Looking at the live feed from Chamonix, where spectators and supporters were waiting as night fell for the remaining runners to come in from the OCC (Orsières-Champex-Chamonix), the rain was pouring down and it was a sea of umbrellas. No umbrellas, though, for those runners who were out on the mountains battling it out against the elements and each other.
The OCC was created as a shorter UTMB festival option for those who want to do a medium distance. It favours the faster runners rather than the endurance monsters. It starts in Orsières in the Val d’Entremont and ends in Chamonix.
1565 runners lined up at the start this year to race the 53km with 3300m of ascent. The cut off time is 14 hours and the 2017 honours went to Switzerland for the men and Spain for the women. Marc Lauenstein came in first with a time of 05:19:35 and Eli Gordon Rodríguez crossed the line in 06:12:16.
Winners
Men
- Marc Lauenstein, Switzerland, 05:19:34
- Thibaut Baronian, France, 05:23:58
- Ivan Camps, Spain, 05:27:14
Women
- Eli Gordon Rodríguez, Spain, 06:12:16
- Emelie Forsberg, Sweden, 06:20:01
- Amandine Ferrato, France, 06:29:50
