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UTMB Event 100K 50K Ultra Trail 20K Tilcara, ARG

Jujuy Fuerza Sagrada by UTMB

ARG Tilcara, ARG · 1 Apr - Apr 4, 2027

Sacred strength in the Quebrada de Humahuaca, where the Andes turn every colour

6
RACES
5 – 87 KM
Distance
175 – 5,100 M D+
D+

Jujuy Fuerza Sagrada by UTMB runs through the Quebrada de Humahuaca, a UNESCO World Heritage valley in the far north of Argentina, with six courses ranging from 4.5 km to 87.2 km. The flagship INTI 88K climbs 5,101 metres through the ranges above Tilcara and out towards the edge of the Puna. Villages such as Purmamarca and Tilcara sit above 2,200 metres, beneath the mineral stripes of the Cerro de los Siete Colores, and the races carry Quechua names that say what the mountains mean here.

Jujuy Fuerza Sagrada by UTMB takes the UTMB World Series into the Quebrada de Humahuaca, the 155 kilometre Andean valley in the far north of Argentina that UNESCO listed as World Heritage in 2003. Six courses share the same ground: INTI 88K over 87.2 km with 5,101 metres of climbing, KUNTUR 50K over 50.3 km with 2,754 metres, WAYRA 35K over 34 km with 1,826 metres, AMARU 21K over 21.3 km with 884 metres, RUMI 12K over 11.9 km with 723 metres and PUKARA 5K over 4.5 km. The names are Quechua: sun, condor, wind, serpent, stone and fortress.

Everything happens high. Purmamarca sits at roughly 2,200 metres and Tilcara at about 2,461 metres, so runners start already above the altitude of most European summits and climb from there towards the thin air of the Puna. The valley floor was carved by the Río Grande, and the slopes above it are striped with the oxidised reds, ochres, greens and violets that made the Cerro de los Siete Colores famous. Courses pass the main square of Purmamarca, thread ravines and cactus covered hillsides, and run within sight of the Pucará de Tilcara, the hilltop fortress that indigenous communities built long before the Inca arrived.

This is a race where the landscape is inseparable from the people living in it. The Quebrada has been a corridor for trade, pilgrimage and migration for thousands of years, and its villages keep their coplas, their carnival and their offerings to the Pachamama. Running here in early April, at the end of the summer rains, means clear skies, enormous light and a course that feels less like a route than a passage through something older than the sport itself.