Crossing Switzerland EKIDEN 駅伝

THE MAGIC OF THE EKIDEN
 

3, 4 or 5, that's the number of team-members you'll need to find to cross Switzerland from East to West in an exceptional relay through some of the most legendary places in the Alps: Eiger's North face, Oeschinensee, Engelberg, Gstaad, not forgetting a magnificent joint finish on the shores of Lake Geneva in Montreux.

In addition to the 7 individual relay sections ranging from 78 to 26 km, 3 sections in patrol format with the whole team will make it possible to reach the 400 km on the menu of this unique race.

 

The term "ekiden" comes from two Japanese characters, "eki" (駅), meaning station, and "den" (伝), meaning means of transport. It essentially symbolises the transmission of information or movement from one station to another. The concept is inspired by historic modes of transport, with the first ekiden road relay taking place in Japan in 1917. Don't worry, you won't be asked to pass on any information ...

 

The original ekiden consisted of a 42.195 km marathon, split between six team members, each covering varying distances from 5 to 10 km. In short, we're taking the liberty of adapting this Japanese tradition slightly, while retaining the spirit of solidarity symbolised by the 'tasuki', the scarf, which is passed from one runner to the next, covering the entire distance thanks to the combined efforts of all the team members.

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Details of each section of the route are available below.