htv | IAN CORLESS

The Migu Run Skyrunner® World Series continued at a pace today with the High Trail Vanoise – 70km in length and 5400m of vertical gain.

Starting and concluding at the iconic ski resort of Val d’Isere, this race marks back to the early days of Skyrunning mixing fast trails, technical trails, snow, ice and altitude. The course has many key features with highlight coming at Grande Motte (3500m) and then a rollercoaster of climbs and descents that finally culminates with Aiguille Pers (2800m) before dropping down to the Col I’seran before the final push to the line.

Departing under darkness at 0400, it was very apparent that a warm and hot day lay ahead. The early hours were always chilly ones, especially as the runners climbed from the start to Grande Motte at 3500m+ in the first 17.5km. In the early stages, a small group of runners pushed the pace lead by Luis Alberto Hernando, Dimitry Mityaev and Aurelien Dunand Pallaz – the trio arrived at the summit with just 90-seconds between them. In the ladies race, Megan Kimmel arrived first and Ragna Debats followed just 4-minutes later with Mimmi Kotka another 1-minute back. It was all too close to call!

From the summit of Grande Motte, the arrival of sunlight facilitated the long fast descent past Lac de Tignes all the way to La Daille at approximately 34km. By now the runners were spread out all over the course but the front of the race saw Hernando, Dunand Pallaz and Mityaev arrive together and it stayed that way up the steep climb. Megan Kimmel had a 2-minute slender lead over Debats who looked strong and fight for 3rd was between Kotka and the USA’s Hillary Allen.

A 4km climb to Lac Sassier was followed with a rollercoaster descent to Le Fornet at 46km, Hernando had opened up a 2-minute gap on Dunand Pallaz and Mityaev was 11-minutes back. Kimmel also opened the gap over Debats – would 7-minutes be enough?

Now the action was really unfolding and arguably, the next section of the course from Le Fornet to Aiguille Pers via Tete Cema was going to be instrumental as this section climbed for 10km with an altitude gain of 1400m +/-.

From the summit a fast descent to the iconic Col I’seran was followed by a short climb with technical sections before passing through a tunnel through the mountains which was followed by a fast drop to the line and finish in Val d’Isere.

Hernando here put the hammer down and slowly but surely stretched the elastic and took a strong victory in 8:17:05 smashing the old course record. Dunand Pallaz followed in 8:31:04 and Mityaev sealed the last podium place in 8:43:10.

Kimmel’s victory never looked in doubt in the final stages and her 9:46:05 to Debats 9:52:10 showed how close the ladies race was. The battle for 3rd was also close with Kotka and Allen both struggling with fatigue in the latter stages – Kotka held on with 10:30:21 to Allen’s 10:33:52.

Notably, the High Trail Vanoise was the Skyrunning European Championships and Luis Albert Hernad and Ragna Debats were crowned 2017 Champions.

Full results HERE

Attention now turns to Italy to the Gran Paradiso race, the first ‘extreme’ race in the 2017 Migu Run Skyrunner® World Series.

All images ©iancorless.com

The 2017 Migu Run Skyrunner World Series arrives in Val d’Isere, France this wwekens for the High Trail Vanoise and the Face de Bellevarde VK (VK World Circuit) kicks off the action at 1600 on Friday when runners will climb this classic downhill ski route all the way to the summit.

Skyrunning legend Marco De Gasperi, held the record of 34:51 set on this course many years ago last year Xavier Gachet broke it! This year, Nejc Kuhar will be looking to set a new benchmark along with Marco Moletto. The young runner won’t have it all his own way though, Ferran Teixido, current leader in the SWS rankings will be looking for a strong performance and the ever-present Hannes Perkmann, William Bon Mardion and Marc Faccinhelli will push all the way to the summit.

For the ladies, Francesca Rossi ultimately may be the one to beat! Ekaterina Mityaev and Stephanie Jimenez will be putting on a hard-fought battle along with Corinne Favre and Jennifer Fiechter, but can they beat Laura Orgue’s time of 40:52?

High Trail Vanoise is the main event of the weekend – Ice, snow, glaciers, high altitude, the High Trail Vanoise course has it all. Crossing the iconic Col D’Iseran at 2764m is merely just a taster, at 67km in length, runners will climb and descend many 1000’s of meters with a total vertical gain of 5400m – the high point of the course is the impressive Grande Motte at 3653m.

Luis Alberto Hernando heads up the men’s field, he recently became IAU World Trail Running champion for a 2nd year in a row – Luis has excelled in Val d’Isere in recent years and he is without doubt the one to beat!

Nicolas Martin won the race last-year and apparently, HTV is a priority race for 2017. It’s going to be interesting to see Luis and Nicolas go head-to-head, a little like a few years ago when Francois d’Haene and Luis raced each other – that day Francois won.

Aurelien Dunand-Pallaz recently lead the Ultra Skymarathon Madeira but was pipped to the line by Skyrunner Extreme Champion Jon Albon, we can expect Aurelien to figure at the front of the race along with 3rd place at USM, Dmitry Mityaev who is having a strong year in the world series, he also knows HTV well having podium last year.

Remigio Huaman, Andre Jonsson, Daniel Garcia Gomez, Jan Bartas, Nuno Silva and Scott Hawker head up the competition for the front of the race but it’s a stacked field and we can’t rule any of the runners below making an impression on what is a very tough race – patience pays dividends!

Xavier Teixido, Alexey Kurochkin, Artem Rostovstev, Clement Ripoll, Marc Puig, Francesc Sole Duocastella, Lars Olaf Haaheim and Nicola Alfieri.

Megan Kimmel fresh from victory in Chamonix will be looking to for maximum points in France, her form is great now, she recently beat Transvulcania champion Ida Nilsson by over 10-minutes! Local French lady Anne-Lise Rousset may well have other thoughts though, she won the race last year with a dominant performance and she knows this course well – it will be a tough race! Travelling from the USA, Kristina Pattison will be looking to repeat her performance from last year and hopefully better it.

Ekaterina Mityaeva is moving un from the ‘classic’ distance in 2017 and has already showed some great results, particularly at USM recently. HTV will be a tough challenge but the podium is there for the taking. Nuria Dominguez, Manikala Rai, Eva Maria Moreda and Ildiko Wermescher are all names to watch.

But the greatest threat for the podium will come from Ragna Debats who recently won with a new CR in Greece, Francesca Canepa who took victory at the tough Scenic 113k, the USA’s Hillary Allen who won USM and Gemma Arenas who was the world series champion in 2016 – it’s going to be quite a battle!