How Merrell and a New Generation of Athletes Are Bringing Skyrunning Back to America

The post How Merrell and a New Generation of Athletes Are Bringing Skyrunning Back to America appeared first on iRunFar.

When Marino Giacometti, an Italian mountaineer and runner, organized the first skyrunning series in 1992 — involving ascents of Gran Paradiso, the Matterhorn, and Mont Blanc, some of the iconic 4,000-plus-meter peaks lining the Aosta Valley in the northwest Italian Alps — it’s hard to imagine that he could have dreamt that his vision could have grown into what is now the Merrell Skyrunner World Series.

On August 1, 2026, after nearly a decade of absence, the global circuit returned to the U.S. with the Beast of Big Creek on Washington’s Olympic Peninsula, creating a rare opportunity for local runners to line up alongside international skyrunning specialists.

For 45 years, Merrell has inspired runners, hikers, and outdoor enthusiasts to explore trails around the globe. This year, the brand strengthened its commitment to technical mountain running by not only continuing as title sponsor of the Skyrunner World Series but also helping to bring world-class skyrunning back to North America with an event that rewarded equal parts endurance, technical skill, and mountain savvy. In addition to supporting the Skyrunner World Series, the brand has recently released a new shoe, the Merrell MTL SpeedArc Peak, designed with elite athlete feedback to deliver elite speed, stability, and performance on demanding trails.

A skyrunning race has always paired a mountaineer’s mindset with a runner’s aerobic prowess. While today’s Skyrunner World Series includes races in more accessible locations than perhaps the early 1990s races, the guiding philosophy remains unchanged: to challenge athletes to move from the earth to the sky and back again as efficiently as possible.

At the 2026 Beast of Big Creek, runners climbed through dense old-growth forest before breaking into alpine meadow and eventually, the exposed, rocky upper reaches of Mount Ellinor, where Lake Cushman and the wider Puget Sound stretched into the distance below. Covering 22 kilometers (13.6 miles) with roughly 1,600 meters (5,300 feet) of climbing, the course was steep and technical enough that runners routinely used their hands to scramble the steepest pitches.

Looking at a course like the Beast of Big Creek, it’s obvious why Merrell introduced the MTL SpeedArc Peak this year alongside its renewed Skyrunner World Series title sponsorship. The Beast of Big Creek isn’t the sort of race where comfort alone wins. Precision, traction, and stability become deciding factors. While Merrell has many shoes suited to skyrunning terrain, the brand’s MTL line is built on athlete feedback for racing fast over wet roots, loose scree, and abrupt pitch changes.

At the Beast of Big Creek, Merrell athletes — both rookies and veterans of skyrunning — lined up together to test themselves on the challenging course.

From Get FKT to Beast of Big Creek Champion

One of Merrell’s goals has been to increase the presence of skyrunning in North America, and Morgan Elliott joined the Merrell team — and the Beast of Big Creek — through one of their more unique pipelines: the brand’s 2024 Get FKT event. The idea was simple: be the King or Queen of the Mountain on a special Strava segment created on the Thunderhead Trail at Steamboat Ski Resort in Steamboat Springs, Colorado. The 3.2-mile route, with 2,200 feet of elevation gain from the base of the ski area to the mountain’s summit at an average grade of about 12%, captured the essence of skyrunning. Six unsponsored trail runners — three men, three women — competed for a spot on Merrell’s pro team, and Elliott won the men’s race

Since then, Elliott has become a fixture on the skyrunning circuit, racing both in the U.S. and abroad, and has crossed the finish line of the 2026 Beast of Big Creek ahead of an international field. For the Beast of Big Creek, he raced in a prototype of the yet-to-be-released Merrell MTL Agility Sky. The shoe helped float Elliott to the summit in the lead, then let him roll like a stone to the finish, and allowed him to put his training to good use: “For vertical and sky races, I put a bigger emphasis on power and higher-intensity work. I’ll do shorter intervals, more VO₂ max training, and spend a lot of time on steep, technical terrain so those movements become second nature.”

After the victory, Elliott said, “The race was awesome — I had a blast. It’s even more special that it was here in the U.S. and everything just kind of clicked.” As an American, the event carried extra significance for Elliott, who was thrilled that Merrell is helping make this style of racing more accessible to North American athletes. “The more people who get to experience skyrunning firsthand, the stronger our community becomes. I also love that many of the athletes I enjoy racing with all around the world now have an opportunity to visit my country.”

One of those athletes is José Manuel Quispe, an elite trail and skyrunning athlete on Merrell’s Peru team. Quispe, who hails from the high-altitude village of Ayahuasi, maintained his reputation as one of South America’s most dominant skyrunners by finishing second to Elliott. The two shared a long embrace at the finish line, a moment that said as much about the effort behind them as any race result could.

A Rookie’s First Skyrace

At the Big Creek Campground on race morning, elite athletes stood shoulder to shoulder with U.S. Pacific Northwest locals. That mix of world-class talent and first-time skyrunners is exactly what Merrell hoped to foster by bringing the Skyrunner World Series back to North America.

One of those rookies was newly sponsored Merrell athlete Carmen Pelar Graves, a Denver, Colorado, runner known more for leaping barriers on the track in the steeplechase event than leaping boulders en route to a mountain summit. For Pelar Graves, trail running was a way to reinvigorate a running career that was missing a spark.

Before the race, Pelar Graves explained, “I’ve spent most of my life on the track, and I wanted to try something different. I trained for a half marathon and hated it. I started questioning whether I should continue training and racing competitively. I’ve never done a skyrace, so I was excited to get the full experience at Beast of Big Creek.”

It might have been her first skyrace, but Pelar Graves had her sights set high, hoping for a top-three finish and a top-five finish as her secondary goal. In the end, Pelar Graves finished fourth in the women’s race and was the first American woman.

Wearing the Merrell MTL Long Sky 2 shoe, Pelar Graves found grip in the foggy, wet, technical terrain but lost contact with the race leaders on the final sections of the craggy, punishing climb up Mount Ellinor. Trusting the shoe’s Vibram Megagrip outsole and 5-millimeter lugs, she opened her stride on the descent, taking back positions and crossing the line in fourth place.

For Pelar Graves, the Beast of Big Creek represented unfamiliar territory. She’d never climbed more than 4,500 feet in a single effort, and only weeks earlier, she’d been recovering on the beach in Mexico after the first part of her season culminated at the June 2026 Broken Arrow 23k. Once training resumed, her focus shifted toward long technical climbs, maintaining threshold fitness, and preserving leg speed. Three long mountain outings — including an ascent of Colorado’s 14,000-foot Mount Bierstadt — gave her valuable steep running and scrambling practice before arriving in Washington state.

Another Track Runner Looks to the Sky

Pelar Graves wasn’t the only Merrell athlete arriving at Beast of Big Creek with a background far removed from technical mountain racing.

Joshua Potvin, who finished sixth at the event, spent years racing everything from 800 meters to the half marathon before discovering that his experience on the track helped him on skyrunning terrain.

“I was really surprised and excited to see how the explosive power I developed for 800-meter races has naturally translated well to steep, vertical terrain on the trails,” Potvin said.

The larger adjustment was learning to negotiate the technical terrain of skyrunning courses. Over the past three years, Potvin has deliberately sought out the notoriously technical trails surrounding his home in North Vancouver, British Columbia, developing the confidence to attack rocky descents where skyraces are often won or lost.

With the support of Merrell and a focus now solely on trail running, Potvin’s training has evolved in step with those ambitions. Rather than repeating the same weekly routine, he tailors each training block to the demands of a specific event, whether it’s a fast trail race, a mountain ultra, or a technical skyrace like Beast of Big Creek.

Having access to Merrell’s stable of shoes has allowed Potvin to move over technical terrain with confidence, and he recently turned to the brand-new Merrell MTL SpeedArc Peak for faster training days on runnable terrain, but notes, “The shoe is not limited to runnable terrain. I have also used them on technical mountain runs, too, throughout Whistler and North Vancouver.”

For Potvin, there’s excitement in the newness of the sport, and he notes: “I recognize that, as a newer athlete to skyrunning, I still have a lot to learn and a lot of room to develop. That unknown is exactly what excites me most. I’m curious to see how far I can take it.”

A Comeback and Growing the Sport

For Mercedes Siegle-Gaither, the women’s winner of the Merrell Get FKT event in Colorado back in 2024, the 2026 Beast of Big Creek was a return to competition after a prolonged injury and an opportunity to help introduce a discipline she loves to a new audience of American runners.

“I’m excited to bring skyrunning to a new group of athletes in the U.S.,” Siegle-Gaither said ahead of the race. “I hope they find the sport as challenging and invigorating as I do.”

Having raced internationally, Siegle-Gaither has seen firsthand how differently skyrunning is in Europe. In the Alps, spectators line the course, ringing cowbells, cheering, and following the action from the valley to the summit. In the U.S., where trail running can still be an often unfamiliar sport to the general public, she sees events like the Beast of Big Creek as an important introduction to the discipline.

While Siegle-Gaither’s Beast of Big Creek didn’t come with a top-10 finish — she was 25th in the women’s race — the significance of the event extended beyond the result. Now in her third year with Merrell, she views her relationship with the brand as a collaboration built around both personal development as an athlete and the broader growth of the sport.

Beyond racing, Siegle-Gaither works with Merrell’s product development team, providing feedback that helps shape future footwear. For her, the relationship is about helping create shoes that can serve everyone from hikers discovering technical terrain to elite athletes racing at the highest level.

Merrell Shoes for Skyrunning Terrain

Shorter-distance trail racing is gaining traction in the U.S., and the return of the Skyrunner World Series to American soil represents a big step in creating access to the exciting and dynamic discipline of skyrunning. Merrell’s commitment to the sport extends beyond sponsorship of the Skyrunner World Series, and the brand has a variety of shoe models — including the Merrell MTL Long Sky 2, Merrell Agility Peak 6, and the new Merrell MTL SpeedArc Peak — that were showcased at the Beast of Big Creek and thrive when the trail turns steep and technical. Skyrunners need something lightweight, nimble, and durable that inspires confidence, and Merrell has created shoes that excel on the rugged and demanding terrain of skyrunning courses.

During the 2026 Beast of Big Creek on Washington’s Olympic Peninsula, American runners had a chance to experience the style of racing that has captivated mountain runners across Europe and beyond for decades. With Merrell’s investment, skyrunning’s future in the U.S. may be climbing as quickly as the athletes chasing its summits. The U.S. has endless skyrunning terrain, and Merrell athletes like Elliott, Graves, Potvin, and Siegle-Gaither have proven how time spent moving over rocks, roots, ridges, and steep climbs can translate into great results and even greater memories.

[Editor’s Note: This article is sponsored by Merrell. Thank you to Merrell for its sponsorship of iRunFar, which helps to make iRunFar happen and free for all to enjoy. Learn more about our sponsored articles.]

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