Philippe Gatta - Blog

Trail: Ultra Trail Mont Fuji

admin — Thu, 09 May 2013 09:13:05 +0000

We just came back from Japan where Anna did the STY (84.7 km and +4860 m) and I did the Ultra-trail of Mt. Fuji (UTMF) (161 km and +9165 m). We both enjoyed the races; very nice trail, nice scenery, perfect organization and good weather.

Philippe at Yagisaki-Kouen with Mt. Fuji behind (© Anna Gatta)

The UTMF (ULTRA-TRAIL Mt.FUJI) is a 161 km non-stop race around Mount Fuji in Japan. There are 10 food stations, 2 water stations with a time limit of 46 hours. Philippe finished in 29h45, 87th out of 830 men.

Philippe during the UTMF (© Philippe Gatta)

The STY (SHIZUOKA TO YAMANASHI) is the shorter version of 84.7 km with starts South of Mont Fuji and ends at Yagisaki-Kouen, like the UTMF. There are 10 food stations with a time limit of 24 hours. Anna finished in 15h12, 7th out of 109 women.

Anna around Kawagochiko (© Philippe Gatta)

We will post a full report with more information and photos soon…

Tokyo by night (© Philippe Gatta)

Ultra Trail Mont Fuji

admin — Fri, 19 Apr 2013 11:00:43 +0000

Anna and I will leave tomorrow for Japan. Friday next week I will participate to the Ultra-trail of Mt. Fuji (UTMF), 161 km and +9,165 m non-stop race. Anna will do the STY, a 85 km and +4,860 m non stop race. Then the following Friday we will do a press conference in Berghaus Japan Office followed by a lecture in the Kojitsu Store in Tokyo.
We will try to post some news on facebook.

Philippe during the training for Ultra-trail of Mt. Fuji (UTMF) (© Anna Gatta)

Trail: Pont du Cians – Mairola – Leuze

admin — Sun, 07 Apr 2013 20:00:41 +0000

Amazing, one day without rain… almost. As the snow still covers most of the Mercantour National Park, we made a Trail running in the lower valley of Cians. A nice 33 km loop around Col de Mairola and the villages of Rigaud, Lieuche and Thiéry. We made a similar trail a while back but this time we went further up after Lieuche through l’Arsilane and Villa Sauberre, two very nice places.

Chapelle St Julien (© Anna Gatta)

Trail distance: 33.5 km, ascent: 2250m / descent: 2250m.

Anna in the first climb toward Chapelle St Joseph (© Philippe Gatta)

Trail description: park at Pont du Cians (338m), follow the road to Beuil for 500 meters up to the signpost 190 and take the trail to the Chapelle St Joseph. Continue to le Fiou (189, 186) and Chapelle St Julien (185). Go to the Col de Barbenière (184) and Col de Mairola (183). Go down to Rigaud either along the GR 510. Continue to follow the GR 510 to the Moulin de Rigaud (201, 200) and go up to Lieuche (101, 102, 103). Continue to climb to Clot de Marre (104) and l’Arsilane (105) and up to the Villa Sauberre (107, 94, 83). Then go down to Thiéry (82, 81, 95, 89). Continue to the Baisse de Thiéry (88, 41, 40) and descent to Touet sur Var (39, 38, 37). Follow the road for 1.5 km to Pont du Cians.

Anna running down from Col de Mairola (© Philippe Gatta)

Note that the trail between Baisse de Thiéry (40) and Touet sur Var (38) is closed due to rock fall.

Mairola, Les Abrics and Rigaud from Lieuche (© Philippe Gatta)

Anna between l’Arsilane and Villa Sauberre (© Philippe Gatta)

Philippe and the Village of Thiery behind (© Anna Gatta)

Trail: Mont Vial – Adret – Utelle

admin — Mon, 01 Apr 2013 19:33:23 +0000

Yesterday was the peak of our training for the Ultra-trail of Mt. Fuji and STY in Japan in 4 weeks. Anna and I made a loop of 51 km and +3650 m where I added another 7 km and +700 m, by doing additional peaks where possible, finishing my day with 58 km and +4350 m. The weather was sunny for once and the views fantastic.

Philippe, Mont Vial with the Alps behind (© Anna Gatta)

Distance: 58 km, ascent: 4310m / descent: 4310m.

The objective of today’s trail was to get as much elevation gain as possible. We started in Plan du Var climbing up Mont Vial passing through the Col de Serse getting an immediate elevation gain of +1200 m in our legs. Then we ran down the North side of Vial where we ran through hard snow that cut up our calves…

Mont Vial seen from Mont Adret (© Philippe Gatta)

Continuing down to Malaussène, down to the valley floor and up to Massoins where I left Anna to run up Mont Adret passing by Tournefort on the way back to the valley floor again. Last big climb for the day went through La Tour sur Tinée were Anna and I met up again and together we made yet another +1000 m up via Crête l’Albaréa to Col du Castel de Gineste heading down to Utelle. From Utelle we had the last climb of the day up to Madone d’Utelle from where we ran towards Collet d’Huesti continuing down the technical and steep trail to Chaudan. Then another 1.5 km on the road to get to the car in Plan du Var.

Philippe on the bridge over Cramassouri (© Anna Gatta)

GPS Track: Mont Vial – Adret – Utelle GPS Track

Anna climbing the steep Pas Masséna (© Philippe Gatta)

Trail: Gorges du Loup loop

admin — Sun, 10 Mar 2013 19:00:25 +0000

Continuing the training for the Ultra-trail of Mt. Fuji, Anna and I added 43.5 km of Trail today to an already long week. We have been slow despite the pleasant weather and a good trail. We made a long loop going up and down in the the Gorges du Loup as a recce for next week photo shoot with Berghaus. This trail is very scenic, crossing the nice villages of Gourdon, Cipières and Courmes and it is worth doing, the only small issue is the last 5 km along the D3 road but that could be avoided by following the GR51 back to Pont du Loup.

Anna on Plateau de Calern (© Philippe Gatta)

Distance: 43.5 km, ascent: 1800m / descent: 1800m.

Philippe below Gourdon (© Anna Gatta)

GPS Track: GPS track of Loop in Gorges du Loup

Courmes watefall (© Philippe Gatta)

Description: park at Pont du Loup and climb to Gourdon along the Chemin du Paradis. Continue to climb to the Col de Cavillore. Stay along the nice ridge to Colle de Rougies and then to the Observatoire de la Cote d’Azur. Then follow the GR4 to Cipières (B181, 160, 25). Go down to the D3 (24, 173, 174). Stay on the road up to the Tourounet (175) and follow the trail to St Barnabé (176, 170, 152, 153, 155). Go down to Courmes along the GR51 and then to Bramafran. Two options there; either run along the road to Pont du Loup (5km) or follow the GR 51 (several tunnels) and back down to Pont du Loup through the Chemin du Paradis.

Trail: loop Mont Ferion – Utelle

admin — Sun, 17 Feb 2013 19:00:22 +0000

With all the recent snowfall, is not easy to find a trail with significant elevation gain without tons of snow. Today we went to the Vesubie Valley and started at Pont du Cros and made a 32 km loop, climbing to Mont Ferion, then back down to St Jean La Rivière, up to Utelle and then Le Cros. Around half of the distance was in the snow but overall the snow was relatively packed.

Philippe between Utelle and Cros d’Utelle (© Philippe Gatta)

Distance: 32 km, ascent: 1925m / descent: 1925m.

Anna at Mont Ferion (© Philippe Gatta)

GPS Track: Mont Vial GPS Track

Anna running down from Mont Ferion (© Philippe Gatta)

Philippe toward Col St Michel (© Anna Gatta)

Description: park at Pont du Cros, signpost 1. Cross the Vesubie river and follow the GR5 to Levens. Climb to Mont Ferion (250, 251, 252, 253, 254, 255, 256, 257, 272, 273). Go down to the Col St Michel (206, 460, 443) and continue to run down to the D19 (442, 441, 450). Follow the road to St Jean La Rivière (122a, 122, 121, 131), then climb to Utelle (124, 12, 11, 10). Follow the GR5 to Cros d’Utelle (8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3) and go back down to the parking (2, 1).

Anna with Utelle behind (© Philippe Gatta)

Along the GR5 (© Philippe Gatta)

Trail: Mont Vial

admin — Sun, 10 Feb 2013 19:00:53 +0000

Today Anna and I went to Plan du Var and ran up to Mont Vial which is a pretty good training when we look for significant elevation gain in short distance. The trail is just 23 km long with 2050 meters of elevation gain and offers nice views over the Alps after Revest-Les-Roches. There was still a bit of snow on the North face above 1400m but it was relatively soft and pleasant to run on.

Anna running back from Mont Vial with the Alps behind (© Philippe Gatta)

Distance: 23 km, ascent: 2050m / descent: 2050m.

GPS Track: Mont Vial GPS Track

Description: park at Plan du Var, cross the Var river and climb to the village of Bonson (B26, B22, B21). Continue to the Baisse du Collet (B28), descend to the Villar (B36), and climb to Revest les Roches (B35, B31). Continue to the pass of Serse then the Mont Vial at 1 541 m (B32, B8, B285). Come back by the same trail.

Ski touring: Cime de Guilie – Sangue

admin — Sun, 27 Jan 2013 19:00:48 +0000

Just two weeks after the 174 km of the Spine Challenger, I didn’t feel like trail running again and since the snow conditions are pretty good, I went Ski touring in the Mercantour National Park. I made a classic 16 km loop starting in Boréon, crossing the Vacherie des Erps and climbing up to the Cime Guilié (2999 m) and back through the Vallon de Sangué. Good snow all the way up, the snow Vallon de Sangué has started to melt a bit, then good conditions again below 1900 m.
After the ski, I went to the Alpha wolf park to take a look at the ice climbing wall which looks in pretty good conditions too.

Distance: 16 km, ascent: 1500 m / descent: 1500 m.

GPS Track: Cime de Guilie – Sangue GPS Track

Description: park at Boréon close to the Gite (signpost 370). Go toward the Vacherie des Erps (371, 378). Continue along the Vallon of Erps to the Combe Guilié, turn right to Baissette (2667 m). Then go left to the Lac de Guilié and the Cime Guilié. Descend along the Vallon de Sangué to B424, then follow the trail to the Boréon (423, 422, 421, 420, 419, 381).

Spine Challenger Ultra-trail: report and photos

admin — Tue, 22 Jan 2013 19:00:16 +0000

Philippe is recovering well ten days after his first place on the Spine Challenger a 174km non-stop race. The story, map, track, results and 55 photos are available on race report.

The next big race will be the Ultra Trail Mt. Fuji in Japan in April. It is a 161 km and +9,000 meters ultra-trail (non-stop).

Spine Challenger Ultra-trail: 1st place

admin — Wed, 16 Jan 2013 19:00:26 +0000

I just came back from UK where I won and set a new record of 32h18 on the Spine Challenger, a 108 miles / 173 km non-stop ultra-trail. The rough trail follows the Pennine Way from Edale to Hawes. Runners have 60 hours to complete the race and have to carry food, water, sleeping bag, bivy, winter clothes, medical kit, maps, etc.
I had a chance to test some new prototypes from Berghaus (pack, jacket, insulation layer) which were ultra light and really excellent.
I will post a full report with many more photos soon.

Distance: 173 km, ascent: 5400m / descent: 5400m.

GPS Track: Edale – Hebden Bridge (CP1)
GPS Track: Hebden Bridge – Hawes (End)

The Spine Challenger website.