UTMB: My Perspective

I’ll be honest, I was bitterly disappointed to not have a place in this years Ultra Trail du Mont Blanc (UTMB). Having competed over the last three years (here’s a look inside last years race), this was the first year that I wasn’t lucky in the lottery.Rather than feeling deflated, I decided to cover this years event, albeit in a slightly removed way. I didn’t want to take part in my own ultra endurance photography mission, racing from aid station to aid station trying to catch a glimpse of the runners for 24 plus hours. I’ve experienced this style before and it’s not always pretty. You end up sitting in a car, eating fast food and capturing images that have a limited lifespan due to the editorial nature of a race. I strive to be active throughout my work and hate the idea of capturing athletes if i’m sitting around doing little exercise myself.To combat this, I made a pretty simple plan. Knowing most of the race routes through previous experience, I decided to wild camp throughout the valley, photographing the action that came directly past me as a snapshot of that time. This scenario removes the chance of covering the event from start to finish, but offers a great experience in the meantime. Exercise was now taken care of as my intended camps always involved around 1000m of hiking to get there. With my f-stop camera bag stuffed with camping and camera gear, I was suitably tired each night to not stress about doing any more exercise.Here’s how the UTMB race weekend looked to me:My first ever night wild camping. I’d taken along Outside Magazine to read and hurriedly flipped past the article about double murder on the Appalachian Trail. The Aiguille de Midi and Mont Blanc offer a nice view for the first night. The headlamps of runner competing in the TDS race can be seen in the mountains far right.A better view of the TDS race. I completed this race myself in 2013 and it’s truly an incredible course. With a 20km downhill followed by a 2000m ascent, this race gives it all. This image captured around 1am would be the runners coming in around 50th place.Italy! Oh man, what a view. The second race of the weekend was the CCC. Again, I’ve competed in this race in 2012 and it kicked my ass. That year the course was shortened due to heavy snow. No such problems this year as I made my camp high above Courmayeur in time for sunset. A refuge was about 20 minutes walk away, so once pitched I grabbed a couple of beers for the night.Just like sunset, sunrise was pretty epic too. The CCC started at 9am, giving me the chance to pack up slowly and hike a little into the course before the lead runners were due by.Tour de Mont Blanc route markings on the Italian side. The UTMB is only for one weekend and the majority of people walk the 170km route. Having spent quite a bit of time over the last years on the route, I can’t recommend it highly enough. Its amazing.Walking up to the CCC course, I could see a helicopter dropping off organisers at the high point of the race.10:04am. Despite the CCC race having started at 9am, the runners had a big climb before they got to me. Plenty of time to grab some running self portraits.10:45am and the lead pack come by flying. Nike Trail Running had brought along some athletes who dominated the event from start to finish. I like the track athletics feel to their kits, with short shorts and vests as opposed some of the tight fitting gear that’s loved in Europe.10:46am and i’ve rotated my body 45 degrees since the last shot. The course that follows the UTMB races, especially around the Italian Val Ferret, is simply incredible.The weather always plays a major role in the outcome of the UTMB races. As I just mentioned, we had heavy snow in 2012 and it was really tough going. This year it was the heat, with a period of high temperatures ready to greet the racers. Lots of unscheduled stops into pools of water and streams was the order of the races.Racing towards the first aid station at the Italian Refuge Bertone, these runners still had to cross over into Switzerland and then into France before their race would be done.Following the days earlier CCC, I had to head back to Geneva to pick up my girlfriend to join me on night 3. Our date night involved driving to Arnouva, at the end of the Val Ferret, grabbing dinner and hiking up towards the Grand Col Ferret with headlamps on. The peak marks the boundary between Italy and Switzerland and it’s one of my favourite places in the world. It’s also well placed at around 100km into the UTMB.We pitched the tent on the side of the route and grabbed some sleep before the front runners came past at 5.45am. The first ten competitors were quite spread out and Julien Chorier (pictured here) made his way past us as the sun just started to rise. I’ve worked with Julien a lot now and I often use him for my French practice. Upon asking him how he was doing, he told me that he couldn’t put his full foot down anymore or do any running. Not quite understanding what he replied (his response was translated to me afterwards), I gave the standard “Super, allez, allez, bravo” encouragement that most French runners afforded. Poor guy. He was just trying to tell me how he was feeling. He abandoned the race at the next checkpoint.Shortly after Julien passed, the light started to creep up and over the peaks to start warming the valley.Our camp becomes apparent as the starts to brighten the valley, with the shadows of mountains showing how great this place is. Not a bad spot and right on the UTMB course too.Joe Grant makes his way up the slopes of the Grand col Ferret, just as the light starts to touch the ridges of the mountain.Shortly afterwards, an explosion of light wakens up the valley. Fernanda Maciel came past just after 8am, whereas the last runner wouldn’t pass through this area for another twelve hours.