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The Vertical KM race in Fully, Switzerland is considered to be the fastest vertical kilometer course in the world. The race, held on a former funicular route, is home to both the men’s and women’s world records. This past weekend, temperatures were too warm for a new world record. But, nonetheless, a great race was

Trail running here in the Alps is unlike anywhere else I’ve ever laced up my Salomons and headed out the door. One’s body simply needs time to adjust to the sheer verticality of it all— no matter what your pre-trip training back home. For me, a purely recreational runner, I notice a change at about three to four weeks. Like all

As trail running grows–some would say explodes in popularity–all manner of new ventures are taking shape. The ultra-famous, ultra-hard 166 km UTMB just announced yet one more event to its series—the OCC, Orsières-Champex-Chamonix. Running camps and personal trainers are showing up on the scene. In the states and throughout Europe, trail races are filling up in hours, sometimes minutes. Those of us

We have been at it for 20 minutes already, and I am soaked with sweat. Today’s race, Fully-Sorniot, offers runners a full five minutes of pleasant coasting along old village roads, until delivering the goods: 1.6 vertical kilometers of ass-kicking, no-holes-barred switchbacks. I try not to look up, but it’s too tempting. I glance skyward, and all I see is… rock.

2013 marks the 50th anniversary of the inauguration of the Tour Dents du Midi, the walking route that encircles one of Switzerland’s best-known mountain ranges, adjacent to its border with France. For that reason, yesterday’s annual trail race around the seven jagged peaks that make up the Dents du Midi held special significance. With or without this historic marker, however, the