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After the Crowds: Fall Trail Racing in the Alps and Trail Dents-du-Midi, the Oldest Trail Race in Europe

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It’s fall in the Alps. The green pastures of a Switzerland summer have turned shades of brown and red. US trail runners have, for the most part, packed up their Salomons, Hokas, and Sportivas and headed for their homes in the New World. With the internationally-flavored alphabet soup of races like UTMB, CCC, and OCC

Semi-Marathon des Côtes de l’Orbe: Running with Wine

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Can you imagine running a half-marathon with aid stations offering wine? Such a race exists here in Switzerland, which I had the pleasure of running last Saturday. If you’re looking for picturesque landscapes, a festive atmosphere and the opportunity to wear a ridiculous costume during a race (a sporty dirndl, perhaps?), then I recommend signing

Run the Alps: 2015 Tours Are Here!

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It’s been a great season. Looking back, it feels like a crazy whirlwind of gorgeous alp trail running, huts, friends new and old, croissants, cafe au lait, wine, mud, cows, alp horns, trail races, glaciers… it’s all a blur. In the meantime, we already have some news to report: our 2015 summer schedule is here! Doug

Holimites… Rolling Through the Dolomites

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So… what just happened? That was the thought Troy Haines and I had last week, after spending 24 hours with Holimites, on their last trail running tour of the season in Italy’s Dolomites. We had headed from our respective corners of Switzerland to Igor Tavella’s village of Badia, to talk about a partnership between Holimites and Run

Sierre-Zinal: How to do it

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Sierre-Zinal is arguably one of the best-known trail races in the world. Here are Run the Alp’s tips for having a great experience.

Who’s the American Kid? The Story of Jim Maddock at Matterhorn Ultraks

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As 2014’s Matterhorn Ultraks comes to a close, it’s worth taking a look back at a remarkable story behind the scenes from last year, involving Jim Maddock from Run the Alps. We thought you’d enjoy this story of what happens when you have one of those days, when everything falls beautifully in to place. This is a story about a friend from my town

Matterhorn Ultraks: The 30 km Edition

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Smooth and easy going, with no shortage of sheer lusciousness, punctuated by moments that demand the participant’s attention. Generally goes down easy and leaves one with a poignant memory. Best sampled with fine company, on a fair day. Admission: I don’t know wines. At all. Connoisseur is never a word that would be applied to me,

The Alpstein: Trail Running in a Vertical World

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Years ago, I saw a photo of a high alp mountain hotel. It looked like it had welcomed guests to its corner of the Alps for a century or more. Weather beaten pine boards showed the consequences of facing mountain storms over many years. In reality, the look wasn’t all that unusual for the Swiss

Eiger Ultra 2014: The Pleasure Trail

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The Eiger, with its world-famous North Face, towers over the Swiss village of Grindelwald. The foreboding rock and ice wall looms large in the storied history of Alp mountaineering. And, now, the name has been bestowed upon one of the great new trail races in Switzerland, the Eiger Ultra. A few weeks ago, the race attracted

Eiger Ultra: How Not to Do It

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It’s 4:30 in the morning, and I am lost, wandering through a construction zone in the middle of Grindelwald, Switzerland. I am surrounded by concrete and rebar. Across Dorfstrasse, the latest watches from Tissot and Breitling are expertly arranged, ready to catch the eye of cash-burdened tourists arriving daily from London to Dubai. I am

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