It has been two days without rain in the Tatras, the mountains that hardened Polish mountaineers and where world trail is landing for the first time. But a thunderclap, just after eight o’clock on Saturday morning, is enough to put the work of five years to bring the Golden Trail Series to the country in limbo. Two hours later, the pioneer, the best Polish runner, Bart Przedwojewski, goes up to the attic of the restaurant where his companions are sheltered to chew on the news that shatters his dreams. The storms have caught the valley, the weather is not improving and the circuit has suspended a race for the first time in its history – since 2018. Because what in Kościelisko is rain with a soundtrack, on the summits, above 2,200 meters, is an electric hell. There is its director, Greg Vollet, who rates his horror at 8 out of 10. “I am not afraid of rain or mud. I have done races in ankle-deep water, but the rays were really impressive.”
The Tatra Skyrace, a 30-kilometre course with some 1,800 metres of elevation gain, was Przedwojewski’s great legacy. He entered the training ground for climbers where Jerzy Kukuczka learned to navigate rock and unstable ice in the 1970s before becoming the second to conquer all 14 eight-thousanders and leading a school of winter mountaineering that survives a quarter of a century after his death. “Fifteen years ago, nobody raced in the mountains, there was only hiking or climbing. We have paved the way.” In a circuit with three European races set, including Poland was a milestone for a local idol who came third in Zegama in May.
But the wishes of Malen Osa, someone who has never done a Golden race below the top-5, were fulfilled. “I want bad weather, wet stones, even if it is more dangerous.” When the first thunder sounded, the warm-up was divided between smiles –those of the technical riders, lovers of rain– and the twisted gestures of the rest. After half an hour of sustained precipitation, the women’s race started at 8:40 and the sky broke. Barely two minutes later, the tents were a necessary shelter. Goodbye to the current, goodbye to the advertising arches. And an electric charge that made the broadcast booth shake. The boys were supposed to leave 20 minutes later, but the plans had gone overboard.
And the girls were out there, running in the middle of a river, a pure obstacle course with logs, stones and stairs. The profile drew 12 almost flat kilometres before climbing to the summit, the terrain suitable for the Kenyans, who did not break the more technical ones. That is how Osa, who was within reach before squeezing her climb and descent to win her first race on the circuit, arrived at the refreshment station: “How long is that taking!” With good reason. The rescue team of the national park had stopped the race, something that she had not even contemplated, as she seconded Alain Santamaría’s phrase: “This is a normal day in the Basque Country.” They waited with blankets and hot tea in a restaurant until the organisers announced the suspension. And they had to go back five kilometres to catch the bus.
Przedwojewski, who had been training there for a month and was the favourite, suggested to his teammates that they take part in a beginners format with 15 kilometres and 600 metres of positive gradient, an idea that did not come to fruition because the Goldens did not agree to give it points, as it would put it on a par with Zegama, the race most accustomed to bad weather, or Sierre-Zinal. The idea of running on Sunday was also impossible because most of the athletes fly back home and the modest means of the trail make it impossible to consider spending money.
“Many people will be disappointed; we are too. But safety comes first,” stressed Vollet, aware of precedents such as the death of 21 runners in China in 2021. Before the thunder, the regulations already required people to carry a thermal blanket, a waterproof jacket, a whistle, a mobile phone and two apps to be tracked by GPS and contact Polish emergency services. The organisers wanted to create a ‘fan zone’ at the summit in the style of Zegama; they couldn’t, but they did accompany the runners in the wait, embracing the national culture of resilience, of making everything as difficult as possible. The eight-thousanders, in winter; the trail, in a storm. The pride of its sloping roofs made of black wood so that the snow doesn’t accumulate, its ski jumps and its shepherds’ dances in woollen suits.
The suspension changes the rules of an eight-race circuit in which the four best results before the final counted. With Tatra’s crash, three points count, which compresses the top positions and gives last year’s winners, Rémi Bonnet and Sophia Laukli, the most illustrious names who could still be back in the races in September in the USA, a chance. All because the mountain said no. And its word is law.
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