TORX with Kailas Endurance Trail
TOR330 - Tor des Geants
Courmayeur
Race guide
Updated 19 July 2026
The TOR330 – Tor des Géants (running as TORX with Kailas Endurance Trail) is one of the most demanding footraces on the planet: 330 kilometres through the Aosta Valley in northern Italy, looping entirely on foot around the great massifs of Mont Blanc, Gran Paradiso, Monte Rosa and the Matterhorn with 24,504 metres of cumulative ascent and a high point of 3,297 metres. Starting and finishing in Courmayeur, the course visits eight staffed life bases that serve as the race's logistical spine, giving runners access to drop bags, food, medical support and, crucially, a place to sleep – briefly – before the cut-offs force them back onto the trail. With a finishing cut-off of Saturday 18:00 and the race starting on Sunday, the window is roughly 150 hours, meaning the vast majority of finishers will spend four to six full nights on the mountain. This is less a running race than a self-managed expedition through some of the most spectacular alpine terrain in Europe.
Course & Terrain Overview
The TOR330 traces a grand loop of the Aosta Valley, threading through remote valleys and over high mountain passes on a mixture of waymarked mule tracks, single-track trail, rocky ridge paths and lower valley road sections. The route is split into roughly eight logical legs between the life bases: Courmayeur to Valgrisenche (49 km), on to Cogne (57 km further, at 106 km), down to Donnas at 151 km – the lowest point at just 665 m – then climbing back up to Gressoney-Saint-Jean at 205 km, Valtournenche at 239 km, Ollomont at 287 km, and finally returning to Courmayeur at 330 km. The descent into Donnas represents the only time the route dips below 700 m, and that dramatic range – from valley floors under 700 m to passes near and above 3,000 m – is repeated again and again, meaning every leg involves thousands of metres of both ascent and descent. Technical rocky terrain dominates the high sections; lower valley paths can be runnable but legs will be deep in fatigue by then.
Decisive Climbs, Descents & Where the Race Is Won or Lost
With 24,504 m D+ distributed across 330 km the climbing is relentless, averaging roughly 74 m of gain per kilometre – there is no flat filler. The high point of 3,297 m demands respect for altitude-related fatigue and rapidly changing weather. The leg from Donnas (665 m, 151 km) back up toward Gressoney-Saint-Jean (1,784 m, 205 km) is a punishing 54 km resurrection after a low-valley section where many runners push too hard; arriving at Gressoney's Wednesday/Thursday cut-off of 03:00 with something left in the tank is critical. The Ollomont life base sits at 2,694 m – the highest life base on the course – and the Saturday 03:00 cut-off there leaves only 15 hours to cover the final 43 km back to Courmayeur, a section that still contains significant climbing; runners who leave Ollomont on empty are the ones who miss the 18:00 Saturday finish cut-off. The race is not won on any single climb but lost incrementally across nights two and three when sleep deprivation compounds physical fatigue.
How to Pace & Fuel It
Treat TOR330 in legs, not as a single effort. Each life base is a mandatory reset point: eat a full hot meal, change wet kit, reassess blisters and, when the cut-off margin allows, sleep for 60–90 minutes on a mat. The early life-base cut-offs are generous (Valgrisenche on Monday 06:00, Cogne on Tuesday 06:00), which tempts runners to push through the first two nights without rest – a strategy that almost always collapses after Donnas. Aim to bank sleep at Cogne or Donnas regardless of how good you feel. Caloric strategy must account for days, not hours: target 300–400 kcal per hour while moving, leaning on the life-base hot food as your anchor meals and carrying sufficient snacks – 500–800 kcal – between bases where resupply is limited. Sodium and electrolyte management matters on the long descents into warm valley floors; the drop to Donnas at 665 m can feel genuinely hot compared to the high passes. Poles are effectively mandatory from the very first climb.
Conditions to Expect
Tor des Géants runs in September in the Aosta Valley, but 'September in the Alps' covers an enormous range of conditions. At 3,297 m, summit temperatures can drop below freezing on any night and rapidly in afternoon thunderstorms. The mandatory kit list is taken seriously because multi-day exposure at altitude is the core risk. Expect cold, wet passes in the morning after overnight rain and potentially scorching heat in the Donnas valley section during the day. Night temperatures at the Ollomont life base (2,694 m) can be genuinely cold even in early September. Snowfall on the highest passes is possible, particularly in the final third of the race if conditions deteriorate. Mental preparation for five or more consecutive nights of darkness, cold and accumulated fatigue is as important as physical training; hallucinatory sleep deprivation affects most runners by night three, and recognising that as normal rather than alarming is part of finishing this race.
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Checkpoints & cut-offs
⚠ Auto-researched from public sources — aid stations and cut-offs may be incomplete. Confirm against the official roadbook before race day.
0 km · 1229 m · Sun 12:00
9 km · 2438 m · —
12.8 km · 2038 m · —
19 km · 1490 m · Sun 17:30
27.9 km · 2470 m · —
30.7 km · 2600 m · —
32.8 km · 2124 m · —
36 km · 2717 m · —
37.6 km · 2350 m · —
42.8 km · 1515 m · —
48.5 km · 1656 m · Mon 09:00
54.9 km · 2530 m · —
58 km · 2325 m · —
62.9 km · 2003 m · —
68.3 km · 2794 m · —
78.3 km · 1839 m · Mon 21:30
90.6 km · 3013 m · —
95.2 km · 2335 m · —
100.9 km · 1584 m · —
104 km · 1587 m · Tue 08:00
107.7 km · 1835 m · —
109.8 km · 2144 m · —
120.3 km · 2542 m · —
122.4 km · 2320 m · —
126 km · 1949 m · —
131.6 km · 1228 m · —
139.4 km · 766 m · —
146.8 km · 317 m · —
149.8 km · 390 m · Wed 04:00
155.6 km · 803 m · —
156.4 km · 910 m · —
162.9 km · 2085 m · —
166.4 km · 1877 m · —
167.3 km · 1818 m · —
172.5 km · 2069 m · —
175.6 km · 2154 m · Wed 15:00
179.8 km · 2101 m · —
180.9 km · 2147 m · —
182.6 km · 1981 m · —
184.9 km · 1781 m · —
190.5 km · 2376 m · Wed 21:30
193.9 km · 1927 m · —
196.7 km · 1564 m · —
203.8 km · 1428 m · Thu 03:00
208.9 km · 2705 m · —
213.4 km · 1987 m · —
217.1 km · 1602 m · —
220.8 km · 2022 m · Thu 15:00
223.6 km · 2388 m · —
228.6 km · 2291 m · —
230.2 km · 2070 m · —
231.5 km · 1813 m · —
234.5 km · 1599 m · —
237.5 km · 2131 m · Thu 23:00
242.3 km · 2275 m · —
246.3 km · 2605 m · —
247.3 km · 2738 m · —
252.1 km · 2266 m · —
255.8 km · 2547 m · —
259.3 km · 2759 m · —
261.6 km · 2201 m · —
263.8 km · 1945 m · —
264.2 km · 1867 m · —
274.7 km · 2514 m · Fri 14:00
278.7 km · 1725 m · —
280.3 km · 1367 m · —
282.7 km · 1901 m · —
286.5 km · 2694 m · Fri 21:00
291.2 km · 1848 m · —
292.3 km · 1917 m · —
297.7 km · 1793 m · —
306.1 km · 1935 m · —
307.8 km · 2062 m · Sat 08:00
315.5 km · 2357 m · —
316.9 km · 2231 m · —
319 km · 1973 m · —
324.6 km · 2013 m · —
332.1 km · 1230 m · —
336.5 km · 1224 m · Sat 18:00
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Course data researched from public sources — verify against the official roadbook.