DIVERGE Skyruns 2026 2026

The course starts from the main street of Queenstown. Mt Owen towers directly above. And you will ascend it by the most direct route. Across the top and over to North Owen, you will follow MTB trails and some steep, epic ridgelines, down again to the valley floor. You then ascend again. This time to Mt Lyell, and traverse its summit ridgeline to an epic lookout, that overlooks Queenstown’s mine. You might pause for a moment to take in the man-made moonscape of stripped hills and mountains. A century of copper mining has left these mountains bare, although look closely, and you’ll see intricate details. Like the exposed root balls of century old King Billy Pine stumps where the soil has eroded around the roots. This course features the Lyell-Comstock rail formation, a 120-year-old mine railway, which has epic views from the Comstock Valley, out to the famous Frenchman’s Peak and many others. The rail formation was actually never used by the mine but became a popular bushwalking track until the 1960s. It has long been forgotten, but we are reclaiming the 11km track back from the bush to re-open it. Not just to make DIVERGE a reality, but also for the community to enjoy year-round. You then bomb down again, including along an old seismic exploration line. This is super steep, and super direct. You’ll pass the historic Pioneer Cemetery and a single track takes you through the old mining ghost town of Gormanston. You’ll hit the classic tourist lookouts at Horsetail Falls at the foot of Mt Owen. This 50-metre waterfall can vary from a trickle when it is dry to a massive waterfall after rain. And then it’s past the Iron Blow Lookout, which gives an impressive bird's eye view of the huge open-cut mine and perhaps gives you a little more understanding of the man-made moonscape landscapes around Queenstown. It’s then back down the MTB trails, and around over the Miners Siding — a large sculpture that tells the story of Queenstown's rich mining history — and over the finish line.