The Broken Arrow Skyrace returned to Palisades Tahoe in California over the weekend of 19 to 21 June for one of the richest and most fiercely contested weekends on the global sky and mountain-running calendar. Across the Ascent, the headline 23K and the longer 46K, the event drew a deep international field to the granite ridgelines above Olympic Valley, where steep climbs, technical descents and a now-famous ladder section reward boldness as much as raw fitness.
The flagship 23K carried the largest stakes, with Kenya's Philemon Kiriago and Romania's Madalina Florea each collecting a 30,000-dollar cash prize, among the largest on offer anywhere in the discipline. Kiriago broke the year-old course record with a 1:42:59, underlining the growing presence of East African mountain specialists in American skyrunning, while Florea finished just shy of the women's course mark in 2:02:18 to confirm her standing among the world's best on technical terrain.
The weekend had opened on 19 June with the vertical Ascent, a short, brutal climb to a finish at around 9,000 feet. Anna Gibson produced the standout drama, trailing Kenya's Joyce Njeru on the near-vertical Stairway to Heaven ladder climb near the summit before making a very late pass to snatch victory in 43:15. In the men's race, Patrick Kipngeno powered to the high point in 37:59 to claim a familiar win on a course that suits his explosive uphill running.
The longer 46K added to a packed schedule, with Dani Moreno taking the women's title on a route that climbs and plunges across the resort's high country. Taken together, the three days showcased the depth that prize money on this scale now attracts, pulling road and track-honed speed into a sport once defined by specialists and turning Palisades into a genuine season highlight for athletes chasing both results and a meaningful pay cheque.
Broken Arrow has steadily grown into a measuring stick for the international sky-running season, and the 2026 edition only strengthened that reputation. With course records falling, a marquee prize purse and a field blending established mountain runners with rising newcomers, the weekend offered an early read on the form that will shape the months ahead as the calendar builds towards its biggest late-summer races in the Alps.