In the case of the On Running ultratrail athletes Katie Schide and Germain Grangier, the conquest of the Alps can be added to their growing collection of already completed bucket-list adventures. At dawn on Sunday, July 19 this year, the two athletes started their epic journey in Cervinia, Italy, with the ascent of the Breithorn (4,164 m). After spending the night in the Schönbielhütte, they set out on a 120 km passage on the Haute Route, which leads from Zermatt in Switzerland to Chamonix in France. Forced to take refuge from the weather, they restarted and finished their journey the next day, Thursday, July 23, with the descent from Mont Blanc in just one day. In total, they covered about 188 km with more than 13,500 meters of elevation gain in three stages and in a total of 42 hours. Schilde is a professional trail runner from Maine, USA, who lives in the Swiss Alps and in her career has already won the prestigious Mont Blanc 90k and the MaXi race Annecy. Grangier from France is her coach and partner. He is a regular at the Ultra-Trail Côte d’Azur Mercantour and says that the Ultra-Trail du Mont-Blanc has been the most important competition for him up to now.
Photo: © Mountains Legacy for On
