UTHG 2027 — the same majestic scenery of weathered black stone, on trails that hug a legendary pass hand-carved over six relentless years (1959–1965). The new 125KM distance starts at Vietnam's northernmost border, after a flag ceremony at Lũng Cú Flag Tower.
Secure your bib →The northern tip of Vietnam — now laid out to be conquered on foot. The course swings a full 360° around the Tu Sản canyon and the jade Nho Quế, opening four breathtaking views of the same abyss, and starts at Lũng Cú flag tower in mid-March 2027, the season of red silk-cotton blossoms.
Vietnam's very first UNESCO Global Geopark (2010) and among the first in Southeast Asia, the Đồng Văn Karst Plateau spreads over ~2,350 km² across four highland districts — a vast grey sea of “cat-ear” limestone shaped over hundreds of millions of years, holding fossils and rock formations of global scientific value. It is a harsh land: the kingdom of rock greets you with mountains too high to climb and rivers too deep to ford — and it is that very hardship that forges an iron will and rare endurance in those who cross it.
Hà Giang is the frontier — the northern tip of Vietnam, home to seventeen mountain peoples who carved terraces and life itself out of sheer rock. It is the land of the H'Mông and the “H'Mông King,” and of a proud history of solidarity and resistance written into the stone.
The northernmost point of Vietnam — a lone flag tower on a karst summit looking out over the whole plateau. The 125KM ULTRA starts here, after a flag ceremony: you begin your race at the country's northernmost point.
Highway QL4C — hand-carved through the cliffs in 1959–65 by thousands of young volunteers, including the famous Mã Pì Lèng section. You run on legend.
In Sà Phìn valley stands the Vương Palace, seat of the H'Mông “Kings.” Its heir Vương Chí Sình was won over by President Hồ Chí Minh, taken as a sworn brother and given the name Vương Chí Thành; he became a National Assembly deputy — a symbol of Vietnam's peoples standing together against invaders.
H'Mông, Lô Lô, Dao, Tày, Giáy and more — living highland cultures of rammed-earth homes, brocade and the H'Mông khèn.
A centuries-old stone town at the heart of the plateau — night market, yellow-earth walls, lanterns under the karst.
Mèo Vạc's legendary once-a-year market where old sweethearts reunite — one of the northern highlands' most moving traditions.
Driving the Hà Giang Loop alone is already jaw-dropping — but linking the cliff-side trails between villages on foot, you conquer the king of all trail terrain: limestone found nowhere else in Vietnam. The course hugs the Nho Quế, drowns you in scenery, and teases you with a path that looks close yet climbs so high and far it can take an hour just to cross from one cliff face to the next.
| Distance | Early Bird23 Aug – 20 Sep 2026 | Noon21 Sep 2026 – 4 Feb 2027 | Regular5 Feb – 4 Mar 2027 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ULTRA 125KM | 5,175,000 VND ($198) | 6,072,000 VND ($232) | 6,900,000 VND ($264) | Choose |
| TRAIL 75KM | 2,925,000 VND ($112) | 3,432,000 VND ($131) | 3,900,000 VND ($149) | Choose |
| TRAIL 55KM | 2,700,000 VND ($103) | 3,168,000 VND ($121) | 3,600,000 VND ($138) | Choose |
| TRAIL 42KM | 2,400,000 VND ($92) | 2,816,000 VND ($108) | 3,200,000 VND ($122) | Choose |
| TRAIL 25KM | 1,800,000 VND ($69) | 2,112,000 VND ($81) | 2,400,000 VND ($92) | Choose |
| SIXMIX 6KM | 600,000 VND ($23) | 704,000 VND ($27) | 800,000 VND ($31) | Choose |
Official website phased pricing — Early Bird is the best price (ends 20 Sep 2026), then Noon, then Regular. Cut-off & UTMB Index: 125KM 42h · 100K | 75KM 25h · 50K | 55KM 20h · 50K | 42KM 15h · 50K | 25KM 12h · 25K | 6KM 2h. Entry by iTRA: 125KM needs iTRA ≥ 3; 75/55/42KM need iTRA ≥ 2.
UTHG is recognised in the world's trail-ranking systems. iTRA scores each race's difficulty and gives you a performance index; the UTMB Index (0–1000) rates you by distance category — your gateway toward the world's leading trail races.
Check your iTRA Performance Index at itra.run. The system verifies eligibility automatically after you register.
This frontier suffers a severe shortage of farmland and water. In the dry season (October–April) drought comes almost every year; in the rains water floods through and cannot be held, and mountain roads break fast and cut villages off. To survive the dry months, people and local authorities built many artificial “hanging lakes” high on the mountains — but they run dry in about two months. For the other four, families must pay to have water trucked in, at times up to a million đồng (about $40) for a single cubic metre — against under a dollar in the city. Food is scarce and livelihoods swing between tourism and hard-won farming. And yet the people here remain among the friendliest and most hospitable anywhere. Coming here is hard and challenging — but you help improve their lives: you are served well, and they earn a living and a cushion against nature's harshest days.
Cloud passes, endless switchbacks, red blossoms — and the faces that make it home.
Come to a land that will never let you down. Here you are treated to the conquest of the king of stone mountains, the longest and most perilous of Vietnam's four great passes, singular food and warm-hearted people — amid a March ablaze with red silk-cotton blossoms. Run hand in hand across the far-north frontier. Start at the country's northernmost point, and finish as one of us.
Be one of them →Mid-March is the most beautiful window of the year on the plateau: dry, clear days at a runnable 15–25°C, crisp cold at dawn and night at 1,000–1,600m. Spring flowers open, red silk-cotton blooms blaze along the Nho Quế at its greenest, the weathered black karst stands stark, and farmers turn the soil in fields wedged between the cliffs. Come ready for the cold hours and the passes:
Race-kit + chip-timed BIB.
A finisher medal for every distance.
Nutrition & water on course and at the finish.
Medical and rescue team, CP stations and safe cut-offs.
125KM: a flag ceremony start at Vietnam's northernmost point.
iTRA & UTMB Index certification + event photos (BIB & face search).
Why do we build this race? Because the trail and scenery here are the most beautiful, most haunting we know — brutally hard, yet unreal. Designing the course, our survey team placed a compass at the heart of the Tu Sản canyon and swung it 360°, linking the cliff paths into four completely different views of the abyss. Reaching one checkpoint near the border once took a whole day: an hour to crawl 2km of knife-edge switchbacks, pickup trucks forced to reverse — until fifteen local motorbikes carried a tonne of supplies down in thirty minutes. We build this not only out of love for the trail, but to share one of the most magnificent landscapes on Earth — right here in Vietnam — with outdoor lovers everywhere. We promise attentive support, warm hospitality, and safety first.
However hard the land, we make sure you are looked after — safe, comfortable and ready for a race to remember. Expect generous aid stations stocked with local fruit — orange, watermelon, banana — plus superb electrolytes, energy bars or gel, and hot noodles and rice at many points. At the finish, wood-fired pizza by 4P's. Our photographers capture your best moments all over the course; your photos stay completely private to you, with full albums at a friendly price. We keep every process fast to save your time — and you earn a well-deserved iTRA Performance and UTMB Index when you finish.
Fuel up before, feast after — the food of Hà Giang is pure mountain.
A Tày–Nùng specialty: buffalo hung over the kitchen fire and cured with mắc khén and forest leaves — smoky, chewy and deeply savoury, the taste of Tây Bắc winters.
The H'Mông's beloved corn snack. On the rocks each tiny plot yields only a few dozen stalks — corn is precious here. Grown on stone the kernels look small and plain, yet are greener-leafed, harder and far richer in calcium than lowland corn. Most becomes corn wine — light, as fine as famous vodkas, aged for years in stone caves in tiny batches — and a little becomes mèn mén: tastier, by far, than buttered popcorn.
A restorative bitter-then-sweet porridge, a Hà Giang night-time specialty.
Steamed rice rolls with egg, served in hot bone broth.
Tày river-moss from cold mountain streams — grilled or in soup, a rare highland dish.
The iconic highland stew, simmered with mountain herbs — the soul of the Sunday market.
Sticky rice dyed by forest leaves — a market rainbow.
Hand-distilled highland corn wine — the toast of every festival.
Free-range chicken phở, a warming morning bowl before the passes.
Glutinous rice balls in sweet ginger syrup — a warming cold-night treat.
Lạp xưởng gác bếp — highland sausage scented with mắc khén & mắc mật.
Sticky rice roasted in bamboo, eaten with sesame salt.
The Hà Giang Loop is one of the world's great road trips — the perfect pairing of a race with a trip for family or friends. Locals even say couples who travel here grow inseparable. Come for the race, stay for the plateau; there is far more here than one visit can hold.
A dizzying cliff-edge path on the Mã Pì Lèng massif, high above the Nho Quế.
Glide by boat along the jade Nho Quế, straight through the towering walls of Tu Sản — Southeast Asia's deepest canyon.
Vietnam's northernmost point — a flag tower on a karst summit; the 125KM starts here.
A preserved Lô Lô hamlet below Lũng Cú — rammed-earth houses and living highland culture.
In Oct–Dec the plateau blushes pink-purple with buckwheat blossom.
In Jan–Feb, around Lunar New Year, plum and peach blossom turn the northeast into a fairyland.
Cliff & canyon photos © Race Jungle. Boat cruise, Lũng Cú, Lô Lô Chải, buckwheat & blossom photos: Internet / motogo.vn.
Nothing precious comes easy. To reach and truly experience Hà Giang you'll go through a genuinely tough journey (though not an expensive one): fly into Hanoi, sleep on an overnight coach to Hà Giang city, then keep going on a rattling bus over 140+ km of mountain pass (don't sleep — it's too beautiful) to Mèo Vạc or Lũng Cú. And after the trip and the race, the road back will wring out the last of your strength — but fill you with love for this land and its people (we promise).
A rough budget for a trip from Hanoi — a fraction of what a mountain adventure costs almost anywhere else.
Plus ~120–150K (~$5–6) per person for a hearty local meal, and a tour or self-drive motorbike as you like.
To you, reading this — there is a place where a single cubic metre of clean water, something we get by turning a tap, is treasured like gold. A place where each year splits in two: half a year of drought, half a year of flash floods tearing at the soil. This is the Hà Giang stone plateau, where people cherish every drop of water and every tiny field wedged into the rock.
To survive the dry season, local authorities and donors built “hanging lakes” high on the mountains to store water. But in about two months they run dry. For the other four months of drought, families must pay to have water trucked up the mountain — at times nearly a million đồng (about $40) for a single cubic metre, while in the city it costs under a dollar. Here, every drop is a small fortune.
It is that rare geology that led UNESCO to place this land under careful protection. But conservation cannot be separated from people's lives — when life is this hard, magnificent nature is all too easily traded away for mining and deforestation.
We believe nature-respecting, experiential tourism answers both at once: it protects the land and lifts local lives. As good services grow in quality and number, families earn enough to get by, awareness rises — and they will keep this place magnificent forever, to welcome discerning guests like you.
So please, come. Run once, come back, and support. Every step you take on this course is a vote for conservation, and a hand extended to the people of the highlands.
With gratitude,
Đặng Đức — Race Jungle
12–14 Mar 2027 around Mèo Vạc, on the Đồng Văn Karst Plateau, Hà Giang — Vietnam's far north. The 125KM starts at Lũng Cú flag tower. About 6–7h by road from Hanoi, then a mountain drive.
Six: 125, 75, 55, 42, 25KM and SIXMIX 6KM.
Yes — by iTRA Performance Index: 125KM needs iTRA ≥ 3 (a finished 45KM+ trail race); 75/55/42KM need iTRA ≥ 2. Check yours at itra.run; the system verifies after you register.
Tap "Register"/"Choose" to reach the official registration on racejungle.com and pay online, in English.
Absolutely — English race info & support, and the most spectacular scenery in Vietnam.
6 distances · start at Lũng Cú · 12–14 Mar 2027 · Early Bird price now.
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