The Mount Marathon Race in Seward took place Wednesday, after a year off due to the pandemic, without reports of any major trouble. I never went up the mountain on my own, except for the last trip. His wife sued the race and the Seward Chamber of Commerce for $5 million, alleging negligence and emotional distress. Theres no substitute for actually walking the course, for checking out the chute area and seeing whats best for you, he says. Oquilluk, 38-years-old at the . 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[6], During her sophomore year in 20182019, she won the Tennessee Gatorade Female Track & Field Player of the Year award, earning her the opportunity as a part of Gatorade's "Play it Forward cause marketing platform," to award a $1,000 grant to her choice of a local or national youth sports organization, and duplicated the honors in 2020 and 2021. Relatives of Zalokar declined to comment Thursday, the Times reported. She ranked within the global top 100 for 5000 metres athletes in 2020. The Mount Marathon Race in Seward took place Wednesday, after a year off due to the pandemic, without reports of any major trouble. I know its fascinating to me, the overwhelming scale and power of the wilderness and how close we live to it and how close we all tried that line. LeMaitre: The biggest factor was the record snowthe trail conditions were unlike anything they had seen beforeice underneath. Two other runners sustained serious injuries in this years race. Troopers identify remains of missing person after 32 years Despite extensive searches, his body has never been recovered, and the details of his death remain a mystery. There is an entry limit, with around 90 percent of the participants being returnees and with a coveted lottery ticket system in place. Ravens. I guess I always thought this was a process that only happened after several years, or when concrete evidence supporting the missing person is deceased surfaced. 2021 Mount Marathon Race Guide by Seward Chamber of Commerce - Issuu Disappearance on Mount Marathon - Outside Online Her personal best times are 1:14:19 in the half marathon (2014); and 2:36:50 in the marathon (2020). He could have been buried under the snow. And then also, Michael LeMaitre had not been up and down the course ever before he raced. 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. Theriault Boots: They searched, they didnt find anything. 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. Do we advocate for complete personal responsibility, or do race organizers have authority to begin dictating the course? Thats when Anchorage resident Michael LeMaitre went missing while running the race, never to be seen again. According to Squires, Some operations continued until July 15. By the end of the day, two were in the hospital with serious injuries and one had vanished. At this point, the area was getting foggy and cold but Walsh saw no reason to be concerned about the condition of the runner. This article originally appeared in our October, 2012 issue. Curious Alaska is a weekly feature powered by your questions. And finally, I decided that I needed to go on the mountain by myself, because thats how he did the race. To get from where he was last seen in 2012 to where the jawbone was found would require that he first make a left turn off the Mount Marathon ridge when he knew a right turn was required to pick up the trail down. Youre using hands and feet. People were out searching, helicopter going constantly. It was especially rainy, foggy and slick that day. But I think theres a lot of people who still very much want to know what happened to Michael LeMaitre. 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. Contact Craig Medred at craig(at)alaskadispatch.com. Our condolences to his family and friends.. By 2 am, an Alaska State Troopers helicopter equipped with infrared radar was scanning the mountain. 2023 Anchorage Daily News. Disappearance on Mount Marathon On July 4, 2012, runners gathered in Seward, Alaska, for a three-mile trail race up the mountain that looms 3,000 feet over Resurrection Bay. Earlier last week . Its not uncommon for racers to be injured, running to the top of 3,022-foot Mount Marathon and back down again. He was never seen again and his body was never located despite extensive searching. NYC Marathon: Bundled up and waiting - Pavement Pieces Yeaton has been nursing an. A missing runner. Hed kind of pick a goal and go after it hard.. Fink: We expect changes after this year, but you need to strike a balance. At that point, you have an entire mountain, and you have no limiting factor. 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. ANCHORAGE, Alaska - The wife of a 65-year-old Anchorage man who disappeared while participating in the 2012 Mount Marathon extreme mountain race in Seward has sued the organization that hosts Mount Marathon: One Of The U.S.'s Most Challenging 5Ks - Women's Running [3][4] Hutchins is an accomplished violinist and has volunteered locally as a youth running coach and at the Johnson City Public Library. Starting in downtown Seward, racers run a half-mile to the bottom of Mount Marathon, then scrabble about 2,900 vertical feet straight up cliffs and mud and shale before getting to Race Point, an artificial summit point. A quest to create a multi-stage tour designed specifically for runners. 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. The mountain is always there. But probably the best known missing person case in wild Alaska involves 66-year-old Michael LeMaitre of Anchorage who went up Mount Marathon on July 4, 2012 and never came down. Several years since Michael disappeared, not one piece of physical evidence has surfaced. Grove:What do you think this story tells people about Alaska or about what happened to this guy? "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. Its not the opposite side of the mountain, but its a different face. Theres a rule that if youre much slower than most of the runners, you have to make it halfway up in one hour, or youll be disqualified. He literally vanished off the mountain. On July 4, 2012, runners gathered in Seward, Alaska, for a three-mile trail race up the mountain that looms 3,000 feet over Resurrection Bay. After troopers stopped their search, family continued. Missing person reports in the area, reported cries from the trees, and sightings of what look like oversized monkeys call to mind the legends of vicious baboon . This year, the weather was good enough to fly in aid station water by helicopter, but you cant always bank on it. Echard says this years race highlighted the need to shrink the field. Crom, meanwhile, told the newspaper its unclear whether he summited Mount Clark prior to his death, but said park rangers would likely check a log book near the peak. Mount Marathon Is the Toughest 5K on the Planet - Outside Online While injuries are common and expected, LeMaitre's case was unprecedented. It has been sent to the State Medical Examiner's Office for further examination. The view from Mount Clark, which. There have been promises of changes to the race, but the danger is an undeniable feature of a century-old tradition that had never seen this kind of trauma. The mountain is so close to townyou can hear the announcer all the way up. On July 7, with no progress made and resources dwindling, search efforts were scaled back. One of the organisers of the race, Karol Fink, said that in the months before the big day, there had been unusual amounts of snow We had a little more snow than usual. Matthew Kenney and Penny Assman both fell over the same section of trail, known as the waterfall.. He says a smaller field could prevent the already precarious course from becoming overcrowded and compromising runners ability to choose the safest path down the mountain. The partial jawbone in question, she said, was found by hunters in the mountains above Tonsina Creek about 4 miles from the city. Zalokar, of Reno, Nevada, was reported missing late Sunday after not returning to Yosemite Valley from his solo trip as planned. Mt. But he hadnt been on the mountain before.. Trailing behind the other runners, LeMaitre was last seen near the summit by a race official. Welcome to Seward for the 93rd running of the Mount Marathon Race, the oldest mountain race in North America and possibly its craziest! 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The serious risk of major injury or death is why the event isn't open to just anyone. 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. Signs posted on the lower mountain, site of the most dangerous cliffs, point out alternate descent routes and rate their difficulty. 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. As ADN reporter Michelle Theriault Boots told Alaska Public Medias Casey Grove, race volunteers were the last people to see LeMaitre near the top of the mountain. After the official searches were called off, she spent over a month walking the mountain and looking for signs. We dont claim that its safe, she says. She says, If youre not very capable and/or very familiar with the route, the cliff area and the scree can be dangerous.. 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. He had already navigated the most dangerous parts of the course. Race volunteers headed down the mountain told him to make the turn and follow them to the finish. You know, a lot of people kept saying, you need some sort of closure. A member of the LeMaitre family said Alaska State Troopers told him it did not appear the partial human jawbone found in the mountains above Tonsina Point south of the city belongs to the 65-year-old who disappeared during the Mount Marathon Race on July 4, 2012. The race changed as a result of the disappearance. 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. I wonder how his wife managed to have him declared dead barely 3 months after he went missing. Four days after LeMaitre disappeared, the official rescue attempt was called off, though the Seward Volunteer Fire Department kept looking. It was a new (pending) national high school record,[11] and also the new American youth (under 18) best, American junior (under 20) outdoor standard[12] and the North American junior record. Records fell at the annual Mount Marathon Race in Seward on Monday. Officials took a photo of Michael at the halfway point and he was smiling and seemed happy to continue. When you get to the top, theres a grassy area with a big rock in the middle that you go around. LeMaitre. The Last Man Up | Runner's World Jenna Challenor - Wikipedia Later in that year of 2012, he was declared legally dead through a court proceeding called a presumed death trial, which is a way for families whove lost someone in a fishing boat accident or a plane crash, where remains are not going to be recoverable to have their loved one legally declared deceased so they can move on with settling estates and insurance and things like that. LeMaitre: I just dont know if theres a chance of finding him. Jenna Leigh Challenor (born 6 July 1981) is a South African long-distance runner.She competed in the marathon event at the 2017 World Championships in Athletics in London, UK, finishing 59th.. The Troopers announced that they identified the remains of Ronald Oquilluk using DNA from his sister. An accomplished runner and mountain climber was found dead in Yosemite National Park days after he went missing, officials said. Its in your mind every single day. Mountain rescue experts, firemen, state troopers, search dogs and LeMaitres family spent thousands of hours searching the area but without a single clue being found. Outdoors she ranked first at 3200m, running 9:49.83. 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. I know its fascinating to me, the overwhelming scale and power of the wilderness and how close we live to it and how close we all tried that line. Missing runner found after vanishing following seven-day marathon challenge The men's and women's courses are a grueling 1.5-mile climb up, and back down, Alaska's majestic and treacherous Mount Marathon. Over the next several days, the search parties grew to almost 70 people, according to Seward Fire Chief David Squires, and included helicopters, technically trained volunteers from the Alaska Mountain Rescue Group, dogs and support from the Alaska Air National Guard. Since all the snow hadnt melted out from the creek bed, there were some snow bridges that you had to cross that were really creepy. A cadaver dog was sent into the area and friends paid for and analyzed high-resolution photographs of the mountain. Prior to the race this year, former race director Chuck Echard had written a letter to the Seward Phoenix Log expressing his opinion that the race field should be decreasedthe event, he contended, wasnt for everyone. Thats where [Assman and Kenney] fell. Missing 411: The Missing Man on Mount Marathon | Paul LeMaitre The Lore Lodge 162K subscribers Join Subscribe 3.9K 76K views 4 months ago Missing 411 On July 4th, 2012, Paul LeMaitre. The Mount Marathon Race in Seward took place Wednesday, after a year off due to the pandemic, without reports of any major trouble. I wanted to do something at the top of the mountain, so I brought a Dremel tool and left a message: I love you dad. I engraved that on a rock.