I remembered how great it feels to give something back, no matter how small. Though low on oxygen, many tossed back a friendly Merci. At the top of a long, steep pasture, I swung the bell wildly, yelling, Allez-Allez, Bonne Chance, Bonne Course, Bravo, and having quick conversations with passing runners. Ninety minutes later, a thousand meters above the valley, I was ready when the first of the 350 runners came through. Headlamps aglow, runners near treeline during the 49th year of the Dents-du-Midi trail race. The Dents-du-Midi range is so strikingly beautiful to the human eye, painters have come from afar for a century or more to put oil on canvas with the seven summits of the range over the top of their easels.
But the classic run-the one that started it all-is the 57 km loop around the range, with 3,700 meters of climbing and descending. It’s not overrun in August, and everyone still says Bonjour to each other– and they mean it.ĭDM Trail has several options, among them a two-person relay, a 32 km race on the second half of the course, and a 10 km course. Champéry is special-quiet, rustic, and largely undiscovered by foreign tourists. Third, you’ll pass by mountain huts, small villages, and start and finish in the end-of-the-valley Swiss village of Champéry, on the border with France in the French-speaking portion of Switzerland’s mountainous Valais canton. Second, the course is wild and wonderful, with everything from high-elevation single track, to technical sections with chains and cables-though nothing close to extreme by Alps standards.
It hasn’t been overtaken by marketing hype or high-priced entries. But there are many reasons to consider taking part in DDM Trail.
You need to find the right race for your skills and training, if indeed you care to trail race at all. The 1975 edition of the Dents-du-Midi race.
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