UTMB Cut-Off Times: Every Deadline You Need to Know to Finish (2026)
46 hours and 30 minutes. That’s how long you have, watch in hand, to cover the UTMB’s 170 km and 10,000 m of elevation gain before the final cut-off falls in Chamonix. Between that number and the finish line, five cut-off checkpoints line the course — Les Contamines, Courmayeur, Champex-Lac, Vallorcine — and any one of them can end your race, bib and timing chip pulled on the spot, no matter how much you’ve got left in your legs. In this guide, you’ll find every UTMB 2026 cut-off time, the sections where runners lose the most buffer, and the pacing strategy to build a race plan that holds up without costing you a night’s sleep.Key takeaways
- The UTMB has a total time limit of 46h30, from Friday’s start to Sunday’s finish.
- Five major cut-offs line the course: Les Contamines (+6h30), Courmayeur (+21h), Champex-Lac (+32h), Vallorcine (+42h30), and the finish (+46h30).
- Missing a cut-off means being pulled from the race on the spot — not a DNF by choice, but a safety and logistics measure.
- Courmayeur and the night stretch to Champex-Lac are the two sections where your buffer erodes fastest.
What is a UTMB cut-off time, and why does it exist?
A cut-off time is a deadline for reaching a specific checkpoint on the course. Cross it after that deadline — even by a minute — and you’re pulled from the race on the spot, bib and timing chip removed by volunteers. It has nothing to do with a voluntary DNF: it’s a call made for you by the rulebook, not by your legs.
At the UTMB, these deadlines aren’t a buried line item in a 40-page rulebook. They shape the entire race, from your pacing choice at the start to your sleep strategy in the dead of night heading to Champex-Lac.
Safety, logistics, and fairness: the 3 reasons cut-offs exist
Three requirements justify every cut-off time placed on the course:
- Safety: past a certain hour, the volunteers, medics, and evacuation resources stationed on a mountain section can’t stay mobilized indefinitely. A runner isolated at night on a technical stretch after the safety teams have packed up puts everyone at unnecessary risk.
- Logistics: every aid station closes at a set time. Roads reopen, volunteers head home to rest, and equipment gets broken down to be redeployed elsewhere on the course. Without cut-offs, the organization simply couldn’t sustain 46h30 of non-stop racing.
- Sporting fairness: a UTMB finish time has to mean something. Cut-off times guarantee a shared standard for every finisher, regardless of what hour they cross the line.
What happens if you miss a cut-off time?
In practice: a volunteer at that checkpoint removes your bib and timing chip the moment the deadline passes. You’re then classified “out of time” (OT) in the official results — a status distinct from “did not start” or a voluntary DNF. The organization then arranges transport back to the nearest life base or to Chamonix, depending on where you are on the course.
It’s never a penalty: it’s a safety measure that applies to everyone, including highly experienced runners occasionally caught out by rough weather or a physical setback mid-race.
The UTMB time limit: 46h30, watch in hand
The overall time limit to complete the UTMB is set at 46 hours and 30 minutes, watch in hand, from the starting gun in Chamonix to crossing that same finish line. Over roughly 170 km and 10,000 m of elevation gain (the exact route can be slightly adjusted each year depending on conditions), that works out to a theoretical average of about 3.6 km/h including aid station stops — a pace that looks comfortable on paper but leaves very little room for error once fatigue, sleep deprivation, and the cold overnight hours are factored in.
Start time and finish cut-off (2026 edition)
The 2026 UTMB week runs from August 24 to 30 in Chamonix. The flagship race, the UTMB itself, traditionally starts on Friday in the late afternoon: kick-off is expected around 5:45 PM. Applying the 46h30 maximum, the final Chamonix cut-off lands around 4:15 PM on Sunday. Exact timings (start time to the minute, final aid station plan) are confirmed each year in the official regulations published by the organization a few weeks before race day — worth checking before you lock in your race strategy.
Every UTMB 2026 cut-off time, checkpoint by checkpoint
The UTMB course is marked by five major cut-off points — the ones that actually shape your race and that your strategy should be built around. Here’s the reference table, showing elapsed time since the start and an estimated clock time based on a 5:45 PM Friday start.
The 5 major cut-off times
| Checkpoint | Distance | Time from start | Estimated cut-off (clock time) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Les Contamines | 31 km | 6h30 | 12:15 AM (Fri–Sat night) |
| Courmayeur | 80 km | 21h00 | 2:45 PM (Saturday) |
| Champex-Lac | 124 km | 32h00 | 1:45 AM (Sat–Sun night) |
| Vallorcine | 153 km | 42h30 | 12:15 PM (Sunday) |
| Chamonix (finish) | 170 km | 46h30 | 4:15 PM (Sunday) |
These five points are the ones that show up consistently in the rulebook and in runner briefings: they’re the ones to keep front of mind, stopwatch running, on your race plan.
The complete map of intermediate aid stations
Between these five major cut-offs, the course has roughly a dozen intermediate aid stations — often without a hard official cut-off, but useful reference points for checking your actual pace against theoretical splits. Few guides break these down — here are the main ones, with approximate distance:
- Saint-Gervais — km 21
- Les Chapieux — km 50
- Lac Combal — km 65
- Col Checrouit — km 76
- Refuge Bertone — km 86
- Refuge Bonatti — km 91
- Arnouvaz — km 98
- La Fouly — km 113
- Trient — km 140
- La Flégère — km 162
Use these as mini-milestones during the race rather than fixating only on the five big deadlines — it’s often more reassuring, psychologically, to chip away at the distance checkpoint by checkpoint. Exact closing times for each station are published in the official regulations for the current edition.
Cut-off times for the other UTMB World Series races (CCC, TDS, OCC, MCC)
If you’re targeting a different distance during UTMB week, the cut-offs obviously change. Here are the time limits generally applied across the main formats:
| Race | Distance | Time limit |
|---|---|---|
| CCC (Courmayeur-Champex-Chamonix) | 101 km | 26h30 |
| TDS (Sur les Traces des Ducs de Savoie) | 148 km | 44h10 |
| OCC (Orsières-Champex-Chamonix) | 57 km | 14h30 |
| MCC (Martigny-Combe-Chamonix) | 40 km | 10h00 |
As with the UTMB, these figures are confirmed each year in the rules specific to each race: double-check them before finalizing your race plan, especially if you’re cutting it close on a previous goal.
Where are the traps? The sections to watch closely
Not all cut-offs are equal. Some leave a comfortable buffer if you’re running consistently; others quietly eat away at your lead before you even notice it’s gone.
The Courmayeur trap
Courmayeur (km 80) is one of the race’s two major life bases, with showers, a drop bag, and a hot meal on offer. That comfort is exactly what makes it a classic trap: after a first night and a long, technical Italian stretch, the temptation to linger is real. Plenty of runners arrive with a comfortable cut-off buffer… and leave with a much thinner one, simply because they sat down fifteen or twenty minutes too long.
The night to Champex-Lac: the psychological wall
The stretch leading to Champex-Lac (km 124) crosses the second night of racing for most of the main field. Accumulated fatigue, cold temperatures at altitude, the urge to sleep: this is often where pace drops the most, even though the terrain itself isn’t the most demanding on the course. A 20% pace drop on this section is enough to turn a comfortable buffer into a race against the clock for the final hours.
How to train to respect the cut-off times
Set a realistic pace from the start
The most common mistake isn’t running too slowly — it’s starting too fast. On a 170 km course with 10,000 m of climbing, start-line adrenaline pushes runners to cover the early kilometers at a pace their body will never sustain over the full distance. Build your race plan backward from the cut-off times, with a safety margin of at least 10 to 15% on every segment — that margin, not your top speed, is what gets you in on time.
Optimize your time at aid stations
On a race this long, total time spent at aid stations can add up to several hours. Prepare a short checklist (refill flasks, gel plus solid food, swap your headlamp, dry socks if needed) and run through it on the move rather than sitting down. Every minute saved at a checkpoint is another minute of buffer on the next cut-off.
Train under realistic conditions (night, elevation, fatigue)
Hitting a cut-off at 3 AM after 30 hours of effort doesn’t happen by accident. Build night runs into your training, string together back-to-back long runs on consecutive days to condition your body to accumulated fatigue, and log enough downhill volume to protect your quads for the second half of the race — it’s often the descents, not the climbs, that cost the most time late in the race.
After the finish line: capturing a finish timed down to the minute
Beating a UTMB cut-off, sometimes with only a few minutes to spare, is the kind of story you’re still telling years later. At The Post Trace, we turn your GPX trace into a handcrafted finisher poster, made in France — your exact route, your bib number, your finishing time. Something to hang on your wall, a reminder that you didn’t steal that finish time.
You ran 170 km through the Mont-Blanc massif to make it home inside the deadline set by the rulebook. That deserves more than a GPX file forgotten on your watch.
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FAQ — UTMB Cut-Off Times
What are the UTMB cut-off times?
The UTMB has five major cut-off points: Les Contamines (km 31, +6h30), Courmayeur (km 80, +21h), Champex-Lac (km 124, +32h), Vallorcine (km 153, +42h30), and the Chamonix finish (km 170, +46h30). These deadlines are counted from the start gun.
What are the UTMB 2026 start and finish times?
The 2026 edition runs from August 24 to 30 in Chamonix. The UTMB race starts on Friday, August 28, at around 5:45 PM, with a final cut-off estimated around 4:15 PM on Sunday, August 30 — a maximum race time of 46 hours and 30 minutes.
What is the maximum time limit to finish the UTMB?
The official time limit to be ranked as an UTMB finisher is 46 hours and 30 minutes, from the start in Chamonix to crossing that same finish line.
What happens if you miss a cut-off at the UTMB?
If you miss a cut-off, a volunteer at that checkpoint removes your bib and timing chip on the spot. You’re then listed as “out of time” in the results, and the organization arranges transport back to the nearest life base or to Chamonix.
What is the CCC cut-off time?
The CCC (Courmayeur-Champex-Chamonix), 101 km long, has a 26h30 time limit to be ranked as a finisher.
Can you make up lost time on a UTMB cut-off?
Yes, as long as you haven’t already crossed the checkpoint after the deadline. Many runners claw back buffer on faster, more runnable sections after losing time in the mountains — which is exactly why it pays to track your lead or deficit checkpoint by checkpoint, not just at the finish.
Conclusion
UTMB cut-off times aren’t an administrative hurdle to endure — they’re a framework to build into your race plan from day one. Knowing the five major deadlines, spotting the sections where runners lose the most time, and training under conditions that mirror the real race remain the surest way to clear every checkpoint with a calm buffer — all the way to that final cut-off in Chamonix that makes you a finisher.
