Mont-Blanc, live.

Under twenty hours or over forty-six, the same arch

One week in late August, eight races and three countries, and almost every one of them ends under the same arch in the centre of Chamonix.

HOKA UTMB Mont-Blanc ran from 24 to 30 August in 2026. The week opened on the Monday with the MCC, 40 km from Martigny-Combe at 10:00, and the TDS, 145 km from Courmayeur at 23:50. The ETC looped 15 km around Courmayeur on Tuesday afternoon, the OCC left Orsières at 08:15 on Thursday for 60 km, and Friday carried the two biggest starts: the CCC, 108 km from Courmayeur at 09:00, and the UTMB itself, 174 km and 9,700 metres of climb from Chamonix at 19:45. The PTL and the YCC complete the programme.

The UTMB, created in 2003, is a full loop of the massif. The organiser’s chart takes it down to Saint-Gervais at 809 metres, over the Col du Bonhomme and Col de la Seigne into Italy, through Courmayeur at 83 km, over the Grand Col Ferret at 2,527 metres into Switzerland, and back into France at Vallorcine. The organiser says finishers take anything from under 20 hours to more than 46, on the same course, with a limit of 45 hours 30.

That spread is what makes following it hard. A runner who starts at 19:45 on Friday may still be on the course on Sunday afternoon, through two nights and over passes where a phone often has no signal. On Livebib the runner shares a link to their own broadcast; family and friends open it in a browser, with no account and no app, and see the position on the course line, the distance covered and a finish estimate that updates as the race goes. When the signal drops on a col, the position is carried forward along the course and marked as estimated rather than freezing. The runner decides who gets the link.