The journey counts as much as the clock

01 Where it comes from

Alpe Adria Ultra Trail grew out of a project to promote the Alpe Adria Trail. From this comes a philosophy that belongs not only to trail running and skyrunning in their purest form, but also to fast and long-distance hiking. Discover the full story →

02 A trend moving away from the journey

These days, races tend to be faster and more focused on the stopwatch. Over the past ten years, average times have dropped, and organisers tend to concentrate resources into a shorter race window.

Compared to trail running tradition, today's races on average offer more services and more staff along the course, but also come with much tighter maximum times and time barriers. This pushes competitors to run faster and focus more on athletic performance, pushing the pleasure of the journey and of discovery into the background.

More support can reduce some risk factors, but the higher speed at which routes are tackled can increase others. It's a general trend, one that leaves many slower runners, as well as expert, fast hikers who are also capable of running, no longer able to take on the longer distances.

03 Back to its roots

Alpe Adria Ultra Trail was created specifically to bring this sport back to its roots. Mountain ultra-trail running in fact developed out of hiking, fast mountaineering and fast hiking, before gradually moving closer to the world of running.

The trend towards ever-tighter time barriers and greater support along the course is instead closer to the world of athletics and skyrunning. With Alpe Adria Ultra Trail we want to answer a different need.

Our races have time barrier times and a maximum time, but they also indicate an average reference time, designed to let you tackle the course as a fast-hiking experience.

04 What running with us means

Anyone coming from the world of skyrunning who expects heavily supported courses, with a constant presence of staff and set-up, should know that this event follows a different approach. The presence of infrastructure and staff along the course is more limited, because resources are spread over a much longer time window.

From an economic and organisational point of view, this choice requires a greater effort. For the participant, instead, it means facing the race with a higher level of self-sufficiency.

This doesn't mean there are no refreshment points, or that competitors are left on their own. It simply means facing the race with a different kind of preparation, approach and mindset than you would for a skyrun.