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Broken Arrow Skyrace Course Guide

The Broken Arrow Skyrace is the biggest skyrunning event in the United States, run high above Lake Tahoe at Palisades Tahoe. Short distances, huge vertical, thin Sierra air, exposed ridges, and a ladder bolted right to the rock. I will walk you through the courses, then give you pacing and fueling that is built for exactly this kind of day, plus free tools so you can dial in your own numbers.

⏵ Quick facts

Broken Arrow at a glance

Dates
June 17 to 20, 2027 (race weekend, multiple distances)
Location
Palisades Tahoe, Olympic Valley, Lake Tahoe, CA
Distances
46K, 23K, and the Ascent VK, plus shorter options
Start / Finish
The Village at Palisades Tahoe (around 6,200 ft)
Elevation gain
46K about 9,000 ft, 23K about 4,500 ft of climb and equal descent
High point
The Stairway to Heaven ladder, around 9,000 ft
Cutoffs
46K 12 hours, 23K 7 hours (confirm the year on the official site)
Status
WMRA World Cup gold-label race (Ascent + 23K)

Note: Broken Arrow runs a bunch of distances across a multi-day weekend, and the exact schedule, course, and cutoffs can move year to year. Always check the date, your distance, the route, and the cutoffs on the official Broken Arrow Skyrace site before you plan your race.

The course

Broken Arrow runs on the high ground at Palisades Tahoe, the rugged old Olympic ski resort in Olympic Valley. The courses leave the Village floor at about 6,200 feet and climb hard into high-alpine country that is mostly above treeline, stringing together technical singletrack, exposed rocky ridges, scree, and scrambling. The 46K is about 28.1 miles with roughly 9,000 feet of gain and loss, and you run it as two loops of the roughly 14.25 mile, 4,500 foot 23K. The Ascent VK is a pure vertical kilometer, straight up. The high point on each one is around 9,000 feet at the Stairway to Heaven ladder.

It climbs hard from the gun

There is no easing into this one. From the Village the course tips uphill almost right away toward steep stuff like the KT-22 saddle and Red Dog Ridge, and you gain serious altitude while your legs are still fresh. The distance feels short, so you will want to run these early climbs. That is the trap. The grades are steep enough that a good power-hike is faster and a lot cheaper than forcing a run, and the thin air up high already makes every climb feel harder than the same grade would at sea level.

Pace the start by effort, hike the steep pitches with a purpose, and save your running legs for the few stretches that are actually runnable. Burning matches on that first big climb is how people get to the Stairway to Heaven with nothing left in the tank.

Above treeline: exposure, rock, and the ladder

The thing that makes Broken Arrow what it is, is all the time you spend above treeline on exposed rocky ridges with steep drop-offs, loose scree, and movement where you actually use your hands. The course is built to test your technical skill, not just your fitness. The most famous bit is the Stairway to Heaven, a via-ferrata-style ladder bolted to the rock that hauls runners up to the high point near 9,000 feet, with craggy views and real exposure on both sides.

These high sections are where the Sierra sun and the altitude get you. There is almost no shade, and in a big snow year there can still be snow hanging around on the upper traverses early in the day. Move careful through the rock, use your hands when the course makes you, and just accept that up here the terrain sets your pace, not your fitness.

Where the race is won or lost

On a skyrace the climbs and the technical descents decide it, not flat running. The people who do well climb smart by effort, stay smooth and confident on the rocky downhills, and do not freak out when their watch pace looks slow on the steep technical parts. Trash your quads bombing the early descents, or redline that first big climb at altitude, and both of those bills come due later in the loop.

On the 46K the second loop is the real test. Everything that felt fine the first time around, the scrambling, the exposure, the climbs, it all comes back at you when you are already tired and the day has gotten hotter. The runners who held back and paced the first loop are the ones passing people on the second one.

Aid stations and cutoffs

The 23K loop has aid on it, including a Siberia aid station around mile 8.85 and a High Camp aid station around mile 11.75, plus a bare-bones water-ice-and-gels station near the top of KT-22 in hot years. The 46K runs that loop twice, so the Village becomes your big mid-race checkpoint between loops, and stations like Snow King act as intermediate cutoffs.

The 46K has a 12 hour overall cutoff and the 23K a 7 hour cutoff per the official course pages, with intermediate cutoffs along the way. They sound generous. Steep technical climbing at altitude is slow, though, so build your plan with a real buffer in it and check the exact overall and intermediate cutoffs for your distance and your year on the official site.

Pacing strategy for Broken Arrow

A short, brutally vertical, high-altitude skyrace pays you back for being patient on the climbs and skilled on the rock. Pace this course by effort and by grade, not by the flat-ground numbers off your home training runs.

Pace the climbs by grade, not by clock

On a course this vertical, with roughly 9,000 feet of gain on the 46K, your moving pace is going to swing all over the place between the steep climbs and the few runnable stretches. That is fine, that is how it should look. Power-hike the steep pitches efficiently and only run where running is actually faster. If you try to hold some steady minutes-per-mile number across this terrain you will cook the climbs and have nothing left for the technical descents.

Use our free grade-adjusted pace calculator to turn your flat fitness into honest effort targets for the steep Broken Arrow climbs, so you know whether you are climbing at a pace you can hold or burning matches you are going to want on the second loop.

Build a realistic finish goal for all that vert

A flat-course finish estimate means nothing here. The vertical and the technical terrain will quietly tack hours onto a naive guess. Set a goal that actually accounts for the climbing with our vert-aware race time calculator, so you toe the line with a number the Sierra will not tear apart.

And if you want to sanity-check what a short, mountainous race like this should feel like off a recent result, our race equivalent calculator takes one race performance and turns it into a realistic target for another.

Respect the altitude and the descents

The high point near 9,000 feet and all that time above treeline mean the climbs are going to feel harder than the same grade at sea level, especially if you came from low elevation. Pace the high sections easy, go by your breathing and your effort, and do not chase a sea-level pace number on the steep pitches.

Then respect the descents. Broken Arrow gives back every foot it takes, and a lot of it on technical, rocky downhills. Run them smooth and controlled instead of letting gravity beat up your quads, and your second loop will be a lot better. The people who finish strong are the ones who still have working legs and steady feet on the last descent.

Fueling strategy for Broken Arrow

A short but high-intensity effort at altitude, out in the dry Sierra sun, makes your fueling and hydration the thing that decides your day. The effort is closer to a hard race than a long slog, so you can push the calories if your gut is ready for it.

Carbs: fuel like it is a race, not a slog

Even the 46K gets finished by most people well inside a normal ultra timeframe, and the intensity stays high the whole time, so you can and should push the calories. Target roughly 60 to 90 grams of carbohydrate per hour from gels and drink mix, lean toward the high end once your gut is trained for it, and use a glucose-plus-fructose blend so you can absorb more than a single sugar lets you. Practice your exact hourly carb number on long climbing days so it feels normal on race day, not like an experiment.

Altitude can kill your appetite and the steep climbs make eating awkward, so fuel on a schedule instead of waiting until you feel like it. When the terrain is too technical to chew, easy gels and drink calories are your friend.

Sodium and fluid: built for dry Sierra sun

The high Sierra sun and dry air pull real sweat out of you even when it feels cool out, so bias your sodium toward 500 to 700 mg per liter of fluid and carry enough to cover the long, slow gaps between aid stations. Keep in mind that a steep climb that is only a few miles can still eat a lot of time, so plan your carry by time on feet, not just by distance.

Dial in a personalized plan with our free ultra fueling calculator. Put in your weight, your goal time, and the heat you expect, and it gives you a carb, sodium, fluid, and caffeine prescription per hour built for the Broken Arrow duration and conditions. Then go test it on your steepest training days.

⏵ Free calculators for this race

Run your Broken Arrow numbers with our free, no-signup tools, then let Summit Line tie them all to your actual fitness and this exact course.

See all free running tools →

Train for the terrain

Broken Arrow pays you back for a very specific kind of fitness: climbing power, technical confidence, and being able to handle altitude. These free Summit Line guides go deep on each one.

⏵ Train for Broken Arrow

Get a race-day plan dialed to YOUR fitness, this exact course profile, and your projected splits. Summit Line reads your actual training, builds a fueling and pacing plan around the Broken Arrow vert, altitude, and technical terrain, and tracks how your gut and legs handle the load, so race day is rehearsed instead of guessed.

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Broken Arrow Skyrace FAQ

How hard is the Broken Arrow Skyrace?

It is hard. This is one of the toughest short mountain races in North America, and it earns that. It is a skyrace, so the distance is short but the vertical is huge, you spend most of the day up high and exposed, and a lot of it is real hands-on terrain instead of a trail you can just run. The 46K packs roughly 9,000 feet of climbing into about 28 miles, almost all of it above treeline at Palisades Tahoe, with steep scrambling, exposed rocky ridges, and the famous Stairway to Heaven ladder near the 9,000 foot high point. Now add thin Sierra air, strong sun, snow that can still be hanging around early in the day, and tight cutoffs. Fast flatland runners come here and get humbled. It is hard in a different way than a long ultra. It is not about grinding for 24 hours, it is about climbing steep stuff for a long time and moving carefully over rock while you are gasping at altitude.

How much climbing is in the Broken Arrow Skyrace?

Depends which one you sign up for. The 46K covers about 28.1 miles with roughly 9,000 feet of gain and the same amount of loss, and you run it as two loops of the 23K course. The 23K is about 14.25 miles with roughly 4,500 feet of gain and loss in one loop. The Ascent VK is a pure vertical kilometer, straight up. On every distance the climbing comes at you steep and all at once, not gradual, so your hands, your power-hiking, and your lungs do as much work as your running legs do. The high point on all of them is around 9,000 feet at the Stairway to Heaven ladder.

How should I fuel for the Broken Arrow Skyrace?

Fuel like it is a hard, short day up high, because that is what it is. Even the 46K gets finished by most people well inside a normal ultra timeframe, so you can push the calories. Most runners target 60 to 90 grams of carbohydrate per hour from gels and drink mix, and you can lean high on that if your gut is trained, because the effort is closer to racing than slogging. Sodium matters too. The Sierra sun and dry air pull a lot of sweat out of you, so aim for roughly 500 to 700 mg of sodium per liter of fluid. And carry enough between aid stations. The climbs are slow, and the gap that looks short on the map can eat way more time than the mileage says. Our free ultra fueling calculator builds you a personalized per-hour carb, sodium, and fluid plan for the time you expect to be out there and the heat.

What are the Broken Arrow Skyrace cutoffs?

Per the official course pages, the 46K has a 12 hour overall cutoff and the 23K a 7 hour cutoff, with intermediate cutoffs at aid stations along the way (the Village and Snow King checkpoints on the 46K, for example). On paper those numbers look generous. The terrain is not, and the cutoffs catch the people who do not realize how slow steep technical climbing and scrambling at altitude actually is. Always check the exact overall and intermediate cutoffs for your distance and your year on the official Broken Arrow Skyrace website, because the schedule and the course can move year to year.

Is the Broken Arrow Skyrace at altitude, and does that matter?

Yes, and it matters a lot. The courses start from the Village at Palisades Tahoe around 6,200 feet and climb to roughly 9,000 feet, and you spend most of the day above treeline in thin Sierra Nevada air. If you are coming from sea level, every climb is going to feel harder and your fast pace is going to disappear, especially on the steep pitches you hit over and over. Show up a few days early so your body can start adjusting, or do some altitude or hard-climbing work ahead of time. It helps. On race day, pace the high stuff by your breathing and your effort, not by the numbers you see at home.

How technical is the Broken Arrow Skyrace course?

Very. This is real skyrunning terrain: high-alpine singletrack, exposed rocky ridges, loose scree, steep drop-offs, and hands-on scrambling, plus the via-ferrata-style Stairway to Heaven ladder bolted right to the rock near the high point. A lot of the route is above treeline with nothing to hide behind, and in a big snow year there can still be snow on the upper sections early in the day. If you are not used to moving over rock and being exposed, go practice technical descending and scrambling before race day. And be ready to slow way down and use your hands when the course makes you.

This guide is for planning and training purposes and reflects publicly available information about the Broken Arrow Skyrace. Race details, including the dates, distances, course, aid stations, and cutoffs, can change year to year. Always confirm the current specifics on the official Broken Arrow Skyrace website before you train or travel.