After several months spent in the mountains in contact with ethnic tribes, I could draw a route between Chiang Mai and Chiang Rai by connecting all the trails and paths discovered during my researches. The task was not easy. These trails orginally used by tribes to communicate between villages are today less taken or abandoned because it’s easier to use new dirt roads.

In total the track will make 330k and 16.000m of ascent. This is much more than what I had expected at the beginning. I had drawn a first draft of the ideal track before starting my investigation. I wanted to take the mountain range in the North-West of Chiang Mai through the highest and most beautiful mountains of the country (especially Doi Pui and Doi Chiang Dao). I also wanted to get closer to the border with Burma, where nature is particularly wild and beautiful and the mountains succeed to each other (the most known being Doi Ang Khang and Doi Phahompok). This choice explains the big total ascent of the track. Although any reached peak won’t exceed 2400m high, the total elevation ratio will be the same as for an ultra trail in the Alps!

My last goal fr this race was to complete the track in one week. Finally it gives 7 stages of 30k to 75k and 1500m to 4000m elevation. To the magnificent rice terraces of the Mae Kha and Pha Taek valleys will succeed the fabulous mountains of Doi Chiang Dao and Doi Ang Khang. To the pine forests of Doi Pui will succeed the incredible atmosphere of jungle near the Nam Kok and Mae Ping rivers. We will eat and sleep every nights in the hill tribe villages. We will pass from hot days where temperature reaches 25° to cool nights when the barometer can fall to 5°.

All these conditions will make this race a tough and demanding adventure. We rely on the beauty and diversity of landscapes, the encounters with the tribes, the atmosphere in the group of runners to give us motivation and courage. It is with this mindset this great project will be successfully completed .