SKY [L]

Last year, the SKY was already fairly audacious. Then we asked Dani Jung to have a look at it. This may not have been the most civilised decision.

For 2027, the SKY gets an updated course designed to use more of what Schnalstal does exceptionally well: steep climbing, technical descending, serious altitude and long stretches of terrain where the word “trail” becomes increasingly open to interpretation. Roughly 35 kilometres. Around 2,600 metres of climbing. A high point above 3,200 metres. 

Skyrunning at its best.

The race starts in Unser Frau and heads towards Vernagt before working its way up through Finailhof. Enjoy the early kilometres. Look around. Settle in. Say something intelligent to the person next to you while complete sentences are still available.

Because from Finailhof, the SKY stops negotiating. The climb towards Grawand is the first major statement of the course: long, steep and direct, gaining well over 1,000 vertical metres in just a few kilometres. At roughly kilometre ten, runners reach aid station one at Grawand, above 3,200 metres.

It feels like a summit.

Technically, it is.

Psychologically, this is where we recommend avoiding conclusions.

From Grawand, the route drops towards Schöne Aussicht Hütte, aid station two, before turning uphill again. This is the major addition for 2027 and the reason the new SKY feels like the race it was always supposed to become.

 The trail climbs back above 3,000 metres towards Im Hinteren Eis and enters one of the finest high-alpine sections anywhere on the SAT courses. A spectacular ridge, the Hintereisferner below, the Weißkugel dominating the skyline and enough exposure to make checking your kilometre split seem wonderfully irrelevant.

For almost 14 continuous kilometres, the course remains above 2,500 metres. This is not a quick visit to altitude. You live there for a while.

Eventually the ridge releases you and the SKY turns downhill. A long, technical descent drops from the high mountains towards Kurzras, where aid station three waits around kilometre 24. By now, the race has changed completely. The question is no longer how well you climb. It is how well you descend after climbing that much. And no, Kurzras is not the finish.

From the valley, the route picks up more climbing towards Bergl-Alm, aid station four. It is exactly the sort of late-course interruption that looks harmless on an elevation profile and considerably less harmless when encountered with 25-plus kilometres in the legs.

Then comes the final and cosy little nightmare downhill back to Unser Frau.

The new SKY is designed for people who love the particular logic of skyrunning: fast when the terrain allows it, hands-on-knees when it doesn’t, technically demanding throughout and happiest somewhere well above the treeline.

It is shorter than the ULTRA. That is about as comforting as the comparison gets.

Dani, thanks for the update.