SOMMERSETH AND WYLEZALEK WIN THE 2026 EIGER ULTRA TRAIL E101
Stian Dahl Sommerseth of Norway covered 101 kilometers and 6,700 meters of climbing above Grindelwald in 11:44:03 to win the E101, the longest race on the program.
Alina Wylezalek of Poland won the women's E101 in 14:01:24. Both took their titles at the 2026 Eiger Ultra Trail, the UTMB World Series event staged beneath the Eiger north face in the Bernese Oberland.
The men's race
Sommerseth reached the finish 59 minutes and 25 seconds outside the course record. Shen Jiasheng set that mark of 10:44:38 in 2022, and it has survived four editions since.
The winning time also fell behind the 11:05:32 Andreas Reiterer ran in 2024 and the 11:38:35 Hannes Namberger ran in 2023. Sommerseth's mark sits within nine minutes of the 11:38:41 that won the race in 2019.
Winning times here have clustered in a narrow band. Setting aside Shen's record, every men's winner on record has finished between 11:01 and 11:45. Stephan Hugenschmidt ran 11:01:11 in 2017, Diego Pazos 11:39:12 in 2016, and Urs Jenzer 11:44:31 in 2015.
That last time is 28 seconds slower than Sommerseth's. The 2026 winning mark is the slowest since 2015 among recorded editions, though comparisons across years on this course carry the usual caveats about weather and route adjustments.
The women's race
Wylezalek finished in 14:01:24, more than an hour outside Caroline Chaverot's course record of 12:45:04 from 2015. Chaverot's mark has now stood for 11 years.
The winning time was also slower than the 13:09:37 Hannah Allgood ran in 2024 and the 13:37:21 Katharina Hartmuth ran in 2022. Only one woman in the race's recorded winners has finished slower, Kathrin Gotz at 14:05:27 in 2019.
Gotz also won in 2018 in 13:49:07, and Andrea Huser took the 2017 title in 13:46:30. The women's field has historically finished the E101 roughly two hours behind the men's winner, and the 2026 gap of two hours and 17 minutes is close to that pattern.
The course
The E101 starts in Grindelwald at 4 a.m. on Saturday and carries a 25-hour cutoff, closing at 5 a.m. on Sunday. The route climbs 6,700 meters over 101 kilometers, passing beneath the north face on its way to Männlichen.
The ratio of climbing to distance is what defines the race. At roughly 66 meters of ascent per kilometer, the E101 is steeper than most 100K trail races, and much of the vertical arrives in long sustained pushes rather than short repeated climbs.
The race is a 100K-category event in the UTMB World Series and awards three Running Stones to finishers. Top-three men and women earn direct qualification into the series finals.
The rest of the weekend
Four shorter distances ran alongside the E101: the E51, E35, E16 and the Trail Surprise. All five races sold out before the start.
Registration for the 2027 edition runs through a lottery, with results due to entrants in late September. The event is scheduled for July 14 to 18 next year.
Results status
Official rankings beyond the two E101 winners had not been posted at the time of writing. Full finisher data will appear on the UTMB live results platform.