Axelle Gachet-Mollaret set a new women's world best for the vertical kilometre on Sunday 27 September 2026, stopping the clock at 32:32 on the steep slopes of Cholonge in Isère, France.
She bettered her own previous mark by 20 seconds. The course climbs exactly 1,000 metres of ascent over 1,811 metres of distance, rising from the Chemin des Lavanches straight to the summit of the Grand Serre at 2,141 metres. A certified surveyor verified the elevation gain.
Time-trial duel up the steepest slope
Competitors set off one by one, mandatory helmets fastened, attacking one of the steepest vertical kilometre routes in the world. Gachet-Mollaret's closest women's rival, Margot Ravinel, crossed the line 5 minutes 24 seconds later in second place.
In the scratch standings only three men finished ahead of her. The winner, Xavier Gachet, her husband, posted 31:46. Simon Bellabouvier and Rémi Cantan also beat her, leaving the remaining 196 finishers behind. She finished just 46 seconds off the outright win.
Seven years, a minute and a half
The International Skyrunning Federation keeps no official world record, but its list of best performances already showed Gachet-Mollaret at the top with 32:52, set at Fully, Switzerland, in October 2025. She broke the Fully event record that day and earned a 1,000 Swiss franc bonus.
On the Grand Serre course itself she had held the women's benchmark twice before: 34:36 in 2018, then 34:01 in 2019. Sunday's run trimmed almost a minute and a half from the mark she set there seven years earlier.
Through winter Gachet-Mollaret practises the same discipline on ski-mountaineering skis. In March 2025 she won her third world vertical race title on skis, and in April she captured the small World Cup globe after winning every vertical race she entered.
