Some of the best mountain runners in the world descend on Palisades Tahoe this week as the Broken Arrow Skyrace returns for its 2026 edition, running from Thursday 19 June to Sunday 21 June above Olympic Valley. The festival has grown into one of the sport's marquee weekends, and this year it carries extra weight as a stop that draws the World Mountain Running Association's leading names, with steep climbs, technical ridgelines and high-altitude air combining to test even the most accomplished sky runners.
The week opens on Friday with the Ascent, the punishing uphill-only race that sends athletes 3.6 miles and up roughly 2,840 feet from an 8 a.m. Pacific start. The flagship 23K then closes the festival on Sunday, covering 14.2 miles and around 4,500 feet of climbing in a single loop, with the elite women off at 8 a.m. and the men 20 minutes later. In between, the 46K on Saturday and a clutch of shorter races give the weekend its festival atmosphere, drawing thousands of recreational runners alongside the professionals.
The men's 23K looks especially loaded. Defending champion Elhousine Elazzaoui, the Moroccan who has been close to unbeatable through the early Golden Trail World Series season, returns to defend a title he won in a sprint finish a year ago. Reputed as the strongest descender and the sharpest kicker in the field, he faces a serious challenge from Kenya's Philemon Kiriago and Patrick Kipngeno, while Americans Taylor Stack, Mason Coppi and Christian Allen are expected to push the pace at the front on home soil.
The women's racing carries similar depth. The Ascent draws back the top five finishers from last year, including 2025 winner Anna Gibson and runner-up Joyce Njeru, with France's Nélie Clément and Courtney Coppinger among the international names expected to feature across the weekend's distances. With World Cup standings on the line, the racing should be aggressive from gun to tape, and the technical descents off the Palisades ridgeline have a habit of reshuffling the order late.
There is serious money at stake, too. Organisers again tout the largest total prize purse of any independent trail race in the world at $150,000, topped by a $30,000 cheque for the 23K winners, with the Ascent and 46K champions collecting $6,000 and $4,000 respectively. That combination of prize depth, a World Cup-calibre field and a spectacular alpine setting has made Broken Arrow a fixture on the global calendar, and the 2026 edition looks set to deliver some of the most compelling mountain racing of the year.