Sébastien Bertrand - Connecting the trails between Chiang Mai and Chiang Rai

“The most important thing is to make your own adventure”

Show Notes

Sébastien Bertrand is the owner of Thailand Mountain Trail, which runs trail running (and hiking) trips from Chiang Mai. We spent a few days with him in January 2019 for a story in Silkwinds magazine, which you can read online here.

In our interview with Seb we discuss:

• Maxi Race Annecy (4:20)

• Janet Ng (HK 100 Race Director) and Jeri Chua (interviewed in Episode 3 of the podcast) (10:40)

• Hong Kong’s MacLehose Trail (21:20)

• Ultra Thai Chiang Mai, which sadly didn’t go ahead (26:30)

• Chiang Dao mountains (30:00)

• Ultra-Trail World Tour (31:15)

• Europe’s GR footpaths (39:35)

• Explorer Mike Horn (01:04:30)

• Best kit (01:11:00): Brooks Cascadia, Salomon XA Pro, Ultimate Direction hydration packs, including the Fastpack 15

Towards the end (01:19:30), we cover the following races:

• Hardcore Hundred Miles in the Philippines

• Adventure Trail Challenge in Singapore

• The Dragon’s Back in Wales

• The Most Beautiful Thing (TMBT) in Malaysia

Although Seb’s own race didn’t go ahead, there are now plenty of races in and around Chiang Mai, including:

• CM6 (August)

• Ultra-Trail Chiang Mai (August)

• Pong Yaeng Trail (November)

A good place to find out what’s happening is Basecamp Coffee at the foot of the Pilgrim’s Trail up Doi Suthep, which has fast become the go-to meet-up spot for the local trail running scene.

Podcast hosted by Ultra Endurance enthusiasts Scott Pugh and Ric Stockfis.