Merrell Andes Mountain Skyrace in Santiago, Chile takes the Skyrunner World Series to its highest race on their annual circuit, high up into the Andes mountains in South America.

Jose Manuel Quispe Mallma from Peru wins the men’s race and is now two for two in the series. Morgan Elliot from the US comes in third for a second time in as many races.

In the women’s race Rosalia Zegarra from Peru takes the win and improves her standings from third in the first race of the series. Lina El Kott Helander is second after her fifth place finish in the Carrera 4 Refugios event in Argentina a couple of weeks ago.

Find all Skyrunning coverage on my dedicated page.

Here are the current rankings and below are your top podium finishers:

Andes Mountain Marathon 42KM +3650m

Women:

1. Rosalia Zegarra – Peru
2. Lina El Kott Helander – Sweden
3. Ana María Pineda – Colombia

4 tied. Júlia Garriga – Spain
4 tied. Paola Morales – Colombia

Men:

1. Jose Manuel Quispe Mallma – Peru
2. Fran Muñoz – Peru
3. Morgan Elliot – USA
4. Weston Hill – New Zealand
5. Luis Ovalle – Colombia

I’ll add official times once they are published.

Next up the Skyrunner World Series travels to Spain for the Acantilados Del Norte on 14 March, 2026.

Via email press release:

The pioneering Women’s Health Programme will advance the safety, well-being and long-term participation of female athletes in ultra-endurance trail running. As women’s participation continues to rise worldwide, this initiative addresses a critical need for research and medical support tailored specifically to female athletes competing in extreme endurance environments. 

The programme created by Ultra Sports Science and bloomUp, and supported by HOKA UTMB Mont-Blanc, is a one-of-a-kind pilot project bringing together leading medical experts, researchers and elite athletes.  

Ultra Sports Science is a recipient of UTMB’s charity bib program.

We have been giving UTMB a lot of crap late as they often appear to operate very corporate and sluggish, but quietly they do a lot of small things right and it’s worth pointing out when they do.

Yours truly on a new-ish podcast covering ultramarathon and trail running with stories from the back of the pack at your local race to the biggest podiums around the world. Had a super fun time chatting about story telling and the upcoming global tour of the Trail Running Film Festival.

In a rather quiet week on the trails we had lots of drama and fascinating storylines in road running:

Via Marathon Handbook:

The LA Marathon Will Give You A Finisher Medal Even If You Take A Shortcut At Mile 18

Temps up to 80F has organizers worried. This is there solution.

Via Letsrun.com:

The 13-minute crisis: How a struck officer led to the wrong turn at the US Half Marathon Championships.

The chaos that ensured in the 48hrs after that fateful finish was something else. There were lots of hot takers with lots of hot takes. But before jumping to conclusion and proposing solutions from the couch, read the official USATF statement.

Via Runner’s World:

Just 1% of Applicants Were Selected to Run the 2026 NYC Marathon—the Lowest Acceptance Rate Ever

Makes you feel a bit better about our lotteries in the trail and ultra world.

In a new YouTube video Kilian Jornet shares his race calendar, in a way only he could: nonchalant, self-deprecating even but also with a bit of spice:

The season ahead | Very simple, not very original

What some would call an incredible challenging collection of races in a year he calls “not very original”. But what’s the most interesting bit, especially since his main race plan had already been know for a few days, is that he’s teasing “one more thing”. Watch to the very end, what a tease.

Remember that patent lawsuit Suunto threw at Garmin around the same time as Strava did their weird publicity stunt? Yeah, while Strava put their tail between the legs and walked away from theirs the Suunto one is still ongoing. And now, as expected Garmin has hit back. DC Rainmaker has the rundown and analysis of what each company wants and where they actually stand:

However, Dongguan Liesheng’s lawsuit via Suunto appears comically misguided and naive. It illustrates an entity (be it a legal team or otherwise) that did little research into how strong a patent position Garmin has relative to Suunto, and more critically, how deep in the hole Suunto would really be when it comes to a patent battle with Garmin. Suunto effectively walked into battle with a purse-sized cache of old, and perhaps non-functional weapons. Whereas Garmin showed up with a few 747s’ worth, brand-new and straight off the factory floor. Whether or not Suunto is right about the four remaining patents is largely irrelevant because Garmin can simply show other Suunto-infringing patents all day long.

What a complete shit show, and just at a time when Suunto products were getting really good too. What a waste.

Lots of hubbub over the changes UTMB just announced for their Snowdonia event in the UK. The 100K race got a large reduction in vert in the later part of the route. Folks aren’t happy that these changes make the race less ‘brutal’ and that the route diverts from the historic trails. The event further added other distances after the first wave sold out in record time.

I don’t have a good answer here. Of course if you register and pay for something and then the ‘product’ changes ‘before delivery’ so to speak, I understand people’s dissatisfaction. And if these changes seemingly are made to maximize revenue it feels a bit shitty all around. But UTMB is caught in a difficult situation (of their own making!): the demand for their events way outstrips supply – especially in Europe. If UTMB would just keep every event to their historical routes and numbers of entries capped, people would complain that it’s too hard to get into races of their series to collect the stones. UTMB’s answer, like any sensible business: create more supply. Open up more events, allow more runners to register and in turn collect more revenue. This of course creates another frustration for the runners: if an event changes too much – it’s route, or feel away from the historic precedent – is it still the desirable event people have been lining up for years? But UTMB is also an easy target. Many/most trail races have seen lots of variation and course alteration over the years. Land management, environmental concerns, and weather events all lead to deviation from the plan and force people to adapt. In the end race management is always beholden to these forces and needs to communicate clearly, while preserving the relationships with both the land owners, and the runners signing up to run the event.

A huge part of what makes trail running special, and what draws people to certain events year after year is that ‘sense of place’. Some events capture it, stories are being told around these trails and places they run through, and these races truly become iconic. If these event owners are not factoring in how important this is for runners they are missing a huge piece of what makes trail running special. Collecting stones can’t be the sole purpose for a race to exist, the event in itself needs to be a draw to be sustainable. Otherwise we’ll end up with race courses that are just repeats on ski hills.

Speedgoat by UTMB announces a new race: The Summit:

Take on the challenge of Speedgoat’s first Vertical Kilometer (VK) race.

Except, well it’s only 921 M of vertical gain in a distance of 5.6 kilometers.

From Wikipedia:

In skyrunning, a vertical kilometer is an uphill mountain running race with an elevation gain of 1,000 metres. The Vertical Kilometer World Circuit also defines it as covering less than 5 km.

That’s 8% of vert missing on a race distance that’s over 5K. You think this is a metric vs. imperial system? Maybe the Skyrunning Federation should’ve measured in football fields and elephants… or something.

Here’s the International Skyrunning Federation official rule book for a Vertical race (not a VK mind you!):

Uphill only races with minimum 800m vertical climb over variable terrain. The minimum average incline must be 20% and 5% of the total distance must be over 33% incline. A tolerance of 5% in the minimum height is accepted.

According to some handy online calculator the incline percentage of Speedgoat’s ‘The Summit’ is 16%.

So, it’s neither a VK nor a classic Vertical race. If we keep doing this soon VK races will just be any “uphill only” races and the whole point of how steep it should be will be entirely eroded.

Anyways… sharing this for no particular reasons.

On TrailFans, a fanzine and platform for the trail running scene, sadly without byline:

When we walked through Chamonix during UTMB week last summer, something felt different. Not just busy. Strategic. Brand-hosted chalets weren’t simply handing out caps and gels. Founders and senior leadership had flown in from across the globe.Entire executive teams were present.
…
UTMB week no longer feels like just a race. It feels like an industry summit.
…
Chamonix showed us the shift. Nike’s declaration of intent validates it.

The outdoor industry has been in a doldrum over the past couple of years. It previously could rely on higher cost sports like biking and skiing to fuel their growth, but these markets have been struggling as consumers had stocked up on all their gear during the discount boom during COVID. Then Trump’s beautiful tariffs hit, prices increased and consumers stopped spending. Except in trail running. Participation is growing still and that is a market opportunity and seems to “bring all the brands to the yard”.

Trail running stands at an inflection point. And if it is now the outdoor industry’s new frontline, the responsibility for how it evolves doesn’t sit solely with brands. It sits with athletes. With race directors. With communities. And with all of us who care about what trail running becomes next.

The big elephant in the room and one that Nike is trying to address – or rather cover up by hiding behind the ACG brand – is that trail running has been supported by brands that mostly were ‘born on the trails’. These brands that have shown true staying power over the past few decades, have supported the sport, have made an attempt to understand the culture. These brands have long-standing history in the outdoors. Nike hasn’t. But they are now reviving old advertising campaigns to pretend that they have a history in the sport.

I am not afraid of newcomers, I am not a gatekeeper, I welcome the participation. I don’t even claim to suggest that these newer brands are supposed to ask me for permission, or play by some invisible rule book. But! I am also not one that’s frothing at the mouth because of one orange shoe and a train colored in the same way. It’s cute, it’s marketing, but will it move the needle? Will all this attention be a net-positive for our sport? All that shall be seen and I will watch out for and document.

Via RNZ News Zealand news:

Nepal’s government is considering the new rule that would require climbers to have previously summited a 7000m high mountain in Nepal before attempting Everest which is 8848m high.

Taking a cue from the UTMB World Series?

I kid, I kid.

Via press release:

The Trail Running Film Festival (TRFF) is proud to announce the launch of its first-ever Audience Choice Award presented by Electric Cable Car.

Massively excited for this. Two weeks until the first screening. Get your tickets.

M.G. Siegler on his blog Spyglass:

Congratulations on saying the biggest number, Paramount. $111B for a company that a year ago had a market cap of around $20B. For a company that shrunk in their most recent quarter, and in fact, for the entire year, with revenue down 5% to $37.3B. Paramount may not be buying the Titanic, but only because they already own that IP.

We (trail media fans) sort of had this all figured out: Netflix, home of much-loved ‘Drive to Survive’ would own WBD and with it the Golden Trail Series coverage. This seemed… fun, and the correct move for the sport, and well, the world in general. Now, WBD will be owned by Paramount and that means it’ll be owned by Trump-friendly Ellison family—billionaire Oracle founder Larry and his son David.

I don’t want to me a massive doomsayer here, but it’s worth nothing that the the people who are increasing own all our media platforms are all, well, massively compromised, to say the least.

Starlink, WBD, Substack, Instagram. What would our trail media be with these services gone, or toxic enough that they really really shouldn’t be used anymore? Or do we just not care enough?

Word on the street is that this year’s Chuckanut 50K will have a proper livestream. One provided by Mountain Outpost (is there another livestream provider in the US?).

Update: Here’s the official announcement.

New book ‘Run Forever’ about to drop (not sure on an US release date yet) by British runner Damian Hall:

Is it inevitable that our running performance slides as we get into our forties and beyond? Or are there things we can do to slow or pause the decline and harness the benefits of age? In Run Forever, Damian Hall examines the reasons why our strength and speed might deteriorate, yet how it isn’t certain if we do something about it. With contributions from Renee McGregor and Pete Stables. 

Fascinated that Europe still has this avenue for athletes to get book deals. Who are the big names in the US trail space that have published books out in recent years (outside of Scott Jurek)?

New U2 EP, new documentary film. Still the same message and still the same fight for freedom:

For four years Ukraine has been resisting Russia’s full-scale invasion. Soldiers of the Khartiya Corps are among the hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians who conduct daily military operations to defend their country against the invading Russian army. This film contains footage from a documentary about Ukrainian soldiers fighting for freedom.

If this doesn’t move you, you’re not hooked up right.

Announced today by UTMB:

Due to recent events in the State of Jalisco, and circumstances beyond the Organization’s control, Puerto Vallarta by UTMB has been rescheduled to take place from April 16 to 18, 2026.

Correct decision, let’s hope things have calmed down by then.

Wow, what a place, what course, what a highlight reel.

Yes, I am obviously a bit biased this year with Beast of Big Creek part of the Skyrunner World Series, but man, these races look stunning and exactly what trail running needed. What an honor to be part of this series this year!

Greg Heil for Singletracks (the MTB magazine!):

The Verde Valley Circle Trail will be a 200-mile bikepacking loop in Arizona

Who will be first to put on a new race on these trail? Aravaipa or Destination Trail?

Raziq Rauf for his ‘Running Sucks’ blog:

What ICE is doing in the USA right now is even more sinister than anything TSA was created to do, of course, but it’s the same Dept of Homeland Security agents of chaos at work. This time, however, they’re also dangerously ill-trained. This all means that I have to carry my papers with me. Even then, I know it won’t be enough to be bundled off the street into an unmarked van.

This article arrives in my inbox at the perfect moment. I have been sitting on my previous post about the unrests in Mexico for the past hour and wanted to make sure we’re not digressing into the abyss of xenophobia with the notions so often way too hastily thrown around that “these things only every happen beyond our borders in ‘developing countries'”.

I just emailed the UTMB press office asking about the situation in Mexico and how it might affect their upcoming event in Puerto Vallarta. From USA Today:

Many American tourists visiting Mexico are stuck in the country after the killing of a drug cartel leader over the weekend.
…
The operation set off a wave of civil unrest, with vehicles being torched and gunmen, believed to be supported of Oseguera, blocking highways in a more than a dozen states.

Not commenting on the actual situation in Mexico, I have no insight. But this sure shines light on the challenges of organizing a global sporting event. I mean, the IOC and FIFA regularly run into these issues and the responses by the people in charge rarely make them look good.

Update: UTMB emailed me back with the following:

The UTMB organisers monitoring the situation closely in Puerto Vallarta and remain in close contact with local authorities to ensure the safety of all runners and staff. They will keep participants informed of any further updates.

The event is a couple of week out, so things might calm down, but that’s not much of solace for folks having to decide on their travel plans.