SachsenTrail im Erzgebirge: Course, Elevation & Route Profile

Course & Elevation

The loop starts at seven in the morning at the Sportpark Rabenberg, roughly 900 metres up, and opens deceptively gently: the first fifteen kilometres run across the Rabenberg trail network with constant small rises and falls but not a single climb large enough to register in the profile. Two short ramps arrive around kilometre 16, and then the course turns serious at kilometre 30 with 2.6 kilometres at just over six percent, immediately followed by 730 metres at almost twelve percent with pitches beyond 21 percent, and from kilometre 36 the long haul to the Fichtelberg, 3.7 kilometres averaging nine percent for 335 metres of unbroken climbing.

The race does not end there, it starts there. Kilometre 53 brings the second big climb, 3.3 kilometres at 8.4 percent with ramps to 22 percent, kilometre 65 adds almost two kilometres at eight percent, and from kilometre 71 a final 2.4 kilometre climb of 152 metres carries you back up to the Sportpark. The loop closes exactly where it opened.

The terrain is the real distinguishing feature. The Rabenberg singletrack park was built for mountain bikers and is handed over to runners once a year, so the paths are narrow, twisting and for long stretches enclosed by forest. Only the Fichtelberg section lies open and in full sun. Marking is flour arrows on the ground and ribbons on the trees, and the organiser explicitly advises carrying the GPS track. The profile explains why the course never settles: only eleven percent of it is flat, close to 32 percent runs uphill and just as much runs down.

Pacing Strategy

The first fifteen kilometres are the most dangerous of the day. They run fast, the legs are fresh and the field is still racing early in the morning. Run them on feel and you arrive at the foot of the Fichtelberg twenty minutes too early, then pay for it twice from kilometre 53. The right pace here feels distinctly too slow.

The race is decided between kilometre 30 and kilometre 57. That stretch holds the Fichtelberg climb with its 335 metres and the second big climb with 272 metres, separated by technical descents with pitches beyond 20 percent. Both climbs are too long to run even if you could run them: walking the steep sections costs almost no time and saves the legs for the descents, which is where time is actually made.

The real trap is not the gradient but the heat. The Fichtelberg section is the only long stretch without forest shade, and a seven o'clock start puts you on it around midday. In 2026 the organiser did not start the UltraTrail at all at close to 40 degrees and transferred its entrants to the HalfTrail, explicitly to avoid long exposure times and this exact sunny section. Plan your fuelling accordingly: the organiser recommends carrying one and a half litres, your own cup is compulsory, and the course closes at 20:00 on the Saturday.

Training plan for SachsenTrail im Erzgebirge: 12-week build

For an age group runner the UltraTrail takes somewhere between eight and thirteen hours. The demand is entirely aerobic but anything but even: only eleven percent of the course is flat, and the constant alternation between climbing, hiking and technical descending imposes rhythm changes across the whole day that steady base work on a cycle path never produces.

The race turns on the two big climbs at kilometre 36 and kilometre 53. Both arrive after four to six hours of work, both take around half an hour at hiking pace, and both drop straight into a steep descent. Being able to actively run the descents after the Fichtelberg buys more time here than any amount of climbing fitness. The final climb from kilometre 71 then decides only the last few minutes, but it costs anyone who has emptied out too early a full half hour.

Conditions belong in the plan. Late June at 900 metres can deliver anything, and the organiser's experience with the Fichtelberg section is unambiguous: heat acclimatisation through June, a rehearsed drinking plan and familiarity with carrying your own cup and flasks are race preparation here, not comfort. Add self navigation to that, because the marking is flour and ribbon and can be missing after rain.

In training that means long runs of four to six hours on forest paths rather than tarmac, with the climbing deliberately loaded into the back half, plus regular uphill hiking under fatigue treated as its own session and downhill running on tired legs to pre load the eccentric demand on the quadriceps. Two or three sessions with a full pack, your own cup and the race food cover the logistical half.