VAL D'ARAN BY UTMB: HISTORY OF THE EUROPEAN MAJOR IN THE PYRENEES
Val d'Aran by UTMB began in 2021 as the UTMB World Series brought its circuit to the Catalan Pyrenees. Based in the town of Vielha in the Val d'Aran, the event grew quickly into one of the largest trail running gatherings in Spain.
By 2025 it had reached its fifth edition and drew roughly 6,000 runners from 83 nations across a week of racing. The event sits in the valley of the Garonne River, where ancient shepherd paths climb from the valley floor to high alpine meadows and cirques.
The Val d'Aran is an unusual pocket of the Pyrenees. It is the only Atlantic-facing valley on the Spanish side of the range, which gives it a greener, wetter character than the dry massifs to the south, and organizers have leaned on its reputation as the essence of the Pyrenees.
A World Series Major in the Pyrenees
Val d'Aran by UTMB holds a specific place in the UTMB World Series. It serves as the European Major, one of four Majors on the global circuit alongside events on other continents.
That designation carries weight for competitive runners. Finishers earn double Running Stones, the points used to qualify for the UTMB World Series Finals at the UTMB week in Chamonix. Age-group winners and the top 10 men and women in the longest races secure automatic qualification to the Finals.
The Major status also shapes the field. The event attracts a mix of international elites chasing qualification and a large regional contingent, with 88 percent of 2025 entrants coming from Europe, primarily Spain, France, and Portugal.
That balance is part of the event's identity. The UTMB World Series built its Majors partly to let runners reach Major-level competition close to home, and Val d'Aran functions as the European anchor of that model, drawing neighboring nations to a single valley each summer.
Seven Races From One Valley
The event is built around a stack of distances that share terrain but differ sharply in scale. The 2025 program offered seven races, from a 10K introduced that year to the flagship 100-mile event.
The longest race is the Torn dera Val d'Aran, run over roughly 163 kilometers, about 101 miles. It carries more than 9,000 meters of climbing, near 30,000 feet, and starts and finishes in Vielha. In 2025 the 100-mile race alone drew around 700 starters.
The 100-mile course opens with two large climbs, each gaining over 2,000 meters, that push runners onto exposed high ground early. From there the route threads wild mountain country and old villages dispersed across the Aranese range.
Two shorter ultras, the Camins d'Hèr at about 100 kilometers and the Peades d'Aigua at roughly 50 kilometers, join the same high route for long stretches. The remaining races, including distances near 32K, 20K, 15K, and 10K, run looped courses from Vielha, with one starting from the ski resort area of Beret.
This layered structure is common across UTMB World Series events, from the Lavaredo Ultra Trail in the Dolomites to the Pyrenean Major, but it serves a particular purpose here. A first-time trail runner on the 10K and an elite chasing Finals qualification on the 100-mile share the same finish area in Vielha, which is much of what gives the week its scale.
The Course and Its Landmarks
The terrain is the defining feature. More than 30 percent of the region sits above 2,000 meters, and several peaks rise above 3,000 meters, which gives the longer routes sustained time at altitude and on technical ground.
The 100-mile route runs back through the area's mining history. Runners pass through tunnels at Liat and by the abandoned mines of Urets, with views over Lac de Montoliu and the surrounding Pyrenean chain.
The course then reaches the cirque of lakes around Colomers before climbing and descending some of the largest peaks of the race on the return to Vielha. The mix of runnable valley track and exposed alpine sections is what gives the event its reputation among UTMB World Series races.
The route also passes through the small Aranese villages strung along the valley. Arties in particular has become known among runners for the crowds that line its streets, a contrast to the long, unsupported stretches of high mountain that bracket it.
Notable Editions and Champions
The 2025 edition stood out for its conditions. Storms during the week forced last-minute course changes across several races, and the organizers later described it as the most weather-affected edition to that point.
The flagship 100-mile race in 2025 went to Arthur Joyeux-Bouillon of France in the men's event and Laura Van Vooren of Belgium in the women's. Both crossed the line in Vielha after the longest day of the program.
The 100-kilometer Camins d'Hèr produced wins for Baptiste Coatantiec of France and Mari Klakegg Fenre of Norway. In the 50-kilometer Peades d'Aigua, Nadir Maguet of Italy and Miao Yao of China took the titles, with Yao arriving as the reigning OCC champion from the UTMB Finals week.
The 2025 women's 50K drew one of the deeper start lists of the week. Alongside Yao, the field included American Allison Baca, who had won the 100K at Val d'Aran the previous summer, and Norway's Sylvia Nordskar, the 2024 Zegama champion, which underlined how the Major status pulls established names to the shorter distances as well as the marquee 100-mile.
Growth and Direction
The event has used its platform to push specific commitments. Organizers point to equal prize money across the men's and women's fields and a Woman in Trail program aimed at raising female participation.
That participation has climbed over the event's short history. Female entries grew from 12.5 percent at the first edition in 2021 to 19 percent by 2025, a measurable shift over five years.
The event also runs local environmental and social programs in the valley, including a reforestation campaign and donations to community organizations in the Val d'Aran. These efforts tie the race to its host region rather than treating the valley as a backdrop.
Accessibility has become part of the program too. The 2025 event included adaptive participation, with a joelette team taking on one of the shorter races, reflecting a wider push across the UTMB World Series to broaden who lines up at the start.
Why the Major Status Matters Competitively
The mechanics of UTMB World Series qualification give Val d'Aran a pull that goes beyond its location. Running Stones, the qualification points earned by finishing UTMB World Series events, are doubled at Majors, so a finish here counts twice as much toward eligibility for the Finals.
On top of that, the 100-mile, 100K, and 50K races offer direct qualification. Age-group category winners and the top 10 men and women in each of those distances book an automatic place at the UTMB World Series Finals during UTMB week.
For an elite trying to reach the start line in Chamonix, that makes Val d'Aran an efficient target. A single strong result in the Pyrenees can secure a Finals slot without the need to accumulate Stones across a longer season, which is part of why the start lists have deepened as the event has matured.
The same structure benefits the wider field. The doubled Stones reward the thousands of non-elite finishers who use the event to build toward future UTMB World Series entries, which helps explain how a five-year-old race reached 6,000 participants.
A Growing Broadcast Footprint
As the European Major, Val d'Aran by UTMB carries a live broadcast that reaches well beyond the valley. The 2025 races were streamed through the UTMB Live system and carried by a set of international partners.
Ahead of the 2025 edition, Eurovision Sport, the streaming platform of the European Broadcasting Union, joined as an official broadcaster of the UTMB World Series, with Val d'Aran marking the start of that partnership. The move sat alongside existing broadcasters and pointed to the circuit's effort to widen the audience for trail racing across Europe.
Looking Ahead
The sixth edition is scheduled for July 1 to 5, 2026, again based in Vielha and again carrying its European Major designation. The format remains a week of racing built around the same seven-distance structure.
For runners, the draw is consistent. The Val d'Aran offers a true high-mountain course inside an event large enough to deliver World Series qualification, set in one of the more remote corners of the Pyrenees. That combination is what has carried it from a first edition in 2021 to a fixture on the European trail calendar.