Anna Gibson and Patrick Kipngeno win the Broken Arrow Ascent up the Stairway to Heaven
Gibson passed Joyce Njeru in the last metres to win the uphill in 43:15 and the US title; Kipngeno ran 37:59 with Cam Smith second.
Photograph: Anna Gibson on the final descent to Zinal at Sierre-Zinal in August 2026, by Christian David, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia CommonsThe Broken Arrow Skyrace weekend in Olympic Valley, California, opened on Friday morning with the Ascent, an uphill race from the valley floor to the top of Washeshu Peak that finishes up the near-vertical ladder section the race calls the Stairway to Heaven. It is a Mountain Running World Cup race and this year it doubled as the US Mountain Running Championships uphill.
Anna Gibson won the women's race in 43:15. She led from the gun, lost the front to Joyce Njeru of Kenya at about 25 minutes when the course briefly dipped, climbed the ladders with her, and went past again in the last metres to win by eight seconds. Njeru was second for the second year, Tabor Hemming third in 44:55, Milaina Almonte fourth and France's Nélie Clément fifth. It is Gibson's third Ascent win and she goes down as US uphill champion.
Patrick Kipngeno, the 2024 winner, took the men's race in 37:59. He moved to the front at about 15 minutes and passed two miles in 20:29. Cam Smith got past Philemon Kiriago late for second in 38:10 and the US title; Kiriago was third in 38:22, Christian Allen fourth and Mexico's Brayan Rodríguez fifth. Rory Linkletter, a 2:06 marathoner racing on trail for the first time, was 14th.
The winners took $6,000 each from a $28,200 purse paid ten deep. The top four Americans earned places at the World Cup uphill final in Canada in October.
Three-quarters of an hour, almost all of it uphill, and the race was decided on a ladder. Mountain running does not need a finish straight.
Sources: iRunFar; WMRA Mountain Running World Cup results; WMRA; Athletics Illustrated.
