LAVAREDO ULTRA TRAIL 2026 PREVIEW: THE 120K QUEEN RACE RETURNS TO CORTINA
The 2026 edition of the Lavaredo Ultra Trail runs from June 24 to 28 in Cortina d'Ampezzo, with the 120K queen race starting late on the night of June 26. Runners face 120 kilometers and 5,800 meters of vertical gain through the heart of the Dolomites before finishing back in Cortina, in the shadow of the Tre Cime di Lavaredo that gives the race its name.
The event has grown into a five-distance weekend on the UTMB World Series calendar, with races from 20K up to the 120K. The flagship 120K carries the series' 100-mile classification and a full allocation of Running Stones, the points and qualifying credit that feed into UTMB's global championship structure. That status pulls a deep international field to a single mountain town each June.
The Course
The 120K leaves Cortina near midnight and climbs straight into the dark. Runners spend the first hours gaining altitude before sunrise breaks over the limestone towers of the Dolomites, a stretch that has become one of the most recognizable images in trail running.
The route links a series of high passes and valley descents, with the Tre Cime di Lavaredo as the visual and emotional centerpiece. At 5,800 meters of climbing across 120 kilometers, the course rewards runners who can manage steep, technical descending as much as those who can climb. The time limit stretches to 30 hours, which keeps the field on course well into a second day.
Weather is the variable that shapes every edition. The Dolomites can deliver heat, cold, and rain inside a single race, and the high passes leave little shelter. Recent years have seen conditions swing from clear and fast to wet and slow, and the forecast in the final days before the start often reshapes how the front of the race plays out.
The Record To Chase
The men's benchmark belongs to Hannes Namberger. The German runner set the 120K course record in 2022, becoming the first man to cover the route in under 12 hours, and he returned to win again in 2024. He now counts three Lavaredo 120K titles, a record of consistency that makes his mark the reference point for anyone racing the front of the field.
Namberger's record reset the standard for what the course allows. Going under 12 hours over 120 kilometers and 5,800 meters of climbing requires both a strong climber and a runner willing to push the descents, and the time has stood as the target through the editions since.
The race also functions as an early-season measuring stick for the international ultra calendar. Lavaredo lands in late June, the same stretch that holds the Western States 100 and the opening rounds of the UTMB World Series, and results here often signal who is carrying form into the heart of the summer.
The Weekend Around It
The shorter distances fill out the program across the four days, drawing thousands of runners to Cortina alongside the 120K field. The 80K and 50K races carry their own UTMB World Series classifications, and the smaller events bring local and first-time trail runners into the same start area as the elite field.
The race traces back to 2007, when it began as a single Dolomites loop before expanding into the multi-distance weekend it is today. For the longer arc of how the event grew and how its records have fallen, see the history of the Lavaredo Ultra Trail.
The 2026 elite start list remained subject to change in the days before the race, as is standard for a UTMB World Series event. What does not change is the course itself. The 120K starts in the dark, climbs toward the Tre Cime as the sun comes up, and asks runners to hold their footing through nearly 6,000 meters of descent before they return to Cortina.