Noor van der Veen

Noor van der Veen is an accomplished climber, mountaineer and ultra-distance mountain runner, embodying the essence of "The Mountain People”. Living and working in the Netherlands, a country without a single mountain or even a proper hill, Noor packs her camper van and travels to the Alps as often as she can, where she feels at peace as soon as the landscape begins to rise and roll. 

Her mountain journey began in a climbing gym in Amsterdam but it wasn’t long before she found herself in the Alps to learn how to move over rock and ice. What followed were several years of full dedication to climbing, resulting in technical ascents in the Alps and first ascents in remote Kyrgyzstan as part of the NKBV Expedition Academy (2019–2022), supported by Rab. In those years, it became clear to her that her biggest passion and talent lay in long days moving through hard mountain terrain.

With alpine climbing becoming riskier due to climate change, Noor has shifted her focus more and more toward mountain ultra running. In recent years, she’s won races such as the Valmalenco Ultra Trail (90K), Hochkönigman (80K), Kaiserkrone Ultra Trail (55K) and Arc of Attrition (160K). She also holds multiple Fastest Known Times (FKTs), including the rugged Translagorai traverse (80K, 5000D+). She is the 2024 Dutch SkyUltra Champion, and holds the fastest ever Dutch female time at UTMB, finishing in 27:57 hours (19th woman, 120th overall).

In 2025, Noor is taking on her most ambitious project yet: an attempt at the fastest overall time on the 800K Pyrenean Haute Route (HRP), a high-level traverse of the full mountain range from Atlantic Ocean to Mediterranean Sea. With a support crew of friends running alongside her, she aims to set a strong overall record. The current self-supported male record is 12 days 4 hours 41 minutes and 58 seconds and there is no registered supported or female record yet.