Marató Valls de Cardós
Sat 05 Sep 2026 · Ribera de Cardós, Lleida
a genuine high-Pyrenean sky-marathon — +3.100 m, peaks over 2.800 m, Alt Pirineu park — with full mandatory-kit seriousness · Our read
77Very hard77 km-effort · 71 m/km climb
EasyModHardV.hardExtremeBrutal
Endurance load on ITRA's km-effort scale — not steepness or technical terrain.
How we measure
km-effort = distance + climb/100, ITRA's published scale: every 100 m of climb counts like ~1 km of distance. Six levels, Easy → Brutal, from the hardest distance of the event. The climb figure (m/km) shows how vertical the course is.Drive
FAR 3h 29m
from Barcelona (Glòries, est.)
When
Sat 05 Sep 2026
Distances
23 · 45 km
Official site & registration ↗
Ask anything the page doesn't show — “can I walk it?”, “good first trail race?”
Dates, start times and registration change — always confirm on the official site.
Distances
45 km · ↑3200 m · Very hard
23 km · ↑1400 m · Moderate
| Distance | Climb | Effort |
|---|---|---|
| 45 km | ↑3200 m | 77 Very hard |
| 23 km | ↑1400 m | 37 Moderate |
Our take
The catch · Our read
km-19 noon cutoff on a +3.100 m course is unforgiving and the organiser says so; big descent load, real weather exposure, full kit to carry
Who it's for · Our read
for experienced mountain-marathoners comfortable above 2.500 m with kit discipline; not for first ultras or anyone slow on climbs
Also nice · Our read
headtorch 06:30 start into an alpine sunrise, high lakes and ridgelines, pasta-and-concerts finish
In a word · Our read
like a mini-Pyrenees skyrace-marathon — think a smaller Olla/Pica-style day; much harder than "marathon" implies
Character
- Setting
- alpine · national-park — Parc Natural de l'Alt Pirineu, ridges, high lakes, peaks >2.800 m, forest pistes, Pyrenean villages · Organizer
- Course
- high-mountain loop/lollipop from Ribera de Cardós — not explicitly stated · Our guess
- Aid
- 8 stations (marató) / 4 (mitja), liquid + solid; mandatory personal cup/bottle ("got o ampolla personal") → cupless race, bring-your-own · Organizer
- Season & heat
- high Pyrenees early Sept — mild-to-cold up high (that's why the kit list), but the long low-valley sections midday can still cook; the pre-dawn start beats the heat and the cutoff · Derived
Labels show how we know each thing: Organizer (from the race’s own site) · Derived · Our read · Our guess · Dima (ran it).
Route maps
From the official page — confirm the exact course on the site.
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