ULTRA PIRINEU HISTORY: FROM THE CAVALLS DEL VENT TRAVERSE TO A 100K PYRENEAN CLASSIC

The Ultra Pirineu began in October 2009 as a race called Cavalls del Vent, organized by a local club in the Berguedà region of Catalonia, and it has since grown into a 100-kilometer mountain ultra that draws more than 1,300 runners to the town of Bagà each autumn. The 17th edition takes place over the first weekend of October 2026, and the 100K field sold out months in advance.

This is the story of how a refuge-to-refuge traverse in the Cadí-Moixeró Natural Park became one of the most demanding ultras in southern Europe.

The Cavalls del Vent Traverse

The race takes its origins from a hiking route rather than a running event. In 2003, the Cadí-Moixeró Natural Park opened the Cavalls del Vent, a circuit connecting eight mountain refuges across the massif. The name translates as "Horses of the Wind," a reference to the exposed ridgelines where the route spends much of its distance.

The traverse quickly attracted mountain runners looking for a fast time across the full loop. The refuges gave the route a natural structure of checkpoints, and the high sections between them, much of it above 2,000 meters, offered the kind of exposed ridge running that would later define the race. Kilian Jornet, then a teenager from the neighboring Cerdanya valley, set a circuit record on the route in 2004.

In October 2009, the Associació Esportiva Mountain Runners del Berguedà organized the first competitive edition. It covered roughly 80 kilometers with about 5,800 meters of climbing, and 273 runners took the start in Bagà.

The Early Editions

The inaugural race established a pattern that held for the next decade: Catalan and Spanish runners winning at home. Jessed Hernández won the first edition, and in doing so beat the circuit record that Jornet had set five years earlier. Hernández would return to win again in 2018, by then on a much longer course.

Participation more than doubled in 2010 and 2011, with more than 650 runners on the start line by the third edition. Miguel Heras emerged as the race's first repeat champion, winning in both 2010 and 2011. Jornet started the 2011 race but did not finish.

The 2012 edition, the fourth, produced the race's defining weather disaster. Heavy rain, fog and cold hit the high sections of the course, and only 226 of 1,020 starters reached the finish. The winners were Kilian Jornet, in 8:42:23 on an 84-kilometer course, and Núria Picas in 10:34:18. Jornet's time remains the fastest anyone has covered the route, though on a shorter and different course than the one used today.

Salomon, a New Name, and a Longer Course

By 2013 the race had outgrown its beginnings. Salomon, which had supported the event from the start under its Nature Trails banner, moved it to standalone branding, and the race became the Ultra Pirineu from the 2014 edition, with the original Cavalls del Vent name retired. The organizers also added a companion marathon, the Marató Pirineu at 42 kilometers, and the Nit Pirineu, a vertical kilometer run at night.

The course changed with the name. It stretched to more than 100 kilometers in 2013 and 2014, with climbing above 6,600 meters, and by 2015 it settled at 110 kilometers with roughly 6,800 meters of gain. Luis Alberto Hernando won in 2013 and 2014, and Picas ran her winning streak to four straight from 2011 through 2014.

The 2015 race brought two of the biggest names in the sport to the top of the podium. Jornet won his second title in 12:03:27, and Emelie Forsberg of Sweden won the women's race in 13:39:33. That year's event drew some 2,800 runners across all distances.

Heras returned to win in 2016 in 12:05:51, with Gemma Arenas taking the women's race in 15:20:34. Pablo Villa won in 2017 in 12:30:19 and Maite Maiora in 14:22:19. In 2018, Hernández claimed his second title in 12:35:36 and Ekaterina Mityaeva of Russia won in 15:12:24, the first non-Spanish women's winner since Forsberg.

The Mityaev Era and a Faster Course

The course was reshaped again for 2019, shortened to a little under 100 kilometers with the climbing trimmed to roughly 6,200 meters, and the finishing times dropped sharply. Dmitry Mityaev won in 10:22:55, becoming the first non-Spanish men's winner in the race's history. Mònica Comas won the women's race in 12:31:10.

Mityaev's time still stands as the men's course record, and it was the first time the race had been won in under 10 and a half hours on any version of the course longer than 90 kilometers. The 2020 edition was cancelled because of the pandemic, and the race returned in 2021 on what is now the standard 100-kilometer route with more than 6,500 meters of climbing.

That 2021 edition delivered the current women's record. Azara García won in 12:29:42, and Jornet took his third title in 10:24:44, less than two minutes outside Mityaev's mark.

The 2022 edition belonged to two runners who had won the race together 11 years earlier. Heras, by then 47 years old, won in 10:38:53 for his fourth title, holding off Mityaev, who finished second in 10:42:30. Picas won the women's race for a fifth time, adding to her four straight titles from 2011 to 2014.

The 2023 race went to Miguel Arsenio of Portugal in 10:37:50 and Marta Molist in 12:30:16. In 2024, the 15th edition, Mityaev returned to win in 10:27:38, a little over four minutes outside his own record, with Abel Carretero of Spain second in 10:35:23. Julie Roux of France won the women's race in 12:30:35 in her first race at the distance, ahead of Mityaeva in 12:38:20 and Arenas in 12:41:11. Picas, who had started the race for the eighth time, finished sixth among the women.

The 2025 edition, held on October 4, produced a first. Jonathan Albon of Great Britain won in 10:40:02, the first British winner of the race, and Anna Ongaro of Italy won the women's race in 12:58:47 after moving up from sixth place in the second half.

The Course Today

The current loop starts and finishes in Bagà and stays inside the Cadí-Moixeró Natural Park for almost its entire length. The first major climb rises to the Coll de Pal at about 2,100 meters, roughly 19 kilometers in, and delivers runners onto the high terrain of the Cadí range.

From there the route follows the Cadí ridge at above 2,400 meters, with cliffs falling away to the south. Around the midpoint the course passes beneath Pedraforca, the twin-summited peak that has become the visual identity of the race.

The second half includes the climb to Coll de Jou at about 2,350 meters, which arrives near kilometer 77 and tests runners who have already spent most of a day on their feet. The final section descends through the Gresolet valley and its pine forests back to Bagà.

The 26-hour cutoff is generous compared with the fastest times, but the combination of altitude, exposure and repeated climbing produces a steady rate of withdrawals every year. The 2012 race remains the reference point for how quickly conditions on the ridge can turn, and mandatory equipment checks have been part of the event since.

The race weekend has grown around the 100K. The Marató Pirineu at 42 kilometers and the Mitja Pirineu at 21 kilometers share sections of the same trails, the Nit Pirineu vertical kilometer runs on the Friday night, and a short XS distance gives newcomers a way onto the course. In 2025 the marathon was won by Miquel Corbera and Marta Pérez.

Where the Race Sits Now

The Ultra Pirineu spent years on the Skyrunner World Series calendar and is now an event in the UTMB World Series, which brings a stream of international runners chasing qualifying stones for Chamonix. The 2024 race drew about 1,300 runners to the 100K alone, and the 2025 weekend had more than 4,000 participants across the ultra, marathon, half marathon and shorter races.

The course records to beat in October 2026 are Mityaev's 10:22:55 from 2019 and García's 12:29:42 from 2021. In 16 editions, five men have won the race more than once: Heras four times, Jornet three, and Hernando, Hernández and Mityaev twice each. Picas is the most decorated woman with five titles, and no other woman has won more than once.

The men's winning time has settled into a narrow band since the current course was adopted. Every winner from 2019 onward has finished between 10:22 and 10:41, which makes Mityaev's record vulnerable in any year with dry trails and cool weather. The women's record has been threatened more often than it has been broken, with Comas, Molist and Roux all finishing within 53 seconds of García's time on their winning days.

The race has kept its identity through the changes in distance, sponsorship and series affiliation. It still starts in a small town at the foot of the Cadí, still crosses the same ridgelines the refuge circuit was built to connect, and still finishes with a descent that rewards runners who have something left after 90 kilometers of Pyrenean trail.