Snowman Race ‘24 Part 1
Standing in an open field, surrounded by hundreds of people, I stood shoulder to shoulder with my fellow competitors and just two people stood between me and His Majesty the King of Bhutan. In that moment cheers filled our ears, and I asked myself is this real?
His Majesty the King of Bhutan, Snowman Runners, Production Team, and a few family and friends. Royal Highlands Festival 2024.
To visit Bhutan once in a lifetime is an incredible opportunity. Two do it twice, well seems beyond fortunate. I could hardly contain myself when, more than a year prior, I was given the opportunity to once again participate in the Snowman Race held in Bhutan. When the invitation was shared I did not hesitate in committing, as the previous experience was completely life changing and I had no doubts about another trip opening another door into a deeper and more profound change. In separate posts to follow I will share in detail about the experience, but here I want to share what the Snowman Race is, why it exists and what makes it so unique and special.
The Race
The idea for the Snowman Race was that of His Majesty the King of Bhutan. He wanted to create an event that would be able to share with the world the current and significant impacts of climate change on his country. The first event was slated to happen in 2020, but with the outbreak of COVID-19 it was postponed. It took two years for the things to settle down enough worldwide for the event to actually occur and in October of 2022 the First Edition of the Snowman Race was held. The premise of the event is to have runners come to Bhutan, run a portion of the famous Snowman Trek, be witnesses to the impacts of climate change, and then to return to their communities and share about what they personally saw. When the King was asked why he had chosen trail runners he replied: (these are not his exact words but as close as I remember him saying), that to him there was no better option than those whose practice requires them to put their own feet on the ground, breathe the air and connect directly with the place through which they are traveling. I was in the room when he expressed that sentiment and its impact was so profound to me. It brought tears to my eyes. To have a political leader as impactful as a King of a nation, recognize that the craft to which I have dedicated a significant portion of my life is a powerful form of connection to place certainly rang true to the essence of my soul. To add the fact that He placed so much trust on the scrawny shoulders of a bunch of trail runners was nearly overwhelming.
The Snowman Trek is a famous trekking route that in its entirety covers the distance between Paro and Bumthang through the Bhutanese Himalayas. The total length is 347 km (216 miles). The Snowman Race was developed to cover the second half of the route. The first edition started in Gasa and covered a distance of 203 km (125 miles), the second edition had a modified start from the high mountain village of Laya and had a total distance of 175 km (109 miles). The route was created by Yak Herders as they moved through the high mountain communities of their nomadic lives. As a trekking route it is considered one of the most difficult on earth. Treks along the route take up to 28 days as it traverses elevations up to 5470 meters (17,990 feet). The race is broken into 5 days with 4 night halts along the way. Runners are required to carry sleeping kits, including sleeping bags, emergency equipment, clothing and food to cover each day. There are no aid stations outside of the night halt locations which do provide tents and food for the runners. Running this route is no easy task as the route surface is rarely a smooth trail. Rather, the trail is often very muddy, rocky, steep, and very technical. The combination of trail surface, high altitude, and remote wilderness creates very challenging conditions, perhaps the most difficult of any race on the planet.
Common trail conditions found in one of the forested sections of the Snowman Race.
The Why
An understanding of the why of the Snowman Race is what makes it stand out amongst other trail races. As I mentioned earlier it was the desire of the King of Bhutan to hold an event that could highlight the impacts of climate change on Bhutan. Bhutan is one of three countries in the world that is carbon negative, meaning that they remove more carbon dioxide from the atmosphere than they emit. Taking that in to account means that Bhutan does not contribute to climate change, yet the impacts of climate change are clear and present in Bhutan. As the planet warms at an accelerated rate the loss of glacial mass is also accelerate in Bhutan. This results in an increased risk of glacial lake outburst flood (GLOF) events that have shown to be catastrophic to the communities of the high mountains that are positioned downstream to these lakes. There are changes in vegetation, particularly at the high elevations, that is changing the grazing habitat of yaks and horses. The yaks are being forced to higher and higher elevations as horses and mule also move higher. Changes to food sources, changing insect habitat, like mosquitos above 14,000 feet, are also occurring. The people of the high mountain communities are faced with these challenges directly and their way of life, something that has been stable for centuries, is changing rapidly. A comment that was shared with us several times was that climate change is very undemocratic, it affects the most vulnerable at higher rates than others. It was shown to us that those that are contributing the least to the change are impacted the most. The way that I see it is that the people in Bhutan, especially those nomadic people of the high mountains live lives that are intertwined with nature and because of this intimate relationship they see and feel the changes around them directly. In most western cultures we live separate or adjacent to nature. Our homes are well insulated, heated and air-conditioned. We do not spend the majority of our time outside, and most of our day to day life is done inside these isolating structures. We are insulated from subtle and dramatic changes and unless we are mindfully paying attention the changes go unnoticed.
As a country, Bhutan is working in many ways to build climate resiliency and adapt to the changes they are confronted with. One aspect of this is to share with the world the impacts that they are being forced to manage. The King introduced the idea of inviting trail runners to participate in an event in the high mountains to bare witness to the changes and then ask them to be ambassadors for Bhutan to the rest of the world. At times the runners were referred to as climate warriors being sent out to battle on behalf of Bhutan. For me personally I take this responsibility very seriously and am working very hard to share as much and as widely as I can, what I experienced in hopes of inspiring and encouraging the communities I can reach to do more in regards to climate change.
This post is part one of a series of posts about my experience in Bhutan. The following posts will dive in to the travel experience, each day of the race and what occurred after. My intention is to post one a day until I have completed the experience. Please subscribe to the posts on the website if you would like to be updated as soon as they are published. You can also keep an eye on my Instagram @slukenelson for updates and other reposts about the experience.