Monte Rosa SkyMarathon summit, 4,554m – Europe’s highest race. ©iancorless.com
After two highly successful editions and a gap left by the 2020 lockdown, Europe’s highest race, the Monte Rosa SkyMarathon, is ready to kick off again on June 19, 2021 in Alagna Valsesia, Italy – exactly one month today with the participation of athletes from 39 countries. Today, the organisers are also excited to announce their partners supporting the events.
Among the elements that our partners embrace, it was the race that gave birth to skyrunning and it is Europe’s highest race, reaching the summit of Monte Rosa at 4,554m. It perfectly embodies the original concept of the sport…fast and light, high altitude, up and down a mountain summit, across glaciers and snow fields, steep and technical. Accompanying the Monte Rosa SkyMarathon, 35 km long with an incredible 7,000m ascent and descent, is the AMA VK2, a double Vertical Kilometer® which climbs, uphill only, to 3,260m altitude.
SCARPA ambassador, American Hillary Gerardi, 2018 winner, Monte Rosa SkyMarathon.©iancorles.com
This year, SCARPA, world leader in performance footwear, partners the events. With a long history steeped in the mountains, the family business produces footwear for mountaineering, trekking, hiking, climbing, skiing and alpine running – a perfect match for Monte Rosa. Skyrunning legend, Marco De Gasperi, SCARPA Brand Manager, comments, “SCARPA is proud to start a partnership with the race which above all represents the emblem and origin of skyrunning. The aim of the company is to grow in the trail running sector, becoming a winning strategy tied to key international events and Monte Rosa SkyMarathon represents an important step to achieve that.”
With their passionate support, we once more welcome back Cimberio an Italian company, world leader of brass components and valves for domestic and commercial systems, whose mission is based on values that extend to sport, social issues and the local mountains and mountaineers of Alagna.
BUFF® tubular headband. AMAVK2 2019. ©iancorless
Again with us, BUFF©, the original multifunctional headwear brand from Spain, will provide a unique, specially designed tubular Buff® featuring an artistic design of the Monte Rosa mountain in all its glory, to the 500 participants of the Monte Rosa SkyMarathon. The AMA VK2 participants will receive a headband with the same design. Staff and volunteers will wear the Buff® filter tube which meets surgical masks standards to comply with Covid regulations.
New on board, the organisers are pleased to welcome Suunto the Finnish company founded over 80 years ago, world leader in sports technology smartwatches featuring accuracy, robustness, reliability and design. They will award the Suunto 9, an ultra-endurance GPS watch with exceptional battery life to the top men’s and women’s winning teams and the winners of the AMA VK2.
Racing in mountains and on glaciers is second nature to the Monte Rosa SkyMarathon participants. Austrian manufacturer Nortec will award a pair of micro crampons to the top three men’s and women’s teams for their high altitude skyrunning training and racing.
SUUNTO ambassadors Emelie Forsberg and Kilian Jornet, third overall in the 2018 Monte Rosa SkyMarathon. ©iancorless.com.
Helping the participants in their extreme performance to excel in Europe’s highest race is NAMEDSPORT>, Italian manufacturer of supplements that, thanks to a consolidated scientific know-how in the field of Natural Medicine, has brought an innovative concept to the panorama of sport nutrition. Participants will find NAMEDSPORT> products in their race bags, at the aid stations along the course and at the finish.
While NAMEDSPORT> takes care of your body, NATURALBOOM looks after your mind. A can of NATURALBOOM will be delivered to all participants before the start. The first “Mental Drink” in the world, it’s an innovative drink based on green tea, lemon and ginger, developed for those who feel the need to nourish their minds in a healthy, natural way. It helps concentration and represents the ideal drink preparing for a sports event.
We are pleased to count again on our institutional partners who contribute to the enormous support the event has achieved: Piedmont Region, Vercelli Province, Alagna Valsesia, Gressoney la Trinité and Borgosesia Councils and Monterosa 2000 S.p.A.
Together with all our partners, we’re looking forward to rekindling the legend which will come alive again on June 19, 2021.