diff --git a/test/classes/weakPointers/concurrentUpgrades.skipif b/test/classes/weakPointers/concurrentUpgrades.skipif
new file mode 100644
index 000000000000..c310b6e9b1c4
--- /dev/null
+++ b/test/classes/weakPointers/concurrentUpgrades.skipif
@@ -0,0 +1,2 @@
+# valgrind does not handle indirect modification checking correctly, so skip
+CHPL_TEST_VGRND_EXE == on