Ultra-Trail du Mont Blanc 2019 (30th Aug – 1st Sept)

Can’t be done on your own ….. Seamus Moran acted as support for David

David Fagan’s “Alpine tour”

For most people, Mont Blanc is the highest peak in the Alps that they might see in the distance when on holidays on the Continent, but for David Fagan it was the focal point for his latest ultramarathon effort, the Ultra-Trail du Mont Blanc (UTMB), a 171km ultramarathon on a grueling circular trail through three countries, from the alpine town of Chamonix in France, into Italy, through Switzerland and finishing back at Chamonix, starting on Friday evening 30th August and finishing on Sunday morning 1st September. The race reached an altitude of about 2,500m, and snaked around Mont Blanc, but with over ten uphill and downhill sections, the total elevation gain was around 10,000m, so not for the faint hearted. As a measure of difficulty, typically about a third of the entrants are not able to complete the course every year, so as he headed off on Friday evening, David knew he was really up against it and would have to dig very deep to complete the course!

David started at 6pm on Friday evening and finished just after midday on Sunday, a total of just over 42 hours on the go. Of the 2,543 starters, 970 didn’t finish at all, so the enormity of the test completed by David is not to be underestimated and everyone at the Club congratulates him on his success in completing the “UTMB 2019”.