Trail des Ducs de Savoie

The Trail des Ducs de Savoie is a 35-kilometre trail race with 2,000 metres of elevation gain, starting from Chambéry, the préfecture of Savoie and former capital of the States of Savoy. This demanding mountain event takes runners from the historic city towards the summits overlooking the Chambéry valley, through a grand Alpine landscape where the Bauges and Chartreuse massifs frame the valley with their imposing limestone cliffs and altitude forests.

Chambéry, a city of art and history nestled at the crossroads of Alpine valleys, is the birthplace of the House of Savoy, which ruled a vast territory straddling France and Italy for nearly nine centuries. The Château des Ducs de Savoie, now housing the préfecture, overlooks the old town with its colourful facades and lanes adorned with trompe-l'oeil paintings. Runners set off from this remarkable historic heritage to gain the heights, leaving Chambéry's urbanity behind within a few kilometres for Alpine verticality, in a striking transition that encapsulates Chambéry's unique position as a valley town at the foot of limestone giants.

The Trail des Ducs de Savoie course climbs towards the foothills of the Bauges massif, a UNESCO Global Geopark since 2011, and the Chartreuse massif, whose spectacular cliffs form a natural rampart to the west of the city. The trails climb through beech and spruce forests, follow rocky passages cut through Urgonian limestone, and emerge onto high-altitude pastures from which views plunge down to Lac du Bourget — the largest natural lake in France — and the Combe de Savoie stretching towards the Maurienne and Tarentaise valleys. The limestone ridges, airy and sometimes exposed, offer spectacular passages between massifs, with panoramas extending on clear days to Mont Blanc and the Belledonne chain.

With 2,000 metres of elevation gain packed into 35 kilometres, the Trail des Ducs de Savoie is a mountain race in every sense. The high elevation ratio reflects the terrain's verticality: the climbs from the Chambéry valley floor at 270 metres altitude to summits above 1,500 metres are long, steep, and demanding. The Alpine trails are technically varied: polished limestone slabs, scree passages in rocky corridors, roots in damp undergrowth, and ridge sections where exposure adds a psychological dimension to the physical challenge. The descents, often on steep, stony mountain trails, test knees and quadriceps severely.

Savoie is one of Europe's greatest trail running playgrounds, and the Trail des Ducs de Savoie offers a masterful distillation. The race traverses mountain ecosystems of remarkable richness: low-altitude deciduous forests shelter roe deer and black woodpeckers, intermediate zones are the domain of chamois and Alpine ibex — successfully reintroduced to the Bauges — while summit meadows host marmots, golden eagles, and black grouse. Savoyard cheese heritage is ever-present, with the alpine pastures producing the milk for Tome des Bauges AOP that runners can sample at aid stations. The Trail des Ducs de Savoie pays tribute to the history and nature of this sovereign territory — a race that combines the nobility of ducal heritage with the wild grandeur of the Savoyard Prealps.