Athletics Canada and the Skyrunner World Series Issue Statements on Kalie McCrystal

Athletics Canada, which lists Kalie McCrystal as a member, and the Skyrunner World Series have both issued statements about the Canadian skyrunner missing on the Matterhorn since Sept. 1. Athletics Canada said in a statement carried by the Canadian Press that she is “a highly respected athlete and a valued member of the worldwide skyrunning community,” and added: “Our thoughts are with Kalie, her family and everyone close to her at this extremely difficult time. We are hoping for her safe return and are grateful to those involved in the ongoing search.”

The Skyrunner World Series, in a statement carried by UPI, called her “a world-class skyrunning and mountain athlete, with many years of experience in high-altitude and technical mountain terrain.” Athletics Canada did not name the record she had been preparing for, which ANSA reported as a climb and descent of the mountain in under five hours, by the Lion Ridge on the Italian side. Neither organization has a role in running the search, and neither said anything about where it stands or what it has covered.

The search belongs to the Aosta Valley alpine rescue service and the Guardia di Finanza in Cervinia. The helicopters were stood down last week, as we reported on Saturday. ANSA and CBC News both carried that on Friday, and CBC said Thursday’s flying had found nothing. UPI dated the stand-down itself to Friday.

Who saw her last is not settled either, and pinning down her last position is what the phone work is for. AostaSera reported on Sept. 3, in the earliest published account, that a mountain guide had seen her above the Carrel Hut on the Italian normal route. ANSA later had a Polish climbing party seeing her just below Pic Tyndall, the shoulder short of the summit. Both put her on the same stretch of the Italian route; it is the witness and the time that differ. UPI put the sighting at 3:45 p.m. local time, with McCrystal descending toward Cervinia from the summit, and ANSA put it in the early afternoon.

McCrystal is a lawyer, and UPI reported that her post at Capilano University is in the legal studies program on its North Vancouver campus. The Squamish Reporter said she “represents Canada in trail running.”

Skyrunning is the technical, high-altitude end of mountain running, and McCrystal has raced its main series in Portugal, Spain and Argentina. She won the 4 Refugios Non-Stop in Argentina this year, a race of more than 40K with 3,350 meters (10,990 feet) of climbing, and in 2024 she finished third at the Madeira SkyRace and fifth at the Marató dels Dements, according to the series’ own athlete profile. Her Mount Tantalus Traverse fastest known time above Squamish, logged in July, and her fourth place at the Trofeo Kima in late August, recorded by iRunFar, came earlier this summer.

Athletics Canada said her family is speaking directly with the Italian rescue services handling the search, the Squamish Reporter reported on Sunday. As we reported on Saturday, ANSA has said the helicopters will go back up once investigators have the last of the information available to them, including how long a second SIM card McCrystal was carrying stayed active.