Snowbasin by UTMB Race Overview

SHANE OSGUTHORPE:
Welcome out to the Ogden Wire. And today we are joined by the Race Director [Alex Docta] and the Assistant Race Director [Troy Callentine] for an upcoming race happening here at Snowbasin this summer for a first time, it's UTMB Snowbasin, and I'm going to just kind of hand the mic right over to Alex Docta, the race director, to first tell us a bit about what UTMB actually is and what runners can expect in this race.

ALEX DOCTA:
Yeah, yeah, we're pretty excited to have this race here. It's been a long time coming, it's been in development since 2023 and UTMB is first and foremost at its core, what it is. It's an ultra-running event, and ultra-running, by definition, is anything over a marathon distance. So we're going to have two distances up at Snowbasin this year, single track, trail-running style events. We're going to have a 28-kilometer race and a 58-kilometer race, and so roughly 36 miles on the long race and 16, 17 miles on the shorter race, the 28-kilometer race, but UTMB is a whole series of events.

SHANE:
Ultra Trail Mont Blanc, is that right?

ALEX:
Yes. Ultra Trail Mont Blanc, and so it all started over in Chamonix, basically off a course that was started back in the early 2000s that circumnavigated Mont Blanc on on the trail du Mont Blanc. It's about 105 miles, it's kind of.. it's.. it's for the last decade or so, this event, UTMB proper, this this big race out of Chamonix has been dubbed the Super Bowl of ultra running. What has grown around that is a series of international events all over the world that that are unique, individual, hard and scenic events. They all kind of live up to what this very iconic UTMB race is, but they've kind of sprung up and become qualifiers to eventually get there, or just alternatives for people that might not make it over to Chabani to run that race, and so it just kind of expands. As an ultra runner myself, this this world is like a super fast growing world that more and more people are interested in being a part of, and just getting out on the trails, seeing maybe the difference between trail and road running, realizing, like, man, I love road running, but, like, this is new and exciting, and I could run into a moose, or whatever, like, there's all sorts of energy that is a bit different from, from, like, other types of events that you might run, and, and, so, yes, Snowbasin by UTMB is is going to be a great addition to that, and I think what's really cool is, is Ogden and Snowbasin and Weber County, we get to bring like our own flair to this really kind of iconic series.

SHANE:
Wow, well, that's that's awesome. So, so the Chamonix race is more or less like the Ironman Kona race, the final one, they're trying to qualify to get to, and this is now a qualifier for that race?

ALEX:
Yeah, okay, yeah. So, you essentially like, a accrue, they call them stones, but it's a point system, right? And so you run different distances, and you run different UTMB races around the country, or you can travel internationally and run those as well, and you accrue these stones, and those allow you to qualify to kind of get into these other events. UTMB proper.

SHANE:
So I know you're a UTMB runner, you've run some of the races, you've race directed some of the races, if I'm not mistaken, like Speedgoat, or you've helped out with that.

ALEX:
Just helped. Yeah, I've run UTMB proper in Chamonix. I ran that in 2022 and I've run a bunch of their other races. I've run Speedgoat many times.

SHANE:
Tell us a little about the format of the race. How supported is a race of this distance through mountains, where it's not easy to have aid stations? How much of it is self-supported? How much of it is, you know, organization supported?

ALEX:
Yeah, so you know, in the trail running world, and specifically the ultra running world, that shift from maybe a. Road marathon to ultra running, is there's a little bit more self reliance between aid stations, so you're still going to only have five to seven miles between, maybe nine or 10 at the long end, between an aid station, as opposed to every other mile in the marathon, and because of that, you're carrying, you're wearing maybe a hydration fest, and you've got some water, some electrolytes on you, you've got some food, like you've got all these things that you're used to training with, but then the flip side is, is you hit these aid stations, and they're a little more bulked out than maybe a marathon aid station, because traditionally maybe you're moving a little bit slower on the trails when you're climbing and descending too, so you'll have like M&Ms and Nutella wraps, and all this like all this heavier food you might not see in a marathon, so, so, yeah, little more self-reliant in between, which provides some of the adventure, and then still, you know, decently supplied aid stations to kind of refuel you and keep you going.

SHANE:
Okay, what are we talking duration-wise for these distances? How long is like your average runner on each course, how long it can take?

ALEX:
Yeah, so on the shorter course, the 28k you're looking at anywhere between like two, two and a half hours to to seven or eight hours, and then on the 58k you're looking anywhere from three hours and 45 minutes to 12 hours. So it's a big spread, you know, and it's the same. Holds true in marathons, but really, what's pretty cool in ultras, and Snowbasin by UTMB is going to have this, is you're looking to accomplish something that maybe you didn't think you could do, but along the way you're also out there like soaking in the resort, soaking in the single track, the views, so you're you're gonna have runners that are charging, and you're gonna have runners that are stopping to take photos the whole time, you know, and this event like accommodates all of that.

SHANE:
Have you laid the course out yet, roughly? So what kind of course profile can runners expect? What kind of elevation gain and all that over this distance we're looking at?

ALEX:
Yeah, so in the 58k the longer race, you're looking at about 6000 feet of climbing over that distance, and then in the 28k it's just shy of 3000 feet of climbing, so challenging but accessible, you know, especially over over the timeline. We've got roughly a 12-hour cut-off set up for this event, so you can kind of go a good half day on this thing, and really take it in.

SHANE:
How much of the Snowbasin space do you guys utilize? Is it a lot of circuit racing, or are you guys really taking up the whole mountain and spreading around?

ALEX:
It's pretty good. Yeah, I mean, if you're familiar with the mountain, if you go onto the website, all the maps are live right now. But you know, we start down at the at the main lodge there [Earl’s Lodge], and we basically take Needles up all the way to the top, the 58k will pop up and look over the overlook, looking down into Ogden. Then we'll take Porcupine back down, is that right? Am I saying that right? Porky, we'll take Porky back down, and when we get back to the lodge, so you've got a big loop there, then we push over onto US Forest Service land, so we drop all the way down to Art Nord, we work our way back, we come up over Sardine, and that's that's kind of the full big course, right?

SHANE:
Then is the longer course like two laps of this?

ALEX:
So that's the long one that gets you the full 58 and then the short course is basically that first loop, that's basically the resort loop, so yeah, so it's cool. It kind of shows off, it shows off a lot of what Snowbasin has to offer in the summer. Obviously, it has a lot to offer in the winter.

SHANE:
Yeah. What’s the date of the race?

ALEX:
September 12.

SHANE:
Beautiful time to be up there. Leaves are probably just starting to turn up there, right?

ALEX:
Yeah.

TROY CALLENTINE:
What I think is cool about that course layout, too, is you get to see everything from the base of the resort; the geology and whatnot all the way up to the top, where you get to be in a much, you know, higher alpine kind of feel, and then back down in that Sardine loop, where you'll be in, you know, aspens and everything, so you're going to see a pretty diverse kind of ecosphere up there.

ALEX:
Yeah, you hit like you hit sagebrush, aspens, conifers, and furs, you know, like it's like it's kind of all three different types of what Utah has to show off.

SHANE:
You're popping up at the top of Needles, you're basically above the treeline almost at that point, right? Or really close.

TAYLOR HARTMAN:
I'm curious, what does it mean to have an event like this in Ogden? It seems as though Ogden…would you say that Ogden is a hub for people who do events like this? Like, what does it mean to bring it to Snowbasin?

ALEX:
Yeah, I think I think it aligns itself perfectly, you know. Again, like I'm a person who transplanted from Wisconsin back in 2015, and did it for the mountains, you know, and it aligns perfectly with GOAL’s mission, you know. GOAL’s mission, our mission is to kind of elevate and help realize Ogden and the greater Weber County area as an outdoors Mecca, and we do that through numerous different ways. UTMB proper really fits in that goal quite well. I tell a lot of my friends. I used to say that, like, Ogden is, is Salt Lake City's Boulder, without maybe the home prices. But it's everything you want. It's total access to the outdoors, you know. You're not even sure if you should say that on the air, because you're like, man, like, we got a good thing going here, but it really is. We're like a gateway to, like, epic outdoor access, and so it means a lot, because we're going to see, we're going to see a lot of local and regional runners, which is what we want, but the way that UTMB is set up, you have a lot of people that are traveling to do these events, because they recognize that again and again, I think UTMB this year has nine events in North America, you know, but all of them are stellar, unique, and beautiful in their own way, and people know that. So, we're, we're going to be able to bring in people from outside of the region and kind of showcase what we are, and that doesn't mean we're going to have everybody move here, it just means like we're going to, we're going to show them what Ogden and the surrounding region has to offer, which is a lot in terms of outdoor access.

SHANE:
Well, you touched on the point that I think a lot of people know what Snowbasin is in the winter. I mean, certainly having been ranked the top resort in the, in the west, or whatever, in the last couple years by readers of Ski magazine, they know that it's an epic place in the winter, but I don't think that many people understand just how beautiful that place is in the summer. I mean, when you get up in there at the top of JP, I feel you feel like you're in the Swiss Alps, and you can see…

I was, I was on that original site visit with UTMB when they came in to scout the location, Troy and I drove them up in the truck and rattled our kidneys loose all the way up on the big boulders, and they were just blown away. I remember how blown away they were by the scenery, and just like, this is going to work just great for UTMB, they knew immediately on first sight. So, yeah, if you haven't ever experienced the epic, you know, not just the scenery and the amenities and whatever, but the hospitality of Snowbasin, it remains throughout the summer, so it's a good, great time to get up there. And then the fall is just the time to be there, and the temperatures have dipped a little bit, and the leaves are maybe starting to just turn a touch.

ALEX:
And I think what's really cool about it, even for local runners, you know, is we do have a lot of trail access here on the on the Wasatch Front as well, and you know there's probably a lot of us, myself included, that don't spend maybe as much time as we would like to running those trails at Snowbasin throughout the summer and stuff, but what's cool about like hand picking an event, and going, “I'm gonna do that.” Is it gives you an excuse to get out there and really get to know those trails. You get to know the trails that Snowbasin by UTMB is using, and you get to know the other trails at Snowbasin Resort as well. Just by kind of like committing to that event in September, and going, "Oh, crap, I gotta get out there and like make sure I know what I'm getting into,” you know. And that's always the most fun for me as an ultra runner, is like preparing for that event, and then kind of getting to intimately know the ins and outs of an of an area, you know.

SHANE:
So we've covered runners pretty well. I know that a lot of times for these big…the only thing close to this I've ever done was Leadville 100 on mountain bike. We took a bunch of friends, all of our full families…we brought a whole crew with us, obviously, for an event that big. What if people are coming to Ogden from out of the area to race UTMB Snow Basin? What could partners, family members, kids, you know, parents.. how can they plug into the race? I assume you'll need volunteers. GOAL Foundation always supplies great volunteers for events like this, but how can a visitor, a visiting runner’s entourage, plug into this race?

ALEX:
Yeah, well, I think a couple of things, and Troy can probably speak to this a little bit too, but, but we basically have, you know, what we call our “Base Camp” in UTMB parlance, but expo-style check-in Thursday afternoon, all day Friday, and then the race is on Saturday, and that base camp is actually going to be in downtown Ogden, where the start and finish the event is going to be at Snowbasin Resort. So, people traveling in, whether runners or, you know, spectators, supporters, all those people, one, they'll get the opportunity, hopefully, to stay downtown and check out Ogden City, because it's pretty amazing, 25th Street, all that stuff, and then up at the race site itself, like when the race is going on, there'll be a couple different opportunities of where you can check in to see your runner, including in the morning gondola access to ride up to the top of Needles, there, and then see your runner come through that way as well.

SHANE:
Just to see how haggard they are at the top at that point?

ALEX:
Yeah, but also the cool, yeah, totally, you know, and the Speedgoat event, which is, which is south of us, down in Salt Lake City area, they allow gondola access, too, and seeing it from both angles, both as a runner and as a spectator, it's really cool, you get to go and see your runner, but then you're like, “Well, they're not going to be down the hill for another couple hours. Let me go hike up and take some views in,” you know. And so it's a really cool opportunity for everybody, runners, spectators, volunteers, to just spend time on unique, historic mountain that, again, is going to be hosting the upcoming Olympics there in 2034 as well.

SHANE:
Be right in the middle of it all.

TROY:
In addition, Snowbasin will be having their Oktoberfest going on at the same time, so adjacent to our event will be Snowbasin is going to host their, you know, kind of Utah famous, at least, Oktoberfest.

SHANE:
SnowWiesn.

TROY:
SnowWiesn. So they'll have live music, food available, and all those things, and so you know, in addition to the race, there's really something to do all day, you know, those coming from out of town, I just encourage you to grab a hotel downtown, right here in Ogden, got plenty of lodging options, and you can walk to virtually anything right on 25th Street from most of the hotels, get great food, you know, great bar scene, all that stuff, and so you know, stay an extra day or two, and come hang out with us.

SHANE:
When is Harvest Moon?

TROY:
The weekend after.

SHANE:
So stay the whole week and enjoy Harvest Moon.

TAYLOR:
Fall in Ogden!

SHANE:
When Alex said, you know, like they realize their runner’s not gonna be back down at the bottom, and they're up at Needles, and they think, “Oh, go hike the go hike the cirque and look at the wildflowers,” I'm thinking, “No, there's a bar, we could get a beer and eat a bratwurst on the patio!” So, either way, we've got you covered.

ALEX:
Well, and SnowWiesn, I kind of slipped on that too. Like, that's interesting. And runners, you know, if you're bringing family members to crew, you might want to consider just like taking a little extra with you, because if you get caught up, if your family members get caught up down at SnowWiesn, and instead of coming to support you, like that could happen, because it's a great celebration.

SHANE:
Of course. Great live music, great beer, and food. Yeah, absolutely. What are we missing on UTMB Snowbasin? Anything? How can people sign up? What's the website? Where's all this info that they can look at these course maps and everything?

ALEX:
Yeah, so in the search engine of your choice, if you just type in, you know, Snowbasin by UTMB. If you go to UTMB dot world, it'll list all their events, and Snowbasin is right there as well. So, just just crank that in there, and you'll find that. Signups are live, and we've got a few hundred runners already going on. We'll have an initial cap of about 1200 runners this year, and trending to do quite well. But yeah, encourage you guys to sign up, and you know, I think circling back to the GOAL Foundation, helping put this event on, and what we do, like it's our intent to continue to inject that community into this event as well, right? So this is this is a large event that's going to bring a local and international crowd, but we're still trying to take that care and concern and that local level of detail to this event, and so even if you've run another UTMB race, you're gonna find something fun and unique here as well.

SHANE:
And yeah, and if you've run another UTMB race, you've never run one put on by the GOAL Foundation. GOAL Foundation knows how to put on races like nobody else. I've done a few races in my day, and you guys top all of them.

TROY:
This will be top notch for sure.

SHANE:
Yeah. Well, thanks for joining us today. And make sure you check, do the Google search, and find all the good stuff, and we'll see you at UTMB Snowbasin.