Day Four of the Beyond the Ultimate Mountain Ultra, known as “Altyn Arashan,” brought the runners to new heights, both literally and metaphorically. This stage, renowned for its challenging elevation, saw participants navigating the course at an average altitude of 3,000m, traversing numerous remote high passes en route to the breathtaking Jyrgalan Valley.

The day began with competitors departing from the previous camp, immediately ascending into the alpine meadows. These lush fields, adorned with a tapestry of wildflowers, gradually transitioned into forested mountain slopes. 

Throughout the course of the day the runners encountered three major high passes. Each pass presented its own unique challenges, with steep ascents and descents on technical terrain demanding both physical stamina and mental fortitude. Every step made on the rough terrain required careful consideration, and with burning lungs and light heads, the challenge was dramatically increased, the thin mountain air affected all.

Extremely adverse weather created tough conditions out on course, causing a number of runners to DNF between Checkpoints One and Two. High winds, rain and extreme cold descended upon them quickly, as is common in this region, and the runners chose to remain at checkpoints or hike off the route to a vehicle extraction point. The phenomenal Global Expedition Medics and our excellent local Kyrgyz safety team ensured all runners made it down to camp safely.

Within that group the runners are now faced with a choice to either head back to Karakol, or to race again tomorrow if they are able.

In the Women’s race it was Maria Russell who took the stage win, crossing the line in 8:36:00 and beating Kristina Madsen’s stage record set in 2023. Maria put in a dominant performance and took her second stage win, sitting just 24 minutes behind the overall Women’s Course Record. Behind Maria came Jemma Wilkinson in 9:30:00, pushing herself up into second in the standings, and Isabelle Dufour (10:47:00) who places herself in third overall.

Towards the front of the field we saw Simon Dicks once again dominating the Men’s race, further extending his lead over the rest of the Men’s podium. Simon finished in 6:42:00, nearly two hours ahead of Bert Gossey and Alex Welch, who came in together in 8:32:00.

Katie Hislop, Corrado Buzzolan and Micah Risher battled horrendous weather to get across the line together, helping one another along through the toughest part of the course. After nearly twelve hours on their feet they made it into camp, soaked and exhusted but ready to take it on tomorrow. Tanja Löhr was our penultimate finisher, crossing the line in pouring rain with a time of 12:45:00.

Ioana Barbu, after spending some time with the roaming medics, decided to continue on, spending more than thirteen hours on her feet and finally finishing. She may have lost the opportunity to win the race, but she’ll still be able to finish overall if she keeps going.