87 runners rescued as ‘brutally cold’ whiteout engulfs ultra-marathon on Utah peaks

When a snowstorm engulfed runners Saturday during a 50-mile marathon across several Utah peaks, the blinding conditions caught some wearing only shorts and T-shirts.

“As it got colder and colder, it was getting scary,” runner Kelcey McClung Stowell told The New York Times. “The snow was getting so deep, we couldn’t see the trail. It was coming down like hail, and my hood froze to my face.”

Authorities rescued 87 runners from the ultra-marathon, which spans three Utah peaks, as 12 to 18 inches of snow fell in near-whiteout conditions Saturday morning, the Davis County Sheriff’s Office said in a news release.

Organizers called off the race and searchers on foot and in four-wheel drive vehicles or snowmobiles spent hours rounding up runners, the sheriff’s office said.

No serious injuries were reported but several runners were treated for hypothermia, sheriff’s officials said.

“Venturing onto the mountains, trails, and bodies of water at this time of year can be dangerous because the weather changes rapidly,” Sheriff Kelly V. Sparks said in the release.

The 50-mile DC Peaks 50 race is described as a “tough course with aprox 12,000’ of vertical gain and 10,000’ of descent.” This was to be the first year of the event.

“It was raining at the starting line, and it had forecasted rain,” race director Jake Kilgore told The New York Times. “Nobody had forecasted over a foot of snow at Francis Peak. Nobody.”

A video posted by the sheriff’s office on Facebook shows the near-whiteout conditions.

“I started shivering, but there was nothing we could do but get to the next aid station,” Stowell told The New York Times, describing the storm as “brutally cold.”

All runners were off the mountains by 2:45 p.m. Mountain time, the sheriff’s office said.

This story was originally published October 10, 2021 at 8:13 AM with the headline "87 runners rescued as ‘brutally cold’ whiteout engulfs ultra-marathon on Utah peaks."