AdventuresNW
The Mountain Runners: America’s First Adventure Race, 1911-1913
By Todd Warger, Washington State University Press, 2027
The sport of adventure racing in Bellingham did not begin with Ski to Sea in 1973. Back in 1911, the Mount Baker Club decided to stage a marathon endurance race from Bellingham to the summit of Mount Baker and back. Designed to determine which of two routes up Mount Baker was the fastest (the first from Glacier up Heliotrope Ridge and over the Roosevelt Glacier and the second from Deming up through Mazama Park and over the Deming Glacier), runners either took a train to Glacier or were driven in cars up to a ranch near Mosquito Lake, where they started their runs. The running portion was 28-32 miles depending on the route, with the Deming route longer but less steep than the Glacier route.
The club staged the race in the summer, but for each of the three years the competition was organized, stormy mountain weather made the conditions horrendous for the runners, and included running in darkness, experiencing hypothermia, broken ribs, and sprained ankles, not to mention sheer exhaustion. Getting to the start of the run and then back down to Bellingham was no picnic, either, with a train derailment the first year, and cars running off the muddy, planked, and potholed roads.
Warger chronicles these events in detail, making for an adventure story like no other. It’s nothing short of a miracle that no runners died during these races (although one runner did fall into a crevasse, to be later rescued). The author delves into the eccentric Bellingham personalities involved in the planning and decision-making for the race, with their disputes and conflicts; the logistics, which were fraught with complications; and the individual runners themselves, from professional runners to loggers, miners, farmers, mill workers, and even a postman. It’s a fast-paced read because of the frightening details about how the runners survived through their own grit and determination.
This book is an excellent companion piece to Warger’s 2012 Emmy Award-nominated documentary film, The Mountain Runners.
Cathy Grinstead, born and raised in Northern California, spent her summers backpacking in the Sierra. In 2018, she retired from veterinary practice and moved to Bellingham to explore a different part of the world. She enjoys hiking, outrigger paddling, and snow sports, and loves all that Bellingham has to offer!
