UTMB 2026

Ben Dhiman and Blandine L'Hirondel set new course records on the 173.6km loop around Mont Blanc, Dhiman by more than an hour. The full podium, the record margins, and the real system runners have to work through to earn a start line spot.

By Miles Ashworth · 31 Aug 2026 · 2 min read · United States edition

The start of the 2026 UTMB in Chamonix, under the HOKA UTMB Mont-Blanc arch, race clock reading elapsed time for the event's different start waves. Photo: Jeff Pachoud.

The Ultra-Trail du Mont-Blanc set two new course records during race week, August 24-30, 2026, with the main event starting in Chamonix on Friday, August 28 at 19:45. Ben Dhiman of the United States won the men's race in 18 hours, 16 minutes and 29 seconds, more than an hour faster than Tom Evans's winning time from 2025 (19:18:58) and comfortably the fastest men's finish in the race's history. Blandine L'Hirondel of France won the women's race in 21:54:49, beating the previous best mark, Katie Schide's 22:09:31 from 2024, by nearly 15 minutes.

Dhiman was followed onto the men's podium by Baptiste Chassagne in second and Caleb Olson in third. L'Hirondel's podium was completed by Rachel Entrekin in second and Emily Schmitz in third. Exact finish times for the rest of the podium weren't published alongside the winners' results.

Getting In: The Running Stones System

UTMB's entry system runs on two factors together. A UTMB Index score, built from a runner's performance history, determines basic eligibility. Beyond that, entrants earn "Running Stones" by finishing races in the UTMB World Series, between 1 and 4 stones depending on the distance (20K up to 100 miles), doubled for races run at Majors-level events. Each stone earned becomes one entry into the lottery draw for the Chamonix Finals, so the realistic path into UTMB is built over a season or more of qualifying races, not a single application.

Chamonix's town square, set up for UTMB, with the Mont Blanc massif behind. Photo not confirmed as specific to the 2026 edition. Via Wikimedia Commons.

The Course

The route covers 173.6 kilometres and circles Mont Blanc via the historic Tour du Mont Blanc trail, crossing France, Italy and Switzerland over the course of the race, with the official 2026 elevation figure listed at 9,700 metres of climbing (commonly rounded to "roughly 10,000 metres" elsewhere). Around 50 checkpoints track runners via magnetic timing badges along the route, with four major aid stations at Chamonix, Les Chapieux, Courmayeur and Champex. Pacers aren't permitted, and runners race under mandatory equipment rules covering everything from a first aid kit to cold-weather layers, since conditions on the high passes can turn dangerous even in late August.

It's widely regarded as one of the toughest single events in endurance sport, not because of technical climbing difficulty but because of the sheer combination of distance, elevation, and the sleep deprivation that comes with racing through multiple nights. This year, 2,407 runners started the race; the total number who finished wasn't published alongside the results.