Scorecard
UTMB vs Hardrock scorecard
UTMB Mont-Blanc is the alpine loop with a corporation attached. Hardrock is the San Juan 100 with a lottery attached. Both are icons. They are not the same weekend, and the World Series is not the mountain.
Choose UTMB if you want the Mont Blanc circus and a mass-start alpine loop; choose Hardrock if the San Juans and a tiny field matter more than the brand.
No blended index. Low Worth is the take.
UTMB
Chamonix, Haute-Savoie · 100M
Demand
5 out of 5
How much it asks
Worth
5 out of 5
Worth the flight + fee
UTMB is an icon, and the locked score is 5 and 5. Demand is 5 because a Friday night start in Chamonix, a loop of the Mont Blanc massif, three countries, roughly 174 kilometers and 10,000 meters of climb, then another night, is still a mountain ultra at the top of the scale. The TMB is often runnable. Crowds are real. Neither fact makes 174 alpine kilometers a 4. Weather does not care about your stones. Recent editions have delayed the start or cut the Pyramides Calcaires section when the mountain asked. We note that. We do not hide a sanitized cartoon of 174 km with every col intact. A delayed or shortened high section is part of racing this massif, not a reason to take the race off the icon shelf.
Hardrock 100
Silverton, Colorado · 100M
Demand
5 out of 5
How much it asks
Worth
5 out of 5
Worth the flight + fee
Hardrock is the American mountain 100 that the other American mountain 100s are measured against, and the measurement is not kind to most of them. The course is a loop through the San Juans linking Silverton, Telluride, Ouray, and the Sherman ghost town. Runners cross above 12,000 feet thirteen times and summit Handies Peak at 14,048 feet. The published sheet is blunt: about 102 miles, 33,441 feet of climb, average elevation over 11,000 feet. Direction alternates; 2026 is clockwise.
| Dimension | UTMB | Hardrock 100 |
|---|---|---|
Distance & format | 5 174 km around Mont Blanc with a Friday night start. Longer than a U.S. 100, still one push. | 4 A 102-mile San Juan loop with a 48-hour cutoff. Long, not a stage race, not a road 100. |
Vertical | 4 About 10,000 m of climb on the TMB. Big, not Tor or Diagonale big. | 5 Official 33,441 ft of climb; thirteen crossings above 12,000 ft. The vert is the event. |
Technicality | 3 Alpine trail, crowded, often runnable. Technical by American road-ultra standards; not by Skyrunning ones. | 4 4WD, trail, and true cross-country. Snow and loose rock are normal in July. |
Climate | 4 Night, storms, and a late-August mountain forecast that can turn. Heat in the valleys, cold on the cols. | 4 Monsoon lightning, lingering snow, and hard freezes at night. Summer is a rumor. |
Altitude | 3 Cols around 2,500 m. Real alpine, not Colorado 14er air. | 5 Average elevation over 11,000 ft; Handies Peak at 14,048 ft. This is the altitude 100. |
Logistics | 5 Stones, Index, lottery, Chamonix in race week, three countries. The machine is the tax. | 4 Silverton is remote. Crewing is a mountain skill. Lottery is the real gate, not the fee. |
Prestige & field | 5 The global final. Deep elite field, deeper amateur pilgrimage. Prestige is not in dispute; productization is. | 5 Small field, outsize myth. Getting in is a career; the start list still means something. |
Organization | 4 Professional, enormous, practiced. Also a corporation with a circuit to protect. High confidence in the machine. | 5 Community-owned since 1992, stable course culture, kiss-the-rock finish. Deep public record. |
Value | 2 You buy stones at other races to buy a lottery ticket, then you buy Chamonix in August. Worth 5 is the mountain, not the invoice. | 4 Fee is not UTMB-scale. You pay in years of lottery tickets and a week in the San Juans. |
Adventure & scenery | 5 Mont Blanc massif, Italy, Switzerland, France. The scenery is the reason the circus exists. | 5 Telluride, Ouray, Sherman, Handies. If you fly for mountains, this is the flight. |
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UTMB
Chamonix, Haute-Savoie · 100M
Demand
5 out of 5
How much it asks
Worth
5 out of 5
Worth the flight + fee
Hardrock 100
Silverton, Colorado · 100M
Demand
5 out of 5
How much it asks
Worth
5 out of 5
Worth the flight + fee
Elevation overlay
- UTMB108 mi
- Hardrock 10091 mi
Miles from each startft
Official GPX. Shared mile scale; each line stops at its own finish. Ranking-only. Not a live tracker.
| Dimension | UTMB | Hardrock 100 |
|---|---|---|
Distance & format | 5 174 km around Mont Blanc with a Friday night start. Longer than a U.S. 100, still one push. | 4 A 102-mile San Juan loop with a 48-hour cutoff. Long, not a stage race, not a road 100. |
Vertical | 4 About 10,000 m of climb on the TMB. Big, not Tor or Diagonale big. | 5 Official 33,441 ft of climb; thirteen crossings above 12,000 ft. The vert is the event. |
Technicality | 3 Alpine trail, crowded, often runnable. Technical by American road-ultra standards; not by Skyrunning ones. | 4 4WD, trail, and true cross-country. Snow and loose rock are normal in July. |
Climate | 4 Night, storms, and a late-August mountain forecast that can turn. Heat in the valleys, cold on the cols. | 4 Monsoon lightning, lingering snow, and hard freezes at night. Summer is a rumor. |
Altitude | 3 Cols around 2,500 m. Real alpine, not Colorado 14er air. | 5 Average elevation over 11,000 ft; Handies Peak at 14,048 ft. This is the altitude 100. |
Logistics | 5 Stones, Index, lottery, Chamonix in race week, three countries. The machine is the tax. | 4 Silverton is remote. Crewing is a mountain skill. Lottery is the real gate, not the fee. |
Prestige & field | 5 The global final. Deep elite field, deeper amateur pilgrimage. Prestige is not in dispute; productization is. | 5 Small field, outsize myth. Getting in is a career; the start list still means something. |
Organization | 4 Professional, enormous, practiced. Also a corporation with a circuit to protect. High confidence in the machine. | 5 Community-owned since 1992, stable course culture, kiss-the-rock finish. Deep public record. |
Value | 2 You buy stones at other races to buy a lottery ticket, then you buy Chamonix in August. Worth 5 is the mountain, not the invoice. | 4 Fee is not UTMB-scale. You pay in years of lottery tickets and a week in the San Juans. |
Adventure & scenery | 5 Mont Blanc massif, Italy, Switzerland, France. The scenery is the reason the circus exists. | 5 Telluride, Ouray, Sherman, Handies. If you fly for mountains, this is the flight. |