“It was very remote, a real expedition, really wild and difficult,” says ultra runner Holly Zimmermann about her experiences at the first “Snowman Race” in Bhutan. The American living in Germany is not that easy to impress. After all, she has already completed the “Marathon des Sables”, a stage race through the desert over 230 kilometers in the Moroccan Sahara – or the Everest marathon, which starts in the base camp at the foot of the highest mountain on earth at a good 5300 meters above sea level. “There were a lot of people on Everest and it was mostly downhill,” Zimmermann told DW. “The race in Bhutan was much tougher.” At 52, she was the oldest participant.
Compulsory luggage in the backpack
Only 29 ultra runners took part in the “Snowman Race”: nine locals and 20 from all over the world who had been personally invited by the organizers. The race followed in the footsteps of the “Snowman Trek”, a legendary, demanding three-week trekking tour in the eastern Himalayas. In five daily stages it was more than 204 kilometers, the highest point was 5470 meters.
Holly Zimmermann (4th from right) was the oldest participant in the “Snowman Race” – and the only one who lives in Germany
The route was marked with flags. “But it was impossible to see them in the evening. We had to use GPS to navigate in the dark,” says Zimmermann. We spent the night in tents, all carrying backpacks. “We had a mandatory kit. Sleeping bag, food for the road, water, rain gear, a warmer jacket, hat, gloves, first aid kit. The heaviest thing was the sleeping bag. I had one for temperatures down to minus 30 degrees Celsius. And it was still cold.”
Dangerous glacial lakes
The organizers described the race as “one of the toughest and highest ultra marathons in the world”. They were not only concerned with the sporting challenge, but also with a political message: with the spectacle, Bhutan wanted to draw the world’s attention to the consequences of climate change for the small Himalayan state. “The people living on the edge of melting glaciers are the least contributors to climate change but are the first to feel its devastating effects,” said Bhutan’s Queen Jetsun Pema – married to the regent King Jigme since 2011 – in a message after the end of the race.
In Bhutan there are around 700 glaciers that are melting at an ever faster pace. Researchers counted 567 glacial lakes in the mountains of the small state last year, 17 of which they classified as dangerous. Should one of the natural dams break, a disaster like that of October 7, 1994 could happen again: At that time, 17 million cubic meters of water shot down from the glacial lake Lugge Tsho, villages and fields were flooded and 21 people lost their lives.
Around 70 percent of Bhutan’s settlements are in river valleys
“We are the victims of climate change without being able to do anything about it,” says Karma Toeb, a glaciologist at the National Center for Hydrology and Meteorology (NCHM) who has been studying glacier melt in his home country for more than 20 years. What Karma points to is the fact that Bhutan is one of only three countries in the world, along with Panama and Suriname, to have a negative carbon footprint: it absorbs more greenhouse gases than it produces. However, this does not protect against the consequences of climate change.
Appeal to the forthcoming world climate conference
“We saw the changes with our own eyes,” says US runner Luke Nelson. “I clearly saw the traces of the former glaciers, with moraines that were no longer filled with ice. However, what impressed me the most was the people there and the threat they live with every day.” A threat that is very real. At the beginning of October, after three days of continuous rain, a landslide destroyed several houses in a mountain village in Bhutan, killing five people.
“At first I was fully focused on the competition,” says Holly Zimmermann. “But then I quickly realized that there was much more at stake. We learned something here about the climate crisis and what they are doing about it.” After Bhutan sealed itself off from the outside world for more than two years due to the corona pandemic, tourists have been allowed to enter the country again since September. You have to dig deeper into your pocket for this. The government has increased the sustainable development fee from US$65 to US$200 per person per night. The money will be used for climate protection programs, among other things.
The message that things can’t go on as before has also reached the runners of the “Snowman Race”. “Is this the world we want our children to inherit?” asks Simon Mtuy. The runner from Tanzania makes an appeal to the upcoming world climate conference in Sharm el-Sheikh in Egypt in November: “We have to tackle the problem very quickly and repair what we have destroyed.”
17 out of 29 arrived
Mtuy was one of 17 starters who reached the finish of the “Snowman Race” after a good 200 kilometers. Twelve had previously given up. “Several runners had to be evacuated by helicopter because of altitude sickness,” says Holly Zimmerman. Her own task on the second day had a different reason: at a pass at a good 5200 meters, she was only going very slowly after she had run into the evening hours the day before. “I have four children at home between the ages of 14 and 21. I said to myself, ‘Safety first’ and turned around.”
In the end, only locals ended up on the podium. “We all expected that,” says Zimmermann, who has lived with her family in a village near Regensburg since 2000. She returns to Germany with many impressions – from the only country in the world where the happiness of the population is enshrined in the constitution as a state goal. “I hope I take the calm, humility and hospitality of the people with me,” said the ultra runner. “They are known as the happiest people in the world. And after what I’ve experienced, I can attest to that.” If it weren’t for climate change and its consequences.