of immersive and wild adventure defended by ultra-trail enthusiasts, these races of more than 80 kilometers in the middle of nature. Since the early 2000s, ultra-trail has exploded in France and around the world – according to the Union Sport & Cycle, a union of sports-related companies, thirteen thousand runners have finished the sixty-two ultra- trails organized in France in 2022. Over the years, a whole market has been structured around races, equipment and the athletes themselves.
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Even if the ultra-trail is officially attached to the French Athletics Federation, most competitions are organized by private companies, which rely on associations to recruit the hundreds of volunteers supervising the courses. The UTMB, made up of eight races of all levels, now attracts 12,000 runners of more than one hundred nationalities, one hundred thousand spectators and five hundred journalists. The event’s biggest race, a 171-kilometre course through France, Italy and Switzerland, is limited to 2,500 participants. “The whole town of Chamonix vibrates to the rhythm of the trail. This is the busiest week of the year in terms of attendance, more than in the middle of the winter sports season”welcomes Frédéric Lénart, general manager of the UTMB.
The UTMB is now an international brand, which has developed the UTMB World Series: thirty-six races in twenty-two countries, from South Africa to the United States via China. “This corresponds to our desire to deploy the brand internationally, to unite our communities and offer our runner experience elsewhere, with our safety standards”, specifies Frédéric Lénart. Like most ultra-trails, the UTMB has also become a showcase for sponsors – this year the competition, which will run from August 28 to September 3, is teaming up with American fitness technology company Wahoo and the Romanian car manufacturer Dacia.
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