DansxAhon at the PTL: A Week in the Alps, 2019
On August 28, 2019, three Filipinos stood at the start line of La Petite Trotte à Léon (PTL) in Chamonix, France — one of the most extreme events under the UTMB week. Unlike UTMB, CCC, or TDS, the PTL is not about speed. It is about survival. Teams of two or three are given a massive route, hundreds of kilometers through the high Alps, with over 25,000 meters of elevation gain. There are no course markings, only a GPX file handed out shortly before the start. Crews and life bases are minimal. The rest of the week, runners are on their own.
For 2019, Maria Josephine “Majo” Liao, Aldean Philip Lim, and Benjamin Ramirez — running as DansxAhon Adventure Team — took on the challenge. To our knowledge, no other Filipino team has finished PTL before or since.
Between Races, Into the PTL
The timing was brutal from the start. The boys had just finished Swiss Epic, a stage mountain bike race, and only had a single day of rest before PTL. On the morning of August 26, they lined up in Chamonix, a little tired, but excited.
“It was not a typical trail race. The GPX and map was only released weeks before. Though we were able to take important points and info about it leading to the event week, we weren’t able to study the full details of the terrain because of traveling and the boys were racing. But it was all good. We were just excited — and that’s more important,” recalls Majo.
The start was fun. Spirits were high. Then the climbs began.
The Grind of the Alps
By the end of the first 20 hours, the team had already realized what they were up against. They stopped at a refuge for 3–4 hours to rest, thinking it would help them recover. They were hopeful that the next days will better but PTL was a different beast. They recalculated their goal times and managed their expectations so that they can reach each checkpoints on or before the cutoff time.
Each day meant 20–22 hours of hiking, climbing 4,000–5,000 meters, and only a few hours of sleep. In total, they were able to sleep 10 hours in the entire week.
The terrain was unlike anything in the Philippines. Steep ridges with massive exposure, sections where helmets were mandatory, downhills so sharp that the team resorted to crawling.
“Aldean has a fear of heights,” says Majo, laughing. “So our strategy was to put him in between — me in front, Jami behind. Sometimes we were helping each other go up big rocks or practically dragging ourselves down. Medyo vertically challenged tayo e, so you adjust and adapt as much as you can.”
There were boulder fields, off-track sections, and glaciers crossed at 2:00 AM in the dark. One slip could mean a fall into a crevasse. Another time, the team split while searching for the route and Jami’s tracker pinged as dangerously close to a cliff — so close that the organizers called him to warn he was heading toward a drop.
They witnessed avalanches. They met Ibex that refused to let them pass. They drank from horse troughs when water ran out. They slept under tables in crowded refugios.
The route was extremely technical — something that simply doesn’t exist in the Philippines. Majo adds, laughing, “i thought ready na kami, but it was beyond anything we had trained for. What helped us was our years of outdoor experience. That kept us steady even when things got crazy. And of course we just enjoyed the whole experience. You really need to have the right mental and emotional fortitude to do these kinds of adventure – its a type 2 fun on the next level. Team dynamics were very important.”
The People You Meet
As in many ultras, the shared suffering built unexpected friendships. The team connected with Janet Ng’s Hong Kong team, singing Bohemian Rhapsody while climbing and keeping each other sane through the endless uphill and downhill.
Holding the Line
There were moments when the DansxAhon team thought they would miss the cutoffs. But they kept pushing. Step by step, ridge after ridge, mountains after mountains through day until night.
Finally, on Sunday, September 1, 2019, after 147 hours, 45 minutes, 47 seconds, they returned to Chamonix. With more than four hours to spare, they crossed the finish line.
PTL Finishers.
One for the Books
“It was difficult but super fun,” says Majo. “Still one of the best adventures of our lives.”
For the DansxAhon Adventure Team, PTL was more than just a trail event. It was survival, grit, and teamwork — the essence of what it means to take on mountains far bigger than yourself.
And for the Philippines, it remains a rare moment: a Filipino team etched into the PTL finisher’s list.
The Support
Read next
• PTL 2019: When Grit Meets Gear (Ahon Blog) — [live on Wednesday]
• A Filipino’s Journey to UTMB (WPS archive)
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