The Sea to Sky area recently bore witness to the 2024 Ultra Trail Whistler competition by UTMB (Ultra-Trail du Mont Blanc) and Ironman. With three distances to choose from, athletes from a myriad of nations took on the varied terrain and evergreen forests of the Coast Mountain Range.
Things kicked off on Saturday with the 70-kilometre event. Richard Cook of the United States (7:42:45) outdueled Canadian Elliot Holtham (7:54:10) for first position, with Luke Nichols representing Australia well in third (8:18:45).
“One of the prettiest races I've ever run,” Cook said in a press release. When asked about his favourite parts of the venue, he elaborated: “The lakes up on the other side of Whistler Summit. Such a variety of terrain, such a variety of trails, technical stuff like high alpine. It was really, really fun.”
The women's 70-kilometre proved to be a dominant outing for American Emma Patterson, who bested the next closest competitor by more than 23 minutes for gold (9:10:17). Julie Lesage (9:33:27), and Jennie Labrie (9:50:51) earned silver and bronze respectively for Canada.
Next, the 50-kilometre race set off from Creekside Plaza. It was a USA sweep on the men's side, with a victorious Cade Michael (4:20:50) standing between runner-up David Norris (4:30:20) and third-placer Andrew Newell (4:51:01) on the podium.
Katie Morgan (5:20:09) of Great Britain proved to be the weekend's only non-North American champ, snatching top spot in the ladies' 50-kilometre. Laurie Proulx wasn't far behind (5:26:36) and Heidi Ohrling (5:45:10) completed the top three.
Last but not least, the 25-kilometre discipline began early Sunday morning.
Jonathan Gendron struck gold among male contenders (2:32:32) as Rachel Hebaus (3:06:00) emerged on top for the women. Misael Zapein (2:41:11) and John Dean (2:45:05) rounded out the men's podium, while Anne Baylot (3:11:44), and Marguerite Royer (3:17:03) also took home ladies' hardware.
All finishers collected Running Stones that can be applied to the UTMB Mont-Blanc draw. Event organizers stated in a press release that they are grateful to have run on the shared, unceded territory of the Lil’wat People (L̓il̓wat7úl) and the Squamish People (Sḵwx̱wú7mesh).
This new UTMB undertaking was marred with controversy, as it was announced months after the demise of Coast Mountain Trail Running's (CMTR) popular Whistler Alpine Meadows (WAM) event. Scores of Sea to Sky residents and athletes from abroad denounced UTMB/Ironman and Vail Resorts while voicing unequivocal support for CMTR and its leader, Gary Robbins.
While a Vail spokesperson claimed that the company was "not satisfied or comfortable with how Whistler Alpine Meadows planned to address safety issues from the race [in 2022]", Robbins told his side of the story in a lengthy blog post on his personal website.
"My personal take in the end was that we were very obviously being forced out,” he wrote. “By going about it in this manner, no one ever had to take responsibility for saying no to our event, and to [Vail's] credit they never did say no to us. They simply pushed us out by other means.”
Ultimately, Robbins encouraged his fellow runners to "vote with [their] hard-earned dollars" and support the races of their choosing.
