The Swiss just do things better. Their superb modern trains run on time to every part of the country, the chocolate is the tastiest, Swiss watches the pinnacle of engineering and luxury, their army knives incredibly useful, champions of direct democracy and their banks the best place to store your gold.
And the same is true of trail races. The SwissPeaks races started in 2018 with the 360km, and have evolved into a 10 race series, each year the organisers listening to runner’s feedback and improving the route, aid stations, finish area and the whole experience. Each race has on average 200 runners, so relatively small compared to say, the over hyped and marketed UTMB series, and relies on volunteers from the Cantons and villages with every local person enthusiastically supporting the races.
I had first done the 360km race back in 2019, persuading John Ryan to enter too, when we ran separately for the first 310km, but shared the last night and 50km together which involved tales of breaking and entering, sleeping in a church, renovating a ski-hut, a lost iPhone and a lost 3 hours. I had returned again in 2021 with Matt Davis and we had ended up running the whole route together entertaining those along the way with our chat and British humour.
Looking for a big race to do in 2023, and concerned about big corporate sponsorship, myself and John checked the sponsors of SwissPeaks; a cooperatively owned bank called Raiffeisen and a sports clothing brand Compressport. All seemed well. There was now also a “Duo” option, limited to 50 teams, and we thought it would a good idea to put a single entry in as a team this time. This would halve our travel C02 emissions if we divided the total by two.
The 360km route starts high up in the Valais region at Oberwald, close to the Glacier du Rhône, following a line roughly south west, parallel to the River Rhone, but climbing over 28 high cols with a cumulative total ascent of 25,900m, and a high point of 2,985m on the Col de Prafleuri, finishing at the lake Geneva. The trail is marked with red flags made of maize (although these sometimes appeal to the grazing alpine cattle), and takes you through some stunning remote mountain areas with views of the Monte Rosa, Matterhorn, Weisshorn, Grand Combin and Mont Blanc. The race is continuous; you rest when you want at any of the 6 life bases or 25 aid stations. With some tough early cut-offs, much of the time you are moving under clear starry moonlight skies. We aimed for 2 hours sleep a night, and the accommodation and food in the life bases and aid stations was stellar; cured meats, cheeses, omelettes, rösti, trout, bolognese pasta, raclette, stroganoff, lasagne, biscuits, fruit and of course chocolate.
Needless to say, a short web report cannot contain all that we experienced in this fantastic journey, including a “lost 3 hours” on the Fenetre d’Arpette….. So for anyone interested in entering a future edition, then I’d be more than happy to regale them with tales of our 127 hours 48 minutes over a pint or two.
In summary we made it back to the finish on Lake Geneva, surprising ourselves with being second team (just 34 starting teams, 7 finished), each of us presented with a Double Magnum bottle of fine Swiss Wine (their wine is the best too, but they keep it for themselves). This presented a problem on how to get it onboard the flight home, perhaps we should have
taken the train…
Four other Carnethies had ventured out to Le Bouveret too; Billy and Dorothy Elliot ran the 45km “Marathon”, 2,160m of ascent, together with Brian Dempster who finished 2nd MV50 on his 50th birthday! having travelled from his new home in Shetland. And Paul Nash in his first Alps race ran the 70km, 3,900m of ascent after many years of listening to his brother going on about how great racing in the Alps is. In a post-race interview Paul described the race as “fun”.
With no required points or “running stones” or ballot to enter, or previous experience (even for the 360Km), if you’re fit enough just enter and book your travel. There are now 360km, 170km, 100km, 70km, 45km and 21km options plus 3 kids races, and if none of those spark your interest, from 2024 there is a 660km (49,000m ascent) race. I’ll maybe wait a few months before asking John if he fancies that.
Race info: https://swisspeaks.ch/?lang=en
Results: https://livetrack.me/fr/evenement/swisspeaks/edition/swip-2023