Nearly 2,000 runners from more than 60 countries and six continents converged on Rize’s Kaçkar Mountains over the weekend for the second Kaçkar by UTMB, reinforcing Türkiye’s only UTMB World Series event as an increasingly important destination on the global trail-running calendar.
The Sept. 11-13 event, centered around the Ayder Plateau in the Çamlıhemşin district, brought together professional and amateur ultra-trail runners for four races across some of Türkiye’s most rugged mountain terrain.
The event marked a significant expansion from its inaugural edition in 2025, when roughly 1,600 to 1,900 runners took part. Organizers increased capacity and placed a stronger emphasis on international participation as Rize seeks to use sport to promote its natural and cultural attractions and broaden its tourism economy.
Youth and Sports Minister Osman Aşkın Bak, who gave the start for all the races, said the event was much more than an endurance competition.
“The whole world will see the beauty of the Kaçkars,” Bak told reporters, referring to the mountains by their Turkish name. He said runners would experience the region’s rivers, forests, valleys and highlands while sharing images of their journeys with followers around the world.
That international exposure is central to Rize’s strategy.
Ultra-trail runners represent a highly engaged global community that follows major races and often travels internationally to compete.
Bak said hosting such events can therefore generate benefits well beyond race weekend, supporting hotels, transportation, restaurants and other tourism businesses.
“This is really important in terms of tourism and sports tourism,” Bak said, emphasizing the government’s broader push to increase Türkiye’s share of sports tourism.
Rize Governor İhsan Selim Baydaş described the event as another step in the province’s effort to establish itself as a year-round tourism destination.
“Rize is the capital of green, blue, tea and rain,” Baydaş said, adding that the province could now become known as a capital of ultra-trail running as well.
The four-race program gave runners a choice of distances and difficulty levels, but each course showcased the demanding character of the Kaçkar range.
The flagship Kaçkar 100K began at 4:00 a.m. Saturday with 149 runners.
The roughly 82-kilometer course featured about 5,600 meters of elevation gain and took athletes through high mountain passes, technical trails, forests, alpine meadows, lakes, villages and traditional yaylas.
Sections of the route climbed to around 3,200 meters, including areas around Mezovit, while the course passed through locations such as Hazindak, Samistal, Yukarı Kavrun, Avusor and Huser.
Runners had a maximum of about 24 hours to complete the course and earn three Running Stones, which count toward the lottery for places in the UTMB World Series Finals in Chamonix.
The Kaçkar 50K covered roughly 44 kilometers with about 3,000 meters of elevation gain, taking runners through forests and highland terrain around areas including Kemer Dağı, Hazindak and Samistal.
The 20K course, approximately 20 to 22 kilometers long with about 1,400 meters of climbing, offered a shorter but still demanding route through the forests and highlands around Huser and surrounding villages.
The program also included the Ayder 4K, a community and discovery race designed to broaden participation beyond elite and experienced ultra runners.
The courses follow old shepherds’ paths through dense forests, river valleys, stone settlements and high-altitude meadows before reaching the exposed, rocky terrain of the Kaçkar Mountains. The range, part of the Pontic Mountains, contains peaks rising above 3,900 meters.
Rapidly changing weather and difficult terrain made the races particularly demanding.
The challenge was evident during last year’s inaugural event, when severe weather and safety concerns forced organizers to cancel the longest race. The 50K and 20K went ahead on adjusted or standard routes.
This year, organizers sought to improve logistics and preparedness while retaining the demanding character of the courses.
UTMB project leader Johann Essl said the experience of the first edition helped organizers prepare for the challenges of staging a major international event across such a vast and difficult landscape.
Communication and coordination can be complicated in the mountains, he said, but cooperation between local authorities, the mountaineering federation, municipalities and sponsors helped overcome those difficulties.
The growth of Kaçkar by UTMB is closely tied to Rize’s broader ambitions for sports tourism.
Baydaş said the province identified sports tourism as a strategic opportunity during a sports tourism workshop several years ago and is now beginning to turn those plans into major international events.
The governor said UTMB confirmed the event would remain in Rize through 2030, giving the province a long-term platform on which to build.
“The Kaçkar Mountains have been standing there for a thousand years,” Baydaş said. “We are now trying, through this event, to turn them into one of the greatest opportunities and assets available to us.”
The aim is not simply to attract runners for a weekend. Organizers want participants and their supporters to discover the wider region, including Ayder, the Fırtına Valley, Huser, Pokut, Sal and Zil Kale.
Improved access through Rize-Artvin Airport and continued investment in the Ayder area are also helping create the infrastructure needed to attract visitors outside the traditional summer tourism season.
Bak said the government wants Ayder and Rize to become closely associated with major international events in much the same way that other destinations have built their identities around globally recognized gatherings.
“We want to develop sports tourism,” Bak said, arguing that international sporting events bring people together while encouraging participants to share their experiences and return with others.
President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan also highlighted the race during a visit to Rize, describing Kaçkar by UTMB as one of the world's prestigious ultra-marathon events and noting that the province was hosting more than 2,000 athletes from around the world.
Erdoğan linked the event to wider investments in Rize’s tourism, transportation and sports infrastructure, including improvements around Ayder and the road connecting Pazar, Ardeşen, Çamlıhemşin and Ayder.
He said the goal was to make the region more accessible and extend its tourism season throughout the year.
The event’s organizers also sought to connect trail running with local culture, environmental awareness and wider participation.
The opening program featured an elite-athlete presentation, a “Run Like Her” panel focused on women in sport, a shakeout run and race briefings at the Kaçkar Ultra Trail Village.
The Ayder 4K provided one of the event’s most visible community moments, with Bak joining amateur athletes and nature enthusiasts on the course.
Participants wore shirts carrying the message “Run for Climate,” highlighting climate change and environmental protection. The race began amid traditional horon dancing and tulum music, bringing elements of local Black Sea culture into the international sporting event.
Among the participants was 55-year-old Nazmiye Dalga, a tourism operator in Ayder who is one of the event’s recognizable local figures.
Dalga competed in the 20K for the second consecutive year. Ahead of the race, Rize authorities presented her with a pair of running shoes in recognition of her enthusiasm for sport and determination.
After completing the course last year, Dalga entered this year's race hoping to improve her time.
Her participation reflects another ambition of Kaçkar by UTMB: making the event part of the local community rather than simply bringing international athletes into the region.
Local officials say the race represents a broader transformation in how the region views its mountains.
Rize Mayor Rahmi Metin said the same geography that once represented a difficult environment for people living in the mountains is now becoming an economic and tourism advantage.
“The more we bring major events to our city and successfully stage them, the more we promote Rize,” Metin said, stressing that the region's natural beauty needs an international platform to reach a wider audience.
Çamlıhemşin Mayor Ömer Altun similarly described the event as a meeting point for sport, tourism and nature.
He said athletes could experience dramatically different landscapes during the same race, with high-altitude terrain, autumn colors and the summer atmosphere of Ayder all forming part of the experience.
Çamlıhemşin District Governor Gizem Çiçek said the event was also helping introduce the district and its natural environment to an international audience. She highlighted the Run Like Her initiative and the participation of local women as an important part of the program.
Rize Provincial Youth and Sports Director Ramazan Öztürk said the participation of athletes from six continents demonstrated the province’s growing strength as an international sports destination.
Kaçkar by UTMB is still a young event, but its rapid growth gives Rize a rare opportunity to establish itself in a highly specialized international sports market.
The 2025 inaugural edition demonstrated the potential of the Kaçkar Mountains while also exposing the logistical and weather challenges involved in staging an ultra-trail event in the region.
