Bushwalk Australia

Sad news.

https://www.smh.com.au/world/asia/how-2 ... 57wcy.html

Not sure how trail running can be made more safe in regions subject to severe weather. Emergency gear to survive in alpine or similar extreme weather regions likely is to heavy to carry while running.

well organised mountain races will have a minimum list of gear that racers must carry and they will to gear checks during the race, if any item is missing then you're disqualified.
a seam sealed raincoat, thermal base layer, hat will usually be mandatory, possibly leggings of some description and another war layer. ironically desert ultra races you may have to carry your own water and camping kit and be running with 10kgs on your back. so thers no reason why mountain runners shouldnt be made to carry a decent amount of gear

I completed the Ultra Trail Australia event 2 weeks ago in the blue Mountains. The mandatory gear list is very comprehensive and would allow you to survive just about the worst weather you could expect....full set of thermals, seam sealed rain gear, fleece, hat, gloves, thermal blanket. The weather during the event was somewhat similar to what I have seen reported for the event in China, temperatures a few degrees above freezing, strong winds & we even got a bit of rain. Anyone who only had shorts and t-shirt could have been in severe trouble. There were lots of comments on the event FB page about how people would never complain again about the weight of the mandatory gear.

The UTA gear lists look fairly good.
https://uta.knack.com/ultra-trail-austr ... eck-lists/

Enough to insulate most runners from the cold if support arrives within an hour or two. And with marshalls spread a long the course its reasonable to presume support can be provided within that window as long as a injured immobile runners location is known.

I wonder what the required kit for the race in China was..

Edit. This is a fairly good summary of the race, equipment carried and discussion on what went wrong. https://www.trailrunnermag.com/people/a ... ng-tragedy

The bigger challenge with trail running especially in alpine regions is normal training runs. Without the fast response from race support how is a runner going to protect themselves from hypothermia if they fall and can't move. The uta kit above won't cut it for more than a couple of hours in freezing wet conditions.

Of course same could be said of day walkers or hut to hut walkers who aren't carrying tents or a bivy.

And despite the perceived risk you don't thankfully hear of many incidents involving runners.

Wow 21 deaths in just one race, that's insane... Some of these events just get too crowded and dangerous, even in Europe. Allowing a race in such bad weather with no rescue crew on hand is pretty damn stupid though...