We returned to UTMB for a second year, this time alongside its primary sponsor, HOKA, to build an immersive WebAR and 360 film experience that brought the race closer than ever.
At the heart of it was a web-based AR map of the full 170km course. It let fans trace the route, understand the scale of the challenge, and explore key moments along the way. Dotted across the trail, a series of 360° interviews and scenes pulled viewers straight into the world of Mont Blanc and into the mindset of some of the sport’s most accomplished ultra athletes.
On the mountain
With a tight crew, we hiked through three countries across eight days, capturing the race and its landscape in 11K 360°. UTMB doesn’t give you one type of day. We went from baking heat on exposed climbs to glacier-level cold that bites straight through your layers.
That swing is exactly the point, and it’s why we chose the locations we did. We wanted viewers to really feel what makes Ultra Trail du Mont Blanc the crown jewel of the ultra calendar. The variation, the complexity, and the sheer beauty of the terrain all stack up into something that’s bigger than a race. It’s a moving world you have to earn your way through.
Built for the moment
Everything was designed to work instantly, in the wild, on a phone. The AR course became the spine of the experience, with 360 moments woven through it so the audience could drop into the environment rather than just watch it from a distance.
From there, we kept the interface deliberately quiet. The focus was a frictionless experience where the design almost disappears, leaving room for the mountain and the stories to do the heavy lifting. Simple cues guided people forward, but exploration was always the point, letting users move naturally through the course and feel like they were discovering moments for themselves.
Live from the trail
Back at base, the DIALECT team edited, graded, and published content straight into the WebAR experience while the race unfolded. We built a live editing suite on site so as soon as footage came in from the camera team, we could stitch the high-resolution 360 rushes, review and edit, grade, compress, and push it live into the AR experience. It was a full pipeline running in real time, and it only worked if everything worked. No weak links.
It ran as a relay across three teams: a capture crew tracking the course leaders out on the trail, a mobile unit focused on getting content safely back down the mountain, and an edit team set up at the finish line turning it around fast enough for viewers to feel the race unfolding, not being replayed. And when the pace reached historic territory and the elusive 20-hour barrier finally fell, the audience was right there for it.