Take trail running to a whole new level and explore the growing sport of skyrunning to find out exactly what’s required to run away from the roads and into the mountains…

Words Keri Wallace

Described as ‘mountain running above 2,000m over extremely technical trails’, skyrunning is taking the world by storm. This growing sport is a sub-discipline of trail running, but not one for the faint-hearted.

Trail running encompasses all kinds of off-road running, whether low-level or up mountains, along coasts or across deserts, through grass, mud, gravel and rock. But in mountainous areas alone, there are three, nationally recognised, types of trail running. And the most extreme of these is skyrunning.

Upwards trajectory

There are three different but similar trail-running niches, and it’s important to understand the differences.

Mountain running is running on well defined trails with occasional surfaced road sections. The route is clearly marked but involves a lot of height gain.

Fell running is the second type. With this, trails can be vague and sometimes non-existent. The route is unmarked and navigation and route-choice are part of the repertoire of skills needed by competitors. The course will usually involve steep ascending and descending on rough ground, and will often take in one or more hill or mountain summits.

The third of these types is skyrunning. This is similar to fell running in terms of trail surface but the route is fixed, wellmarked and navigation is not required (unless you stray off -route). There is considerably more ascent/descent in skyrunning than in mountain or fell running and the terrain is much more technical. Many skyraces are also ultradistance events.

Aiming high

The sport of skyrunning was conceived by Italian mountaineer Marino Giacometti, who pioneered races on Mont Blanc and Monte Rosa in the Alps in the early 1990s. Since then, the sport has gained significant popularity and there are now over 200 races worldwide, attracting an international field of over 50,000 runners each year. Since the introduction of the Skyrunner World Series in 2003, skyrunning has grown to become a globally renowned sport. More recently, some of the biggest outdoor sports brands have created competitive sponsored teams, helping the discipline rise to a new level of professionalism. The International Skyrunning Federation (ISF) is the governing body and administers three main categories of race; Sky, Ultra and Vertical. These three make up the world championships, but there are also Sky Extreme and Sky Marathon events in many countries.