Anton urges the US to take to the Sky
Following a trip to Europe this last few weeks Anton Krupicka felt the force of European ultra trail and Skyrunning, as he witnessed two of the biggest races of the year in the space of a week…
First up was the dust and intensity of Transvulcania on La Palma, with its 83km this year matched in intensity by the field, one of the deepest in trail running history – certainly in Europe.
Then last weekend, it was the cold, wet and utterly gruelling Zegama, which his some countrymen in particular found very hard.
Mike Wolfe
In the middle of that week some of the biggest names in trail and mountain running got together with the ISF to ‘brainstorm’ the future of Skyrunning, trail running and mountain running.
Krupicka is a man of the mountains and his time in Europe has obviously ignited a light, to take home some of these concepts of European style mountain and trail racing to the US.
In this excellent piece on Ultimate Direction he describes his thoughts on the subject, and with someone so influential in the US as Anton, it will be interesting to see the reaction.
As someone who enjoys not only running in the mountains, but also scrambling, climbing, and summiting, the sport of Skyrunning resonates with me quite deeply.
Skyrunning is heeding the most basic, intuitive, and primal call of the mountains, which is why I run mountains at all. As a result–especially as trail running is becoming more and more global–I think it’s an approach worth trying to emulate more sincerely here in the States in our own inspiring mountains.
Anton Krupicka
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Reactions so far
Tony Mollica May 27, 02:52 AM
I have a boatload of respect for Tony and hope he has a great rest of the year!