Ultra-Trail Australia by UTMB, live.

Five races out of the Jamison Valley

The Blue Mountains put a thousand-foot sandstone wall between a runner and the finish line, and then build a staircase up it.

Ultra-Trail Australia is the largest trail running festival in the southern hemisphere, run out of Scenic World at Katoomba over four days in May. The UTA100 is the anchor: 101 kilometres and 4,400 metres of climbing down into the Jamison Valley, out along the escarpment, up the Kedumba Pass and finally up the 951 Furber Steps to the finish. The Miler doubles it from Blackheath, the UTA50 takes the second half, and the UTA22 and UTA11 run the cliff-top trails above the Three Sisters.

Most of the course is invisible from the road — the valley floor is a full day’s walk from anywhere — which is why the event is followed rather than watched. On Livebib the whole route is on the map with the runner on it, checkpoint splits as they happen and an arrival estimate for the top of the Furber Steps that keeps updating. One link, free to watch, and it works just as well from Sydney as from the finish line.