VJM 70KM Ultra Trail

With a convenient start and finish location right in the heart of our VJM race village, just a few hours from Hanoi, this stunning route offers a wide variety of terrain through much of Pu Luong Nature Reserve’s most breathtaking scenery. Long runnable sections are interspersed with climbing challenges, making this a very well-balanced ultra route.  

From the start line, a fast downhill through beautiful rice terraces leads to the first climb. The cooling shade of the lush jungle canopy, together with the sounds of nature and a fairly gentle gradient, make this a beautiful first uphill section.  

Over the top of the climb, you’ll be rewarded with an awesome downhill through the forest. This downhill section is dreamlike territory for trail lovers.  

Next, you’ll run a flatter section through an ethnic village, before the route turns off the small road and onto a long, verdant green trail.  

Entering an expansive rice valley, your first checkpoint awaits. A small village path then leads to a scenic riverside trail, featuring a bamboo bridge crossing, followed by more single track and a deep river valley leading to the next checkpoint. 

Fuel well at this checkpoint, because next comes the biggest climb of the course: Sky Mountain. This 3.7km ascent serves up a relentless 800m of gain on forested singletrack. The well-earned reward at the top is a wild flower plateau with incredible, panoramic views. Here, the rest of your course is spread out before you – it’s therefore a good place to stop and admire the wonder of Pu Luong… unless you are racing hard!    

A great downhill trail then brings you down to the small village of Eo Dieu and Checkpoint 3. 

You then have a long, runnable descent back down to the valley floor, where you will race through more small villages and past waterwheels to the picturesque village of Ban Hieu at Checkpoint 4. 

This fairytale settlement features traditional stilt houses which dot the hillside and a turquoise river with rapids and cascading waterfalls. 

After reaching the top of a climb through more beautiful jungle, you will enjoy sweeping views of the valley before descending back down on another awesome dirt trail section affording yet more great views. A very path then brings you into checkpoint 5.  

Next, awesome singletrack winds through remote territory before you emerge back into a broad valley. The next checkpoint follows more runnable terrain through a series of villages set on the edge of the rice fields.  

From here, the race shifts gear, with a climb and descent into the remote village of Pon where magnificent views of jungle-clad limestone hills await. Then comes the key challenge of your race:  a steep climb, which rises through dense jungle, before emerging at one of the most spectacular lookout points in all of Vietnam. We will never forget the first time we saw this knockout view and we can guarantee you will never forget it either!  

A steep, but fun downhill from the lookout brings you to a fast, flat section along the valley floor to the picturesque village of Kho Muong. This small ethnic settlement of stilt houses is one of many parts of this course where it feels like time stands still.  

An uphill through beautiful, old forest then leads to the next checkpoint. Soon after this you will run into more remote territory – for the next few kilometers there are no villages, just amazing singletrack trail under the shade of the peaceful forest canopy.    

Emerging from this lush jungle section, you will cross a stream, then head uphill through small ethnic villages, before descending back into Don village for your final kilometers through one of the area’s most expansive rice terraces and across a beautiful bamboo bridge, which we build especially for race day.   

Back in our race village, you can enjoy music and the delicious finisher buffet feast that VJM has become famous for.