In October 2021, the Italian Daniele Cappelletti accumulated no less than 21,720 metres of positive elevation gain in 24 hours. A feat that is probably not the last in a discipline where altitude records are of increasing interest to runners.
In trail running, the UTMB is the reference race in the world and offers participants a gargantuan program of 170 km for 10,000 meters of positive altitude difference. It is a piece of bravery for those who reach the end of this mythical event which has crowned the greatest names in the discipline. However, some go even further by launching themselves into a record race where only the altitude difference is used as a reference. In this respect, it is the Italian Daniele Cappelletti who holds the most impressive record.
21,720 meters of positive altitude difference with cable car on the way down
The figure hardly seems believable when you consider that it was achieved in 24 hours. In October 2021, the most demanding day in the career of this Italian skyrunner ended with a record of 21,720 metres of positive altitude difference. In Trentino, on Monte Mezzocorona, Daniele Cappelletti climbed 640 metres before coming down by cable car. So it was only on the positive difference in altitude that the Italian raced.
17,218 metres of positive vertical drop on the way down
For his part, Frenchman Aurélien Dunand-Pallaz also broke a height record last September. But unlike the Italian, the French runner ran down each time. It was on the heights of Marthod in Savoie that he found the perfect spot for his exploit. " I first looked for a relatively steep slope (212,57m of D+ in 750m - 28% of slope) in order to gain altitude quickly "he explained to his sponsor Compressport after his achievement. " My descent was a little less steep (950m). I didn't want the climb (and therefore the descent) to be too long either, so as not to "break my legs" too quickly" .
" The idea was not to have my eyes fixed on the stopwatch from the beginning. So, I looked at my stopwatch every 10 loops and I knew then how much advance I had or had not on the previous record. I also took advantage of the friends and spectators present to chat a bit in order to make the time go by a bit faster at the beginning. The strategy was not to go too fast but I still had to get a head start at the beginning because I knew I would slow down later. I had big doubts during the night. Between the 40th and 50th climb, I got very tired. I fell asleep for two or three minutes at a feed station while my legs were being massaged. I was really tired at that point. And I lost almost 40′ of my lead on the record. " Finally, Aurélien Dunand-Pallaz broke the record for a little over 100 meters.
17,218 for Frenchwoman Elise Delannoy
In the women's race, we had to wait until last September to see a runner set the first international benchmark. And it was Frenchwoman Élise Delannoy (7th in the UTMB in 2019) who achieved it in Noeux-les-Mines in the Hauts-de-France region with 16,572 metres of positive elevation gain, the fourth best world performance of all times for men and women combined. It was on Terril 42 (a small ski run with a 60-metre vertical drop) that the runner completed 278 round trips over a total distance of 144 km. " The purpose of this challenge was to challenge myself, but also to show that the longer the distance, the closer the women are to the level of the men "she said after her performance. " I know that the men's world record can be broken! "The race for records has just begun...