Canadian Skyrunner Missing on the Matterhorn While Training for a Speed Record

Investigators in Italy’s Aosta Valley have little left to work with in the search for Kalie McCrystal beyond a second SIM card the Canadian skyrunner was carrying up the Matterhorn. The alpine rescue service and the Guardia di Finanza in Cervinia want the last moment that card registered on a network, which would give them a time and a place to fly back to, the Italian wire service ANSA reported Saturday. Four days after she was last seen, searchers have found no trace of her, and ANSA reported that hopes of finding her alive are now minimal.

The Lion Ridge is the Italian route up the Matterhorn, and McCrystal had come to Breuil-Cervinia to rehearse it for an attempt to climb and descend the mountain in under five hours. A Polish climbing party saw her on Tuesday afternoon, descending just below Pic Tyndall, the 4,241-meter (13,914-foot) shoulder short of the summit and above the Carrel Hut. A French friend who had heard nothing from her for 48 hours raised the alarm. Crews worked the Italian side through Thursday, running six helicopter rotations over the upper slopes and sweeping for a Recco signal, ANSA reported Friday, and the aerial search was suspended when that produced nothing, CBC News reported.

When she set out, the fastest women’s time on the ridge was 23 days old. On Aug. 9, Karina Andersen ran from the church in Breuil-Cervinia to the 4,478-meter (14,692-foot) summit and back in 5:14:53, unsupported, carrying 450 grams of carbohydrate and drinking 0.75 liters of water, according to the Fastest Known Time database. It is the quickest by a woman the database lists, supported or not. Five hours would require roughly another 15 minutes off it. Kilian Jornet‘s 2:52:02 on the same ridge, logged as supported because he used the route’s fixed ropes, has stood since 2013.

Women’s fastest known time attempts on the Matterhorn have come in a rush this summer. Before 2026 the database listed two, Emelie Forsberg’s 5:51:35 in 2013 and Elena Fernández López’s 11:15:26 in 2023. Five more have been added since mid-July, among them Milly Young’s supported 5:17:44 on July 22 and Jënni Jalonen’s 7:29:51 on July 30. McCrystal’s own entry, 6:47:33 on Aug. 14, was on the Swiss side by the Hörnli Ridge from Zermatt, and she called it a reconnaissance run that came out quicker than she had expected.

Guided ascents of the Matterhorn from both sides were suspended this summer. Zermatt’s guides stopped in July over rockfall danger, and the Breuil-Cervinia association followed after a large rockfall came off the south face at about 3,900 meters on Aug. 5, SWI swissinfo.ch reported. The Carrel Hut, the refuge at 3,830 meters on the Italian route, has been operating without a warden. Swiss reporting linked the instability to a low-snow winter and a hot summer degrading the frozen ground that holds the rock together.

McCrystal, 38, a lawyer from Squamish, British Columbia, has had a heavy summer of climbing and racing. On July 21 she crossed the Mount Tantalus Traverse, in the range above Squamish, in 9:40:32, solo and unsupported. “No food or water drops, filtered water where I could on route and carried all food,” she wrote afterward. “Didn’t bring a rope, downclimbed all the typical rappels.” She raced the Trofeo Kima in Italy’s Val Masino in late August, a 52K skyrace with 4,200 meters of climbing, and finished fourth in the women’s field in 7:59:35, according to iRunFar.

Duncan O’Regan, a friend of McCrystal’s and a mountain runner in Squamish, told CBC News the route was within her range. “She’s done much more difficult things, and this is not something that is beyond her capabilities,” he said. “She’s comfortable in this terrain.” Jason Dewling, president and vice-chancellor of Capilano University, where she is also a faculty member, said in a statement: “Our thoughts are with Kalie’s family, friends and colleagues, and with everyone involved in the search efforts during this incredibly difficult time.” Global Affairs Canada said it knows of the case and has been speaking with authorities in Italy.

ANSA reported that searching will resume once the last of the available information is in.