Mountain Running in Switzerland

Mountains cover two-thirds of the country, and the Swiss turned them into a competitive playground long before trail running became trendy. Nearly every valley organizes its own village Berglauf, often on a Sunday morning, often for decades. In German-speaking Switzerland, these straight-up climbs attract as many families as specialists, and race bibs sometimes sell out in a matter of hours. The lifts take care of the rest: you go up on your legs, you come down with a gondola ticket 🚡.

The principle remains simple and honest. A start at the valley floor, a finish at a resort or on a ridge, and in between a slope that leaves no room for strategy. Formats range from the pure vertical kilometer, completed in a good half hour by the best, to 15 km ascents tackled at a power-hiking pace. The season kicks off in May in the Prealps and climbs higher in altitude as summer goes on, with early morning starts to avoid the afternoon thunderstorms ⛅.

The Swiss mountain running calendar is worth the detour. The Kilomètre Vertical de Fully is considered one of the steepest on the circuit, with 1,000 m of elevation gain devoured in under 2 km. In the Bernese Oberland, the Berglauf Rinderberg Zweisimmen carries on the tradition of the village climb. The Villars Ultraks offers several distances above the Rhône valley. Further east, the Bernina Ultraks plays with the glaciers of the Engadine 🙂.

At the end of summer, herds come back down from the high pastures for the désalpe, with flowers on their heads and bells around their necks, while runners head up in the opposite direction 🐄. Mountain running in Switzerland shares these trails with Hérens cows and cheesemakers who still age their cheese at altitude. If you enjoy the climb, trails in Switzerland extend the effort over longer routes, and ultra-trails await the most patient 💪.