In conversation with | Marathon des Sables

At Katadyn, we are a proud sponsor and supporter of Marathon des Sables (MDS), the organization behind some of the world's most renowned endurance races.

Marathon des Sables: Four Decades of Endurance

Marathon des Sables is an international organisation that creates and organises endurance races worldwide. It was founded in 1986 by French adventurer Patrick Bauer, who two years earlier had crossed 350 km of the Sahara Desert alone. Its first edition brought together 23 competitors in the Moroccan desert. Since then, its flagship race — a roughly 250 km, six-stage self-sufficiency ultramarathon — has grown into one of the most renowned trail endurance events in the world, drawing some of the toughest competitors on the planet, with around 1,000 participants from close to 50 countries taking part every year.

Since 2017, Marathon des Sables has expanded well beyond Morocco, building a family of formats and destinations that now includes Peru, Namibia, Fuerteventura, Jordan, Turkey and France — all built on the same values of endurance, self-sufficiency and shared adventure. One of these newer formats, MDS Crazy Loops, is where our partnership with Marathon des Sables takes place.

As part of our partnership, Katadyn supports MDS Crazy Loops, held across the French Alps. Runners, walkers and wheelchair athletes cover loops of 3 to 5 km around a central bivouac, for 24 hours non-stop from Saturday to Sunday. There is no forced abandonment — each participant completes as many loops as they choose — and Handi teams race on the very same course as everyone else. In 2026, six editions will take place across some of Europe's best-known ski resorts: Courmayeur, La Rosière, Morzine Avoriaz, Courchevel, Val d'Isère and the Région Dents du Midi.

Behind every one of these editions is a team working around the clock — organizers, volunteers and medical staff who keep the race running safely. Throughout the year, across all six Crazy Loops events, Katadyn supplies this technical and support staff with Trek'N Eat freeze-dried meals: nutritious, high in calories, quick to prepare, and built to keep people going in demanding outdoor conditions. It's a small but essential part of what keeps the race on its feet.

Inclusion is built into the format of MDS Crazy Loops, where Handi teams share the same track as every other participant. Katadyn has sponsored and branded one of the all-terrain racing wheelchairs used in this program, supporting the effort to make endurance racing accessible to people with disabilities.

This wheelchair isn't limited to a single event: it takes part in the various MDS Crazy Loops races throughout the year, and beyond them, in larger projects such as marathons — carrying the same mission further, race after race.

For the Mission, Together

Supplying the staff who make Crazy Loops possible, and sponsoring a wheelchair that carries that same spirit of endurance beyond the race itself — these are the two pillars of our partnership with Marathon des Sables. We are proud to support this project alongside MDS. Trek'N Eat accompanies their teams on every mission, fueling them with the energy it takes to go further.

We are hoping to pursuie in the future this partnership with M.D.S. and go futher with them to support their international races.

Learn more about them here :
https://marathondessables.com/en/
https://www.instagram.com/marathondessables/
https://www.instagram.com/mdscrazyloops/
https://www.linkedin.com/company/marathondessables/