Discover the exhilarating world of skyrunning, where the finest athletes tackle steep ascents and technical terrain at high altitudes. The trending sport not only tests physical prowess, but also demands mental focus and resilience. Rachel Bridgewater explores the stories of some of New Zealand’s top skyrunners and their adventures in some of the most breathtaking and remote locations on Earth.
Skyrunning. It’s high altitude technical mountain running which will see you climb steep ascents, more challenging terrain and cover a lot more elevation gain and loss than most races.
It engages not only the physical prowess of the most capable and prodigious trail runners, but it requires an absolute pinpoint focus as runners redline it up scrambling unforgivable climbs, or descend at high speed on such technical terrain, that one doubt in their head or one moment they lose flow, can spell disastrous consequences.
But there is one thing that most sky runners tend to agree on, this sport will take you into the most unbelievably beautiful and remote places most people probably will never go and at times, well out of your comfort zone.
When I first moved to Wanaka, NZ my friend Helene and I would watch athletes in skyrunning events. It was the first time I fell in love with running in the mountains because they epitomised strength, resilience and a willingness to go to places that for most of us, would be terrifying. It prompted us to ask the question, could this be us? And how amazing it would be if it was. The type of athlete that was fearless…the type of athlete who was ready to raise the risk level while in full flight.
In recent years, with the emergence of NZ’s first certified vertical kilometre (VK) race, there has been an uptick in interest in the sport of skyrunning in NZ, the country being the perfect backdrop to produce just the athlete to suit this very sport. The VK was added to the race schedule at Shotover Moonlight Marathon in Queenstown with the marathon and VK becoming a qualifier for the 2024 Skyrunning World Champs.
With three events on the Championship schedule held in Soria, Spain including the VERTICAL (VK 4.8km with 1,050m vertical climb), the SKYULTRA (70km with 4,350m vertical climb) and SKY (37km, 2540m vertical climb), this year NZ fielded the largest team to ever take part.
Not only that, but they would also field two women who would be the first to represent NZ there ever. A mix of talented individuals all with different backgrounds, but a shared passion for this type of racing. Jessica Campbell, Kate Morrison, Alastair McDowell, Jackson Cole and Toby Batchelor are a bunch of adventurous Kiwis forging the current path forward in this space, with the hope that more Kiwis will follow.
So, who are these athletes, where do they come from and what is it to them that makes skyrunning such an attractive proposition?
For 38-year-old Jessica Campbell, an asset planner for the Department of Conservation (DOC) in Christchurch, the appeal of skyrunning is the technicality of the races.
“They make you feel alive”, she says, and goes on to explain it’s like you’re a little kid and the places you get to go through are so extreme, it’s more like an adventure. Jess has had a two-year journey in the sport which started when she won the 2023 Shotover Moonlight Marathon and was selected for the Skyrunning World Champs. Since then, she has competed in several skyrunning races including the Matterhorn Ultraks Extreme, Maga Sky Marathon, Schlegeis 3000, Mexico Sky Challenge and Meet the Minotaur in Canada.
Competing in the SKY race at this year’s Championships, Jess brings an absolute passion for the sport, sheer determination and an exceptional technical ability. However, she says, anyone can do this sport.
“A lot of people think they are not good enough, but it’s all about playing at a higher altitude in the mountains,” she explains.
“Start small, go with a friend. Good sky runners are the people that get their energy from the mountains.”
Wellington born Jackson Cole, a 29-year-old Kiwi who now lives in Montana, USA is best known as a technical downhill runner. He also loves to scramble and placed a credible 6th position in the VERTICAL at World’s this year even though it was his first.
He says that in order to compete at the highest level of this sport, you need to be both a good climber and downhill technical runner.
“Risk tolerances need to be really high,” he reveals.
“To compete in a sky race, you need to change the way you look at trail running and racing. You have to get out in the mountains and become more of an all-round athlete”.
Thirty-year-old Toby Batchelor, who is Performance Sport Team Leader at the University of Auckland, grew up in the Catlins and got into running in the hills when he moved to Auckland. As the 2024 NZ Male VK Champion, Toby thinks his strengths lie in the uphill climb. Given his parents live in Wanaka, he tries to get there regularly which provides the perfect location for this type of training.
“It’s so cool to see the world in the way that skyrunning takes you to places,” he says.
Alastair McDowell, a 32-year mountaineer also from Christchurch, who alongside Hamish Fleming was the first to climb all 24 of New Zealand’s 3000m peaks in a single push in 2021, brought a different element to the NZ skyrunning team this year.
Originally a road and trail runner, Alastair pursued mountaineering and adventure racing early on. Leading the way in big alpine adventures, Alastair was a natural fit in his event at the Skyrunning World Championships in the SKY ULTRA this year – and he’s not stopping there. Passionate about transalpine and multi day missions that take running into alpine regions, which is normally reserved for expeditions, he believes that NZ is the perfect place for this.
Alastair fractured his hand this year during the SKY ULTRA at the 51km mark, but carryied on to the finish line, a staggering 15km further. Unknowingly, he inspired others in the team to not quit when things got tough for them in their own respective races – a resilience which has seen him already achieve a lot.
Kate Morrison, a 32-year-old Monitoring Ranger of Kakariki Karaka for DOC, was considered the ‘wild child’ of the NZ team this year. Described by those close to her as a ‘mountain running psycho’ Kate loves to run up the steepest terrain possible.
Training in Arthur’s Pass and the Hurunuis gives Kate the perfect training ground especially when it comes to steep ascents, and she’s a feared NZ runner on the climb especially. Kate originally began running when she was 10, taking part in cross country and athletics and was picked up early on by a coach developing promising runners. When she moved to NZ from Australia, she got more into tramping and started working for DOC.
She credits her coach Sia Svendsen in helping her to target her training more specifically and results started to come. The allure of skyrunning to Kate is how engaging it is.
“It appeals because it’s epic and beautiful, but so hard,” she explains.
“It makes it so much better because it’s hard. It’s the sort of sport that can bring about such self-monumental change”.
With such an exciting line up and mix of Kiwi talent emerging this year, there is genuine hope among these athletes that more Kiwis will follow. Speaking with the president of Skyrunning Australia and New Zealand, David Byrne, he says NZ has everything you need to create good skyrunning events and is keen to grow the sport.
“Skyrunning is next level and more extreme, but a reminder of how powerful sport can be in building self-confidence,” he says.
For Nicole Paton, member of the Australian skyrunning team, she recommends in these events that it’s wise to know your strengths as a runner and focus on being able to move quickly on technical terrain.
So, as I stood at the base of Ben Lomond Mountain in Queenstown, looking towards its steep climb and summit in my very first attempt at a VK race, I thought to myself, if these athletes can do it, then so can I.
I mean, who doesn’t want to finish a race standing at the top of a mountain on a blue bird day, surrounded by these incredible athletes, willing to go outside their comfort zones and willing to push the limits. Because after all, aren’t we all as trail runners, seeking that ourselves?
INSIDER KNOWLEDGE Rachel Bridgewater is an ultra mountain runner from Wanaka, NZ. When she isn’t busy running in the mountains with husband James, she’s busy at home with kids and works as a physiotherapist. She describes her fave trail races as the ones with punchy ascents followed by a sweet flowy downhill to the finish.
