With the recent news of the draw for the last competitors, everything is ready for the sixteenth edition of the Sellaronda Skimarathon, one of the toughest and most difficult competitions for ski mountaineering enthusiasts.
The marathon has always been considered the queen of races because of its intrinsic difficulty, which, as tradition has it, commits athletes to an exhausting 42-kilometre march. The same goes for this fascinating winter version: a challenge between ski specialists who, with climbing skins, ski mountaineering gear and headlamps to tackle the course in the dark of night, will compete in pairs for the rich final prize, €10,000 on one of the most famous routes for winter sports enthusiasts, the one linking the four Dolomite valleys at the foot of the Sella massif.
This year’s edition, scheduled for February 20 with the start at 6 pm from Selva di Val Gardena, promises to be an event not to be missed. So many champions are taking part in pairs that the organising committee had to resort to a draw to add around thirty pairs to the maximum number of participants, stopping however at 430 teams. According to the organisers, any more would have been impossible without compromising the smooth running and the safety of the event. Such massive participation is a clear sign that the event is a great success among athletes, who do not seem at all daunted by the idea of tackling the very long night-time course and the effort of covering the route’s 7,200 metres of vertical on skis.
Race tradition has it that each year the start is from a different village in the four valleys, and, while in past editions Corvara, Arabba and Canazei have taken turns, this year the race starts from Selva di Val Gardena, from where the group of competitors, all athletes in top competitive shape, will race through the four valleys overlooking the Sella: first Val Badia, then the Valle di Vinallongo and Val di Fassa, before returning to the starting point.
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