Published: 01 September 2025

Ruth Croft knew that she had a tall task heading into this year’s Ultra-Trail du Mont-Blanc – the mighty UTMB – in Chamonix, France.

For starters, the weather forecast was calling for cold rain and snow. What’s more, there was the notion of racing against American legend Courtney Dauwalter, who many consider the GOAT of trail ultrarunning.

Dauwalter entered this year’s race with three UTMB wins under her belt (2019, 2021 and 2023) and a nearly unbeaten track record since 2019 – a span in which she had won 25 of the 26 races of 50K or longer that she finished.

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But although both the inclement weather and Dauwalter were formidable through the first half of the race, Croft was relentless in her pursuit of victory and overcame both to win in 22 hours, 56 minutes and 23 seconds.

Dauwalter finished 10th in 25:50:58. Her husband, Kevin Schmidt, told Runner’s World Camille Bruyas France.

The race, which had to be shortened slightly because of the bad weather through the night and early morning hours, sent runners through parts of France, Italy and Switzerland. In total, it formed a rugged 103-mile loop around the Mont Blanc massif, which included about 9,500m of elevation gain and loss.

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Lauren Puretz United States

With her UTMB win, Croft, 36, is now the first woman to win all three of the UTMB World Series championship races in Chamonix. The New Zealand native won the CCC (100K) in 2015 and the OCC (50K) in 2018 and 2019, then finished second at the UTMB in 2024.

Croft also won the 2022 Western States 100 in the US and the 2021 Tarawera Ultramarathon (100K) in New Zealand. However, she’s had her eyes on a UTMB win for a while.

‘It wasn’t necessarily the main goal, just kind of like the cherry on top,’ she said. ‘I think that it’s interesting to look back at 2015, [which] was my first year in Chamonix and when I won the CCC – and so it’s taken 10 years to get to this point and win the UTMB.’

French runner Camille Bruyas finished second in 23:28:48, while Germany’s Katharina Hartmuth was third in 24:16:39.

Advertisement - Continue Reading Below won the men’s race in 19 hours, 18 minutes and 58 seconds, outrunning American Ben Dhiman (19:51:37) by about 43 minutes.

Although Croft took the early lead out of Chamonix on Friday night, Dauwalter passed her hours later amid a pouring rainstorm and led for much of the way through Italy amid cold, snowy conditions. By the time runners reached the 37-mile mark and began to climb up to the Col de la Seigne mountain pass between France and Italy, the weather turned much colder and they were soon running through more than six inches of snow in blizzard-like conditions.

Dauwalter kept charging into the darkness, but Croft held back a bit and ran more conservatively. As Dauwalter crossed over the Grand Col Ferret from Italy into Switzerland hours later, she still looked like she was well on her way to her fourth victory in four tries.

Several top contenders in the women’s race dropped out during the bad weather conditions, including China’s Lin Chen and America’s Abby Hall.

‘I knew that if I wanted to give myself a chance, I had to go out a bit harder and run a little more aggressively than I did last year,’ said Croft. ‘But once the weather came in and it got cold, I knew that I had to just survive for the night.’

Before long, Dauwalter slowed considerably and was passed by Croft and Bruyasafter on departing the 71-mile aid station in LaFouly, Switzerland. By the time that Dauwalter reached the next aid station nine miles later, she was seven minutes behind Croft and two minutes behind Bruyas.

From there, Croft and Bruyas continued to surge, while Dauwalter continued to slow down. At times, Dauwalter was able to keep running – but she was also seen walking or hobbling through some of the more technical sections of terrain.

Dauwalter, however, still engaged with fans along the way, waving, smiling and high-fiving supporters despite the suffering. She even graciously donned a gold plastic crown bejewelled with fake gemstones and waved to the crowd in appreciation of their support.

‘It was a really, really tough day out there and night, but I was absolutely boosted by all the cheers on course and I had an amazing crew here helping,’ said Dauwalter after the race. ‘It’s a team sport. Doing hard things together makes the best type of memories. I appreciate so much all the support out there – and this welcome back into Chamonix was the best of the best. I continued because a race this special is worth doing the full loop.’

Dauwalter was eventually caught and passed by Hartmuth just outside of the aid station in the ski town of Vallorcine. Hartmuth slowed to acknowledge Dauwalter before passing her and quickly created a gap on the final long ascent to the La Flégère ski area above Chamonix.

‘It was a privilege to be on the course with so many talented women – not just Courtney, but everyone who was running,’ said Croft.

Only Frenchman Xavier Thévenard has obtained more victories than Croft at the UTMB festival of trail running races. A three-time winner of the UTMB (2013, 2015 and 2018), he also won the CCC in 2010, the OCC in 2016 and the TDS (148km) in 2014.