Trofeo Kima 2026: Course Guide, History, and How to Train

Trofeo Kima is one of skyrunning's most technical races: 52km, seven Alpine passes, fixed ropes. Get the course breakdown, entry details, and training plan.

Trofeo Kima runs 52 kilometers through the Italian Alps, but distance is the least intimidating number on the entry form. Add 4,200 meters of climbing, 4,200 meters of descent, seven mountain passes above 2,500 meters, and long stretches secured only by a steel cable bolted into granite, and you get why skyrunners call it the sport's final exam. Kilian Jornet, who has both won it and lost course records here, has called it the most spectacular race in the world. Every other August, roughly 400 runners toe the line in the tiny village of Filorera to find out if that reputation holds up.

This guide breaks down the Trofeo Kima course pass by pass, explains what separates it from a standard mountain ultra, and lays out how to train for terrain that punishes runners who show up with nothing but vertical gain in their legs.

A Race Built to Remember a Rescue

Trofeo Kima was not born as a marketing exercise. In 1994, mountain guide Pierangelo Marchetti, known to everyone in Val Masino as "Kima," died during a rescue mission in these same peaks. The following year, his sister Ilde Marchetti and a group of friends organized a race along the Sentiero Roma, the historic high-altitude route linking the granite spires above the valley, as a tribute. Fabio Meraldi won that first edition in 1995 in 6 hours 29 minutes.

The race ran every summer until 2007, when organizers made it biennial to protect its stature and ease the toll on mountain rescue teams and course-marking volunteers. It has run in even years since 2008, with the pandemic skipping 2020, and the next edition is set for Saturday, August 22, 2026, with the Sunday held in reserve for bad weather.

Marino Giacometti, the Italian mountaineer who founded the International Skyrunning Federation in 1995, shaped Kima into the discipline's defining test: a course above 2,000 meters, technical sections up to UIAA grade II, and gradients steep enough that runners spend as much time using their hands as their legs. Val Masino has earned the nickname "the European Yosemite" for its granite walls, and the race crosses some of the same rock that draws climbers to routes like Piz Badile.

The Course, Pass by Pass

The route starts and finishes in Filorera, at 870 meters, and never repeats a section. From the start, runners climb into Val di Predarossa and past Rifugio Ponti before the first real test: Passo Cameraccio, the high point of the course at 2,950 meters. From there the trail drops to Passo Torrone and Rifugio Allievi-Bonacossa, then climbs again over Passo Averta, Passo Qualido, and Passo Camerozzo to Rifugio Gianetti. The final third crosses Passo Barbacane and Rifugio Omio before descending through Bagni di Masino and Piana di Bregolana to San Martino and back to Filorera.

Every one of the seven passes sits above 2,500 meters. Between them, the trail crosses moraine fields, permanent snow patches, and exposed ridgelines with fixed ropes and chains bolted into the granite. That is not a metaphor: sections of Kima run through terrain that a via ferrata guidebook would classify as technical climbing, minus the harness. The course is marked with the same white-red-white paint used on the Sentiero Roma, backed up by orange flags and, in the lower valley, tape and arrows.

The men's course record belongs to Scotland's Finlay Wild, who ran 6:05:54 in 2024 to break Kilian Jornet's previous mark. Hillary Gerardi of the United States holds the women's record at 7:30:38, set in 2022. Both records were set by athletes who had already raced Kima more than once, which says something about how much this course rewards familiarity over raw fitness.

Just How Technical Is It?

Skyrunning has an actual technical definition, and Kima sits at the extreme end of it. A certified skyrunning course runs above 2,000 meters, includes gradients over 30 percent, and can include climbing up to UIAA grade II, roughly the difficulty of scrambling on exposed rock without ropes. Kima adds fixed cables at its hardest points, the same hardware used on Alpine via ferrata routes, which is why organizers issue every runner a helmet at bib pickup and made it mandatory starting with the 2024 edition. For a different kind of mountain marathon, with mud, crowds and a public lottery, see our Zegama-Aizkorri race guide.

This distinction matters for training. A runner who has only prepared on smooth double-track, however many vertical meters they have climbed, will find the exposure on Camerozzo and Barbacane disorienting on race day. Kima is less a running race with obstacles than a mountaineering route raced on foot.

Entry, Cutoffs, and What You Have to Carry

Getting a bib is its own challenge. For the last edition, organizers received around 2,000 applications for roughly 400 spots, and registration sold out in two hours with entrants from 27 countries. The field was capped closer to 250 in earlier biennial editions; the number has grown as the race's reputation has, but it remains one of the hardest entries in trail running to secure.

Mandatory gear includes trail shoes with a well-defined tread, a waterproof jacket rated to at least 20,000mm and rain pants carried in the pack, and a reusable cup or flask, since aid stations do not hand out disposable cups. Poles are allowed but cannot be used on the technical sections. Gear gets checked at the start, and running without it risks disqualification.

Cutoffs are tight given the terrain, and organizers have adjusted them over the years for fairness: the women's cutoff at Rifugio Gianetti now runs 30 minutes longer than the men's, a change made after founder Ilde Marchetti noted that early editions gave women a head start that later standardization had removed. If the full distance feels like too much for a first attempt, the same weekend hosts the Kima Extreme Skyrace, a 27.5km option with about 1,890 meters of gain that covers part of the same ground.

Training for Terrain Most Runners Never Touch

Standard ultra training gets you through the vertical gain of Kima. It does very little for the parts that make Kima, Kima.

Start with the descents. Downhill running relies on eccentric muscle contractions, which control landing forces rather than generate propulsion, and it produces far more muscle damage than climbing does even at a lower cardiovascular cost (Lu et al., 2025). A single hard downhill effort measurably reduces knee extensor force production for days afterward, and specifically impairs the late phase of the rate of force development, the part of a muscle contraction that matters most when you need to stop quickly on loose rock (Coratella et al., 2024). The fix is not more mileage; it is repeated, structured exposure. Runners who complete a bout of downhill running adapt within days, showing smaller strength losses and less soreness the second time around, a pattern researchers call the repeated bout effect (Bontemps et al., 2020; Khassetarash et al., 2022). Two or three controlled downhill sessions per week in the eight weeks before a race like Kima do more for descent readiness than doubling your weekly vertical gain.

Foot placement matters as much as leg strength. Skilled technical descenders shift toward a midfoot strike on steep, broken ground, while less experienced runners default to a rearfoot strike that increases impact loading (Lussiana et al., 2013). That shift is trainable, but only on terrain that forces it: treadmill vertical, however steep, will not teach your feet to read scree and wet granite. This is one reason trail runners as a group post higher injury rates than road runners, somewhere in the range of 11 to 20 injuries per 1,000 hours of running versus 3 to 6 for road runners, concentrated at the knee, shin, and foot (Selvakumar et al., 2023). The terrain is unforgiving of poor mechanics, which is exactly why rehearsing on it matters more than accumulating flat miles.

Altitude adds a variable most runners underestimate. Kima's passes sit between 2,500 and 2,950 meters, high enough to trigger acute mountain sickness in unacclimatized people, and counterintuitively, high aerobic fitness does not protect against it. In one study of rapid ascent to 3,450 meters, endurance-trained athletes developed acute mountain sickness more often than untrained controls (Sareban et al., 2020). If you are traveling from near sea level, arriving in Val Masino two or three days early, sleeping at moderate elevation, and running an easy shakeout at altitude the day before the race gives your body time to adjust before the gun goes off, rather than discovering a headache at Passo Cameraccio.

Grip and forearm endurance deserve a place in your plan too. Fixed-rope sections load your hands and forearms in ways flat trail running never will, and a forearm that cramps at hour four on an exposed traverse is a safety problem, not just a performance one. Short sessions of dead hangs, farmer's carries for time, and actual via ferrata practice on a local route all translate directly.

Before committing to a race this technical, an honest look at your training background matters more than your recent 50K time. Trailia's Race Readiness checker flags the gap between your current training profile, including how much technical descent and exposure work you have actually logged, and what a course like Kima demands, which is a more useful gut check than plugging a marathon time into a generic calculator.

Getting There and Planning Race Week

Val Masino sits in the Valtellina, in Sondrio province, about two hours from Milan by car via the SS38 through Colico, or reachable by train to Ardenno-Masino followed by the local bus up the valley. Filorera, Cataeggio, and San Martino all have small hotels and guesthouses, and booking well ahead of race weekend is not optional given how few beds the valley has relative to how many people show up to watch.

Race week follows a fixed rhythm: bib and helmet pickup on the Friday before the race, along with a mandatory athlete briefing at 17:00, then a 6:30am start on Saturday, or Sunday if weather forces a postponement. Because the course loops rather than running point to point, spectators and crews can reach several checkpoints by road, which is unusual for a race this remote and worth building into any support plan.

Pacing a race with this profile by feel alone is risky. The 52km distance undersells what you are signing up for; between the vertical gain and the technical sections, elite times run past six hours and most finishers take considerably longer. Running your splits through Trailia's Race Predictor against Kima's actual elevation and terrain profile, rather than a flat-course equivalent, gives you a realistic finish window and helps you set checkpoint targets that account for how much time the technical sections actually cost.

Key Takeaways

  • Trofeo Kima crosses seven Alpine passes above 2,500 meters over 52 technical kilometers, with fixed ropes and via ferrata-style terrain, not a standard runnable ultra.
  • Entry is capped near 400 bibs and typically sells out within hours, so plan roughly a year ahead.
  • Mandatory gear includes a helmet, waterproof jacket and pants, and a reusable cup; poles are banned on the technical sections.
  • Structured downhill training and real technical-terrain practice matter more than extra vertical gain in your final prep block.
  • Arrive at altitude a few days early if you are coming from low elevation, since fitness alone does not prevent altitude sickness.

Conclusion

Kima is not a race you stumble into ready. The course rewards runners who have specifically rehearsed exposure, technical descending, and time at altitude, not just those with the highest weekly vertical gain. If you are building toward a race like this, or trying to work out whether your current training actually prepares you for terrain this demanding, an elevation-aware plan through Trailia can help close the gap between a strong ultra résumé and readiness for the Sentiero Roma.

Citations

Bontemps, B., Vercruyssen, F., Gruet, M., & Louis, J. (2020). Downhill running: what are the effects and how can we adapt? A narrative review. Sports Medicine, 50, 2083-2110. Coratella, G., Varesco, G., Rozand, V., Cuinet, B., Sansoni, V., Lombardi, G., et al. (2024). Downhill running increases markers of muscle damage and impairs the maximal voluntary force production as well as the late phase of the rate of voluntary force development. European Journal of Applied Physiology, 124, 1875-1883. Khassetarash, A., Vernillo, G., Krüger, R. L., Edwards, W. B., & Millet, G. Y. (2022). Neuromuscular, biomechanical, and energetic adjustments following repeated bouts of downhill running. Journal of Sport and Health Science, 11, 319-329. Lu, Z., Suo, B., Deng, L., Wang, J., Fu, W., Zhong, Y., & Jin, J. (2025). A review of uphill and downhill running: biomechanics, physiology and modulating factors. Frontiers in Bioengineering and Biotechnology, 13, 1690023. Lussiana, T., Fabre, N., Hébert-Losier, K., & Mourot, L. (2013). Effect of slope and footwear on running economy and kinematics. Scandinavian Journal of Medicine & Science in Sports, 23, e246-e253. Sareban, M., Schiefer, L. M., Macholz, F., Schäfer, L., Zangl, Q., Inama, F., et al. (2020). Endurance athletes are at increased risk for early acute mountain sickness at 3450 m. Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise, 52(5), 1109-1115. Selvakumar, K., et al. (2023). Injury incidence and biomechanical loading differences between trail and road runners, as reported in Lu et al. (2025). Trofeo Kima. Official race rules, course description, and rankings. trofeokima.org (accessed 2026). Skyrunner World Series. Trofeo Kima 2024 race report. skyrunnerworldseries.com.

Frequently Asked Questions

How long is the Trofeo Kima course?

It covers 52 kilometers with 4,200 meters of ascent and roughly the same amount of descent, crossing seven Alpine passes above 2,500 meters. The elevation and terrain matter far more than the distance; even the men's course record sits just over six hours.

How do I get a bib for Trofeo Kima?

Registration typically opens months before race day and has sold out within about two hours in recent editions, with roughly 2,000 applications for 400 spots. Set a reminder for the announced opening date and register the moment the window opens.

Is Trofeo Kima the hardest skyrunning race in the world?

It's widely regarded as one of the most technical, thanks to fixed-rope sections, exposed granite ridgelines, and seven passes above 2,500 meters. Kilian Jornet has called it the most spectacular race in the world, though other races claim greater distance or altitude.

What gear is mandatory for Trofeo Kima?

Runners need trail shoes with defined tread, a waterproof jacket rated to at least 20,000mm water column, rain pants, and a reusable cup. Organizers issue a helmet at bib pickup that has been mandatory since the 2024 edition, and gear is checked at the start line.

How technical is the terrain compared to a via ferrata?

Some sections use the same fixed cables and chains found on Alpine via ferratas, just without a climbing harness, and the course meets skyrunning's technical standard of up to UIAA grade II scrambling. Runners without scrambling or exposure experience should build that skill on local terrain before race day.

What is the course record for Trofeo Kima?

Finlay Wild of Scotland holds the men's record at 6:05:54, set in 2024 when he broke Kilian Jornet's previous mark. Hillary Gerardi of the United States holds the women's record at 7:30:38, set in 2022.

How should I train specifically for the descents?

Build two to three controlled downhill running sessions per week into your final training block, since the eccentric loading from descents causes more muscle damage than climbing and needs its own adaptation. Runners who repeat downhill efforts show measurably less strength loss and soreness within days, a pattern known as the repeated bout effect.

Do I need to worry about altitude if I'm already fit?

Yes. Research shows high aerobic fitness does not protect against acute mountain sickness, and endurance-trained athletes have shown higher rates of it than untrained people on rapid ascent to similar altitudes. Arriving in Val Masino a few days early to acclimatize is worth more than extra taper mileage.

Is there a shorter option if the full Trofeo Kima feels too extreme?

Yes, the Kima Extreme Skyrace runs the same weekend over about 27.5 kilometers with roughly 1,890 meters of gain, covering part of the same route. It's a reasonable way to experience the terrain before committing to the full distance.

How do I get to Val Masino for the race?

The valley is about two hours from Milan by car via the SS38 through Colico, or reachable by train to Ardenno-Masino followed by a local bus up the valley. Accommodation in Filorera, Cataeggio, and San Martino is limited, so booking early is essential.

Tools for this race