One of North American trail running's marquee weekends arrives in earnest this week, with the Broken Arrow Skyrace set for 19-21 June at Palisades Tahoe in California. The 2026 edition is the most ambitious in the event's history, anchored by a brand-new 150K distance and a record prize purse that underscores the rapid professionalisation of the sport.
Broken Arrow has grown into a multi-day festival of mountain running, with a programme spanning the explosive Vertical Kilometre, the 23K and 46K skyraces and now the long, lung-busting 150K. Its high-altitude, technical terrain above Olympic Valley has made it a favourite of athletes and spectators alike, and its status within the Golden Trail World Series and the UTMB Index ensures the start lists carry genuine international weight.
The expanded distance is the headline change, stretching the weekend's demands from short, sharp skyrunning into genuine ultra territory and drawing a different breed of competitor to Tahoe. Combined with the enlarged prize pot, organisers are betting that a deeper, more lucrative programme will attract the strongest possible fields and cement Broken Arrow as a must-win on the early-season calendar.
The growth of events such as Broken Arrow speaks to a wider shift in trail and mountain running, where rising prize money, series points and broadcast attention are turning what was once a niche pursuit into a professional circuit. For athletes weighing how to structure their summers, a strong result here offers ranking points, sponsor visibility and momentum in equal measure.
Altitude, heat and the technical descents off the high ridgelines will, as ever, be decisive, and the weekend doubles as a barometer for form heading into the heart of the season. With the Western States 100 following close behind on 27 June, the trail world will be watching Tahoe closely to see who arrives in California sharp and who emerges from the weekend ready to define the months ahead.