Event

The Mountain Runners

Local Sightings Film Festival 2013

Sep 28

Todd Warger & Brian Young - Mount Vernon, WA 87 min

Saturday, Sep 28 at 05:00PM

The Mountain Runners is the story of America's first mountain adventure race, which took place in 1911. The grueling 28 to 32 mile marathon race to the summit of Mount Baker (a 10,781 foot volcanic, glacial peak in Washington State) was only ran for three years due to its intrepid dangers. The men who ran these races in 1911-1913 were not professional athletes, but practiced a variety of vocationsloggers, coal miners, bedspring makes, postmen, milkman wrestlers and insurance salesmen. All who ran the race defied death and injury for a $100 purse of gold coins.

Narrated by Kevin Tighe, The Mountain Runners incorporates hundreds of vintage images, historic film, graphics, 3D effects, and recreated dramatizations staring William B. Davis (X- Files, Smoking Man.) The film is supported by a cast of Cascadian historians, descendants of race participants and world-renowned experts. Interviews include contemporary champion athletes and authors, including record-holding alpine speed-climber Chad Kellogg, champion ultrarunner Krissy Moehl, US speed distance record-holder Scott Jurek, ultramarathon pioneer Doug McKeever and authors Steve House and Cami Ostman. They look back at the accomplishments of their endurance-athlete predecessors with astonishment and insights on how the competitors of a century ago may have managed to complete the race.