At that point, you have an entire mountain, and you have no limiting factor. CBS News Bay Area: Free 24/7 News CBS Bay Area App Contact Craig Medred at craig(at)alaskadispatch.com. Missing trail runner found dead in Yosemite - The Mercury News An old kayak missing from the yard at Miller's Landing, a resort at the end of the road, led to speculation she might have paddled off into Resurrection Bay, but she could just as easily headed down the trail to Tonsina Creek. A team of hikers will sweep the mountain after the competition to look for potential laggards. They did have pit stops, but by the time he got to the top, it was all packed up. THE SETTINGMount Marathon in the Kenai Mountain range in southern Alaska looms over town of Seward, an active fishing port, with a population of about 3,000. The mountain swallowed this man, a relative told Runners World journalist Christopher Solomon for an extensive article about the case in 2016. Missing in Alaska without a trace - Anchorage Daily News It consumed the energy of the town. By 9 p.m. a search was in full force. AFTER THE RACEOn July 5th, MaryAnne LeMaitre boarded a plane in Salt Lake City and went to Seward to look for her dad. Perhaps he fell off a cliff or fell into a crevice never to be seen again? What happened this yearit was quite devastating for the community. And that question has not been answered. I chose to come down the cliffs in a crabwalk its so steephand, hand, foot, foot.. But what happened in the 2012 Mount Marathon Race really stands out in Alaska lore. Photo by Carol Grisswold. Earlier last week . Alyse Bondi, Jenna's close friend from Cornell, said Jenna loves to run. Usually by the time of race day, the water hasnt dried up, so you have to know what youre doing because its very steep and you can fall off. I wanted to go up and see what decisions my dad would have made. Clock says LeMaitre was last spotted race day by on-course volunteers around 6 p.m. Yeaton has been nursing an. At the time of her disappearance, troopers said that there was a note in her truck saying she didn't want a search. If he did turn 180 degrees in the wrong direction, he would then need to descend extremely steep and rough terrain on the south side of Mount Marathon, cross Lowell Creek, make a difficult climb up the Bear Mountain ridge, drop off it into the Spruce Creek drainage, climb yet another high ridge, and then drop into the Tonsina drainage. Down and out - cheating death on Mount Marathon So that I think is discouraging of people who are going to be taking four or five, six hours much longer to complete the race. We've received your submission. We tell people that you run it at your own risk. It was about 8 p.m. local time on July 4 when Seward, Alaska's Fire Department received word that 66-year-old Michael LeMaitre of Anchorage, was missing. I think that vastness and the proximity of that vastness to town and to thousands of people and spectators, that you could be gone without a trace while there are hundreds of runners and thousands of spectators, like a mile less than a mile away from you, is just a reminder for Alaskans of that very thin line we live in between our little patches of town and kind of infinite wilderness and the dangers of that. Its just on the minds of everybody. History Channel | Thursday, 21 June 2018 | 10:10. Is is body hidden somewhere on the Mount? Park officials did not indicate how he died, but a friend told the New York Times Thursday he had fallen. Searches in the difficult terrain have failed to locate any signs of him. Grove:What do you think this story tells people about Alaska or about what happened to this guy? Craig Medred is a former writer for the Anchorage Daily News, Alaska Dispatch and Alaska Dispatch News. Unfortunately, it was not to be! Fink: You start in downtown Seward, 4th avenue, and the street is all lined with spectators. Mount Marathon runner Penny Assman takes a brutal on-course fall, breaking her ribs. Its not uncommon for racers to be injured, running to the top of 3,022-foot Mount Marathon and back down again. Race volunteers headed down the mountain told him to make the turn and follow them to the finish. 65-year-old Michael LeMaitre was competing in the Mount Marathon race in Seward, Alaska, which is south of the city of Anchorage. GETTING DOWNThe fastest of the field is able to descend the mountain in under five or six minutes. [10] At 16, she took the women's 5000 at the Five & Dime Athletics Meeting in South Carolina with a time of 15:34.47. And that question has not been answered. The road takes a few minutes before you hit what we call the mountain. Join Outside+ to get access to exclusive content, 1,000s of training plans, and more. We have a safety meeting ahead of time that you have to attend. By 2 am, an Alaska State Troopers helicopter equipped with infrared radar was scanning the mountain. Submissions should outline a mystery and provide a link to a more detailed review of the case such as a Wiki article or news report. THE MOTIVATIONThe record time, set in 1981 by Bill Spencer, is 43:21. One thought I had was, what if a glove had gotten washed down a stream? Thanks for the post! After troopers stopped their search, family continued. A Reno trail runner who went missing over the weekend in Yosemite has been found dead. The red lantern in the race from downtown Seward to Race Point high up on Mount Marathon and then back, LeMaitre was last seen just a few hundred feet below the point in 2012. MOVING FORWARDThe community of Seward was hit hard. He was plodding along and was in last place. If my dad had fallen in one of those chutes and a snow bridge had collapsed over him, the infrared helicopters wouldnt have been able to find him., Michael was declared dead in August 2012 after a presumptive death hearing. I think that vastness and the proximity of that vastness to town and to thousands of people and spectators, that you could be gone without a trace while there are hundreds of runners and thousands of spectators, like a mile less than a mile away from you, is just a reminder for Alaskans of that very thin line we live in between our little patches of town and kind of infinite wilderness and the dangers of that. It was the talk of the town: Two people falling off the waterfall. Back to Top . No trail, an Alaska State Troopers spokeswoman said at the time. He wasnt carrying any water. At 11 a.m., nearly 350 women gathered behind the start line. Before joining the ADN in 2012, she worked at daily newspapers up and down the West Coast and earned a master's degree from the University of Oregon. I guess I'm headed down the rabbit hole now. Youve heard of Tough Mudder and the Spartan Race, but every Fourth of July, the town of Seward, Alaska, hosts a competition that rivals both. The junior trail is probably the safest of the threebut its dangerous as well, just cut into the side of the mountain, very steep and narrowtrees, roots to negotiate, and it gets very slick. Law enforcement has to place eyes on him, alive and well, McDaniel said. THE STARTBibs have typically been limited to 350 men, 350 women, and 200 juniors, but this year the race was expanded to accommodate 400 in each of the mens and womens races. [8], Before injury shortened her season, Jenna posted nation-leading times in the 1600 (4:44.13) and 3200 meters (9:52.33) and lowered her own Science High 800 meter record to 2:13.65. Get notifications about news related to the topics you care about. Jenna Hutchins (born March 25, 2004), is a high school and "Under 20" record-breaking American long distance runner from Johnson City, Tennessee. More about series. South Africa at the 2017 World Championships in Athletics Peggy LeMaitre is no longer holding out hope that her husband is still alive five weeks and multiple searches after he vanished without a trace while running in the popular extreme race. You see people coming down off the mountain. Then you pop out back out and have to decide whether to take the junior trail, the cliffs, or the waterfall, which is 20 feet out, 70 feet down. Michelle Theriault Boots is a longtime reporter for the Anchorage Daily News. Mount Marathon is the superbowl of Alaskan mountain running, the ultimate 4th of July celebration, one of my first experiences with competitive running, and . She was ranked third indoors in the U.S. at 1600m, running 4:48.10, fifth in the mile at 4:45.12, and 5th at 1500m at 4:26.77. [3][4] Hutchins is an accomplished violinist and has volunteered locally as a youth running coach and at the Johnson City Public Library. In the 1980s, when Echard was director, the senior mens and womens field was capped at 200; this year, it was 375. For the next 24 minutes or so, its just steep. And theres just never been a trace of him found. A few minutes down, theres Denali Falls; it has a 10-foot drop. Vanished: Heidi Broussard (33) and Margot Carey (2wks). On July 4, 2012, an Anchorage man named Michael LeMaitre went missing as he competed in Mount Marathon, the grueling Seward footrace typically held on the Fourth of July each year. All rights reserved. By the end of the day, two were in the hospital with serious injuries and one had vanished. And then also, Michael LeMaitre had not been up and down the course ever before he raced. [13] That mark was the fastest girls' U18 time in the world in 2020. Theriault Boots:They searched, they didnt find anything. 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I would say you should run this a dozen times before youre ready to compete in it. There are no signs along the route. Theres no substitute for actually walking the course, for checking out the chute area and seeing whats best for you, he says. Every Mount Marathon rookie is required to watch a graphic safety video the night before the race. Despite speculation about whether the remains might belong to LeMaitre, DNA testing found they instead belonged to a 39-year-old man whose last address was in Arkansas, troopers said. The 73-year-old man, whose name was not released by police, fell 361 feet during a hike on Jenner Mountain at the northern end of Konigsee Lake in Bavaria, Germany, at around 2:30 p.m. on July 3.. While injuries are common and expected, LeMaitre's case was unprecedented. Is there a serial killer in Austin, Texas? The top finishers are under 45 minutes. MaryAnne walked the mountain for weeks, looking for her dad. Ipsen said troopers don't yet know if the jawbone found in the mountains belongs to a man or a woman. The incidents left Seward struggling to understand how a runner could disappear on a course thats only a few miles long. They moved to Pflugerville, Texas when she was ten years old, staying a few years, after her father got a work promotion. But crews found no sign of LeMaitre. A world-renowned endurance athlete who went missing in California's Yosemite National Park has been found dead. Michael LeMaitre (66) disappeared on his way up the mountain and remains missing to this day. Lingit Aani Kaa Kei Nas.ax Haa Yoo Xatangi, the Anchorage Daily News Curious Alaska column, https://media.ktoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/8-Michelle-Theriault-int.mp3. There is hope that it might eventually be matched to the dental records of one of the missing people, but so far troopers haven't even been able to conclude who it isn't. Curious Alaska: What happened to the man who went missing running Mount The body of Fred Zalokar, 61, was recovered Tuesday near the 11,527-foot summit of Mount Clark, a press . Human remains found near Seward likely not those of missing Mount I have spent a lot of time on the mountain; I know my route very clearly. Ravens. The Mount Marathon course roughly describes a treble clefrunners don't descend the same route they ascendand as Walsh hiked down that afternoon, he saw another man slowly climbing, about . For the first few minutes, its a very steep grade up a rock facequite technical. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); Thanks for contacting us. The Mount Marathon Race in Seward took place Wednesday, after a year off due to the pandemic, without reports of any major trouble. And theres just never been a trace of him found. They did not perceive that he was in any danger, says Clock. New rules were instituted, including one that says runners now must sign a pledge saying theyve completed the roughly 3-mile race course at least once prior to race day. It's not uncommon for racers to be injured, running to the. Casey Grove is the host of Alaska News Nightly and a general assignment reporter at Alaska Public Media with an emphasis on crime and courts. He didnt make it up Mount Everest, but he tried it, Crom said. I want to inspire people to dream big and go out there and make it happen!. Race organizers instituted a number of new safety measures in 2013, including mandatory signed statements from runners that theyve completed training runs on the course, a one-hour time limit for racers to reach the summit, and sweeps of the mountain by volunteers after each wave of the race. Michael LeMaitre could have taken just a few wrong turns, and then very quickly was in the thousands and thousands of impenetrable, mountainous wilderness in the Kenai mountains. MaryAnne LeMaitre: My dadhe has always had an adventurous spirit: He did the Iditaski several times; he had a lot of exciting adventures on the water. Replies analysing and speculating over the mystery and possible explanations are encouraged. Im surprised that for such a technical race they didnt already have anyone sweeping at the end, but maybe this isnt as common for trail races as I believed them to be. We looked at eagle activity, bear activity. A cadaver dog was sent into the area and friends paid for and analyzed high-resolution photographs of the mountain. Army grounds aviators for training after fatal crashes in Alaska and Kentucky, How do electric vehicles perform in Alaska? The Mount Marathon Race doesnt look like much on paper: its short (just three miles long) and starts at sea level. At around 5.45 pm on the day of the race, Tom Walsh, a race steward, saw Michael ascending to the turnaround point with about 200 feet to go. "Oh my god, Jenna's kicking a**!" Bondi said as she checked Jenna's location from her phone. Following Michaels disappearance, officials made changes to the race. But what happened in the 2012 Mount Marathon Race really stands out in Alaska lore. 21, 2019 at 7:04 PM PDT. Additional age group awards will be given by RRCA! Theriault Boots: They searched, they didnt find anything. 2023 Anchorage Daily News. Crom said the pair had climbed mountains together worldwide. LeMaitre: Any time that Ive experienced anything like thisfriends who have gotten into car accidents and died, losing my grandmother to illnessthere was closure for that. Grove: What do you think this story tells people about Alaska or about what happened to this guy? Michael LeMaitre, a 66-year-old rookie Mount Marathon racer, was last seen about 200 feet from the top of the mountain and has been missing ever since. Once you get to halfway, theres no more brush: its just exposed rock and loose shale. The 65-year-old was competing as a rookie in the. "There are eight people missing'' in the Seward area since 1993, she added, and trooper files hold an unknown number of cases of people who disappeared before that date. Tonsina Creek is along a trail that begins near the end of Lowell Point Road south of downtown. But until this year, no one had ever died or gone missing on the race. The Alaska State Troopers announced that they were able to positively identify a body that had been classified as 'missing' for 32 years with the use of DNA evidence. A subreddit dedicated to the unresolved mysteries of the world. Runners from around the world join Alaskans in pursuit of a common goal: to safely complete this iconic footrace, whether on the podium or in the pack. Race organisers take no responsibility for Michaels disappearance: Missing mom & baby- Gabriella Harkness Located, Bizarre Stories from the Alaska Triangle Successscan, Bizarre Stories from the Alaska Triangle Mid American News. LeMaitre never came down. He was last seen at about 6pm by an official who was heading down the mountain. montanawomensrun . Whenever I asked for help, someone always said yes. Theriault Boots: I think its the same intrigue that makes people going missing in Alaska so fascinating for some people, because its just the vastness of the wilderness. 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LeMaitre: People in Seward took care of me. LeMaitre: The biggest factor was the record snowthe trail conditions were unlike anything they had seen beforeice underneath. Miller is among 3,988 people reported missing in Alaska in 2002 and one of the 217 who remain missing, according to Alaska State Troopers.