This Saturday, 3rd of June, The Skyrunner® World Series lands in Maria Alm, Austria, for the third stage of the 2023 season, the Hochkönig Skyrace. Athletes of over 30 nationalities, from as far afield as Canada, New Zealand and Brazil, will battle it out on Austria’s “High King” mountain range for new records, big prize money and series points.
Starting in the picturesque town of Maria Alm, the spectacular Hochkönig Skyrace course spans 31kilometres and climbs a total of 2,700 metres into the “Steinernes Meer”, an incredible sea of limestone above 2,000 metres in the Austrian / Bavarian Alps. Key features of the race also include a 1,000-metre stone staircase, known amongst the athletes as the “highway to hell”, leading to the top of Schönegg at 2,390 metres with views across to Austria’s highest mountains, the Grossglockner, as well as a steep and technical 1,000-metre descent, sometimes on snow and sometimes on scree, depending on the conditions.
Seana Forbes, Head of Operations for the Skyrunner® World Series comments:
“Since its SWS debut in 2021, the Hochkönig Skyrace has already become a highlight of the calendar. The athletes enjoy the short, steep and fast format of the race and the warm welcome of the Austrian organisation and spectators. We are aware that there is still some snow higher up, therefore we are not ruling out the possibility of an alternative route this Saturday. If not, with the high level of elites this year, we could well see new records. I know there are some athletes coming from Canada and South America that could shake things up. Keep an eye out for these ones – you heard it here first.”
Christian Mathys’ 3:31:09 and Marcela Vasionva’s 4:13:00 from 2022 are the records to beat.
A trio of strong Canadian athletes will be among the 30 nationalities behind the starting line this Saturday. This group includes the 2022 overall season winner, Lindsay Webster; her husband, multiple Spartan Race World Champion and former Canadian national mountain biker, Ryan Atkins;and Emma Cooke-Clarke (team Arc’teryx), the 2022 Minotaur SkyRace winner.
Webster, the 2022 overall winner comments:
“I am SO excited for my race season to finally kick off with Hochkönig! I’ve done my best to prepare, and am excited to race another beautiful and memorable Skyrunner® World Series course. I have heard amazing things from the other runners about Hochkonig, and what an incredible event vibe the organisers deliver.
I think the field will be even more competitive this year than it was last year. I’m trying not to think about how I managed to win the series last year, or put an expectation of results on myself. I started competing in the Skyrunner World Series because of how amazing the courses are and being able to participate in such a high level of competition.”
Webster will be up against the current overall ranking leader, Iris Pessey of France (team Scott Running) for whom it will already be the third race of the season; Rea Kolbl of the USA (team Dynafit); the 2021 Hochkönig SkyRace runner-up Georgia Tindley of Great Britain (team Rab); Japan’s Takako Takamura; rising star of the season, Basque athlete Irati Zubizarreta, and Silvia Puigarnau of Spain (team Brooks).
In the men’s field, Sylvain Cachard of France (team Hoka) returns after a shaky start to the season with a 7th place at Calamorro SkyRace followed by an illness that caused him to miss SkyRace des Matheysins. Not only will Cachard be up against Atkins, he will also face the 2022 Hochkönig runner up Damien Humbert of France (team Inov8); Slovenian pro and uphill machine Luka Kovacic (team Red Bull / Dynafit); the Matterhorn speed record holder Andreas Steindl of Switzerland (team Dyanfit); the 2019 Matterhorn Ultraks Extreme winner, Daniel Antonioli (team Scarpa); and Brazilian newcomer Johnny Luna-Lima (team Salomon USA).
In true Austrian style, the event features an impressive opening ceremony, including a flag parade and fire show, as well as the traditional beer mass at the finish line for the winners and a World-Series-famous after-party.
The race begins this Saturday 3rd of June at 08:00 am CET. The race will be covered across the Skyrunning and Hochkönigman social media channels.
