UTMB stopped due to bad weather

UTMB (as well as CCC and TDS) was stopped for security reasons due to bad weather on the mountains only three hours after the start on Friday.

At the time of hearing the sad news the competitors were doing fine and found it difficult to understand why they were not allowed to continue the race. Just see their faces in the video below!

The last dispatch – the runners react to the race cancellation. | The North Face Blog

At a press conference on Saturday, Aug. 28, at 1 am, Catherine Poletti, the race director explained the motives that have led to the decision to stop UTMB (roughly translated from French).

"We discontinued the UTMB for security reasons. The weather forecast predicting heavy rain continued into Saturday morning and there was a significant risk of fog. There was also a lot of wind and snow at around 2500 m altitude.

We have stopped the race in order not to risk that some of the competitors would be lost.

We mobilized a helicopter, but the weather remained unfavorable and didn't allow us to continue.

We are now trying to find a solution for the competitors who have traveled thousands of miles to run here. [Edit: UTMB and TDS starters have received a text message about a chance to run the last 99 km of the UTMB course on Saturday. It is the CCC-route (Courmayeur - Champex -Chamonix).]

Sectors of the course have been swept away by bad weather.

We have found solutions to fetching the 2,300 runners, mobilizing buses and trains to carry the participants to Chamonix. We have also opened facilities and provided blankets to accommodate people without accommodation."

(Edit: There was also another reason to cancel the race: the signs marking the course had been stolen between Col du Bonhomme and Chapieux (40-50 km).]