Volcano Ultra Trail 80k - Chile - 6th December

Volcano Orsono sits brooding on the northern fringes of Chilean Patagonia. Glaciers hang preposterously from its upper, impenetrable flanks, occasionally calving-off and trundling down the lower skirt into the surrounding lakes. Ancient Mapuche legend tells how the local Huilliche people tied up a god and left him exiled on the volcano. Since then it appears that no-one has been back. 

A few trails do weave half-hearted inroads into the mountain but quickly fizzle out altogether. Beyond, lie virgin beds of verdant moss and tongues of once-molten lava and scree. An hour and a half into the 50mile event, at 4:30am, it became obvious, however, that this lack infrastructure was not a concern of the race organisers. Wherever you saw those reflective strips, that’s where you were going. 

I had followed the markers out onto what I began to sense was a long narrow ridge, covered in loose volcanic scree. My head-torch revealed nothing to either side. The moon was high though and led me further out onto an increasingly thin and windswept areté. The thin reflective strips stopped. At my feet, the scree stopped too, replaced only by the hollow sucking sound of air being pulled violently into a precipice.

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The ultra scene in South America, especially Chile right now, is being shaken up by a Richter ‘9’ earthquake. This October, in the surrounding cordillera of Santiago, the first 100mile distance was run at the North Face Endurance Challenge. Patagonia will also get its first 100 at the Ultra Fiords in April. The end of the calendar is firmly bookmarked with the legendary 'Andes Infernal' which records the highest altitude of any running event on the planet at 17,795 feet. From the summit of El Plomo, competitors must then descend to the thick air at 10,000'. These events are being made possible by shorter races that are held simultaneously, which are pulling in the crowds, and developing the sport at the grassroots level. (The VUT this year additionally held 10, 22 and 40mile races.) 

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I narrowed the beam and stared way down into it. One of these markers had blown off course and beamed fluttering back at me, from fathoms below. But then I saw another. And another deeper still. And then, like a morbid joke you shouldn’t laugh at, I got the sense of humour of Chile's Volcano Trail. And plunged interminably into it.

Dawn came, and with this, the realisation that we would be blazing new trails over the majority of the 50miles. The 14,000’ of ascent and the loose cheese graters underfoot added to the challenge. This race also involved your hands a great deal: on your knees, pulling on ropes, clawing at rocks. And then in the later stages, well, with them just spread out wide across your face in despair. After sunrise, swirling shrouds of cloud swept in. The dry riverbeds of antipodean summer, that carved down from the summit, were obscured again. Their walls of loose rock and sand reared up unexpectedly once more, bringing you to your hands and knees.

This is still most definitely a running race, though. It’s a technical and highly challenging one, which explains why the field was so spread out and only 64% of the 50mile runners finished. In the men's race, the internationally successful Argentine - Gustavo Reyes - took first place after a very close battle with his North Face teammate, Enzo Ferrari. In the women’s race, Chilean hero Marlene Flores beat the Uruguayan - Andrea Fabiana - to top of the podium. Undoubtedly next year we will see even greater depth in the elite field. 

Whilst it’s not a race for PBs, the VUT is all there. It’s extraordinarily creative and has that rare flavour, like a good spicy Chilean Pevre, of something dangerously refreshing. If you do head down here to run it, you might well get scared and you might not know if you are going to finish. But when you make that same step into the precipice at 4:30 in the morning, you will be going very deep into a South American adventure. And you will be smiling. 

1st place male  - 10:30:31 - Gustavo Reyes                                     (North Face, Argentina)
2nd place male - 10:52:37 - Enzo Ferrari                                          (North Face, Chile)

3rd place male -  11:25:46 - Fernando Etcheverry                            (Chile)

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6th place male  - 11:53:19 - Matt Maynard                                       (TBAC, UK)

1st place female  -  12:36:25 - Marlene Flores                                 (NorthnFace, Chile)

2nd place female - 13:00:33 - Andrea Fabiana Montana Laudisio   (Uruguay)

3rd place female  - 13:43:56 - Fernanda Andres                              (Argentina)