Tor des Géants: 330 km, 24,000 m, and Nobody to Tell You When to Sleep

01A loop that starts in 2009

The idea is born inside the Courmayeur Trailers association: link the valley’s two great routes, the Alta Via 1 and the Alta Via 2, into a single loop. The first route is 350 km, and the region doubts it can be done. “We were sure it could be done, but we had to convince the politicians,” says Ermanno Pollet, one of the route’s designers, to the site Run the Alps. So the organizers propose a trial run.

On September 13, 2009, the account goes on, four runners set off from the Via Roma in Courmayeur, with 150 hours ahead of them. All four finish. It is not yet a race, but it is proof.

022010: 179 at the finish

The first real edition takes place in September 2010: 330 km, more than 24,000 m of elevation gain. 179 runners complete the loop in Courmayeur, out of about 300 starters according to Run the Alps. The Tor des Géants is born.

03Tor des Géants: sleep or move on

This is the real subject of the race. The course is dotted with aid stations and six big “life bases,” but no stop is imposed: everyone chooses when, where and for how long to rest. With a 150-hour cutoff, it is a permanent calculation.

In 2026, the start is given on Sunday, September 13, at 10 a.m., in Courmayeur. Jiaju Zhao is back there in the dead of night from Tuesday to Wednesday, winning in 65:55:22: 13 minutes faster than the previous record, set by Victor Richard in 2025. He runs the first night without sleeping, according to Reference Trail, and allows himself a short sleep only at Gressoney, after more than 200 km.

04Fifteen minutes

Among the women, Germany’s Katharina Hartmuth finishes in 67:10:09, third overall. She beats her own 2024 record by 12 hours. According to the organization, she slept only 15 minutes over the entire race. Fifteen minutes.

05When the brain checks out

Lack of sleep takes its toll. A study published in 2020 in the *Rivista di Psichiatria* surveyed 21 Tor participants, only one of them a woman: 19 had experienced false perceptions, and 8 real hallucinations. Visual hallucinations start around the third day, according to the authors, who point to prolonged sleep deprivation, but also altitude, stress and fatigue. The sample is small, the authors say so themselves. Over 330 km, the brain has its limits too.