Yunnan's Gaoligong Mountains, which run north to south between the Mekong and the Salween rivers, are famously, at least for provincial residents, home to endangered gibbons. But recently, a different primate has appeared in the region — one clad in skin-tight compression gear — as trail runners join the reclusive gibbons every March in the Gaoligong forests. Next year the trail-runner-to-gibbon ratio will be heavily in the athletes' favor, as there will be four thousand of them.
They come in ever-increasing numbers for China's most international trail race — Gaoligong by UTMB. Considered a 'daughter race' of the 'Olympics of trail running' Ultra Trail du Mont Blanc, (UTMB), itself a global festival of the sport held in the Alps around Chamonix in France.
Gaoligong by UTMB is not just another trail race, the likes of which are now held across China, with foreigners brought in on an all-expense-paid trips to give the races a 'global' tag. Almost 400 fully paying foreign citizens have already registered for the 2020 edition of Gaoligong by UTMB, and free trips are now reserved for elite athletes only.
UTMB in France attracts 10,000 runners and is famously oversubscribed — if you want to take part, your name is entered in a random lottery. And so the UTMB brand has recently expanded globally, with other 'by UTMB' races including those in Oman, Spain and Argentina. Fin