'I FELT THE BONE SNAP' - HANNA OTTO SURVIVES 40% GRADIENTS, SNOWY SUMMIT AND FRUCTURE TO SET EPIC ONE-DAY KILIMANJARO SUMMIT RECORD

'I think this shows that a dreram may just be the most powerful thing in the world'

Hannah Otto, who won Leadville Trail 100 in 2022, rides to eighth place in 2026 (Image credit: Life Time)

Hannah Otto (Scott Sports) added another endurance record to her resume on Wednesday, this one to an elevation of 19,300 feet above sea level. On November 4, she completed a Fastest Known Time (FKT) with Beyond the Summit: Kilimanjaro for World Bike Relief, becoming the first woman to use a mountain bike to summit Mount Kilimanjaro and descend in one day.

Her effort on the highest mountain in Africa almost came to an abrupt end with two miles to go, when she slipped in some mud and broke her tibia. She was able to remount her bike and pedal with one leg to complete the journey, a film crew nearby capturing the effort for a future film, though she refused assistance so the record would count, recorded as 'one day' for the FKT since it was a mark.

"Kilimanjaro FKT!! Mission accomplished! Dream come true! The first known woman to climb and descend Kilimanjaro in one day by bicycle," she posted to Instagram one day ago.

"From the dark hours of the early morning and listening to the monkeys scream at me in the rainforest to steep pitches over 40% gradients, to scrambling over rocks with a bike on my back, to a 19,300-foot [5895 metre] summit covered in snow this was the best experience of my entire life and also the hardest thing I’ve ever done.

"As if it wasn’t hard enough, with two miles to go I had a small crash. It was simple, just sliding out in some mud. But my foot got caught and I felt the bone snap. I laid in the mud feeling my dreams slip away, and that felt more painful than any broken bone. I crawled to my bike, used it as a crutch, and finished the final two miles pedaling with one leg to the finish.

"X-rays show a broken tibia. I think this shows that a dream may just be the most powerful thing in the world."

The Utah-based mountain bike specialist completed her fifth season as part of the Life Time Grand Prix two weeks before making the trip to Africa. She ended her run of four consecutive seasons in the top 10, missing the mark by just three points for 11th overall. Her best race finishes in the series this year were third at Little Sugar MTB and eighth at Leadville Trail 100 MTB, a race she won in 2022.

Otto has accumulated an eye-popping collection of FKTs, which she also uses as training for her endurance off-road racing. Last fall she set a new FKT for women on Mauna Kea, riding the 55-mile (88.5km) mountain road with 13,700 feet (4,175 metres) of climbing in Hawaii in 5 hours, 43 minutes and 50 seconds. She also has a trio of FKT records in high terrain US desert routes - Kokopelli Train, White Rim and Whole Enchilada.

While only 26.5 miles in distance (42.6km) in Tanzania, the main obstacle was elevation gain across the dormant volcano. The summit is just above 19,300 feet (5,895 metres) with five climate zones crossed from top to bottom.

Several days prior to her solo FKT, Otto made an initial ascent with a group and local crew, including a lead guide who had summited Kilimanjaro over 180 times. The 'first' summit was made on November 1.

"The entire crew made it to the top to celebrate this momentous moment together. Now we descend all the way back to the bottom and I’ll attempt to summit in just one day on November 3rd," she wrote on her social diary.

"After seeing this whole mountain piece by piece, it scares me. Things can change in an instant and the only constant is inconsistency. But that’s the entire point. I’m diving into the fear, I’m believing despite not knowing. I hope what anyone takes away from this attempt is the bravery to try without promise. We’re almost at $60K raised for World Bicycle Relief via The Intrepid Foundation!"

She said she realised her power on the bike would drop at the higher altitude, so she was keeping a close watch on her heart rate. "Instead of tracking miles I'm tracking elevation climbed."

Clad in a heavy coat, lined gloves and her helmet, Otto smiled for a photo when she was able to dismount and sit on the rock wall at the top of the mountain with a bright blue sky shining above.

"This film will be absolutely epic; that I’m sure of," Otto posted. The date of the film release is yet to be announced.

The fundraising campaign for World Bicycle Relief has raised $62,137 so donations going through the Intrepid Travel Foundation so that up to 1,000 bicycles reach women and girls to access education, healthcare and jobs.

- Jackie Tyson

AN ELITE TRAIL RUNNER VANISHES DURING A TRAINING RUN ON THE MATTERHORN. 8 DAYS LATER, SHE'S STILL MISSING

Iris Kurschner//Getty Images

Kalie McCrystal disappeared while training for a Matterhorn FKT attempt in Italy.

Rescue teams in Italy’s Aosta Valley have suspended the search for Kalie McCrystal, a 38-year-old elite Canadian trail runner and mountaineer who disappeared while training on the Matterhorn on September 1, but those close to her say they remain hopeful that she’s still alive.

McCrystal had traveled to the Italian resort town of Cervinia in early August to run a challenging skyrace and prepare for an ambitious project: climbing and descending the Matterhorn via the Lion’s Ridge route in under five hours in an attempt to break the fastest known time (FKT) set by American runner and climber Kraina Andersen on August 9. That ridge runs between the South Face of the mountain in Italy and the West Face of the mountain in Switzerland.

McCrystal lives in Squamish, British Columbia, where she works as a lawyer and also teaches at Capilano University. She shared details of her training plans on social media in early August, describing the sub-five-hour round trip on the Matterhorn as her major athletic goal for the season.

She had reportedly summited the mountain a few times this summer (and posted a photo on social media on August 7), so she was likely familiar with its current conditions. She also set an FKT of the Hornli Ridge route on the Swiss side of the mountain on August 14, completing the return trip from Zermatt in 6 hours, 47 minutes, and 33 seconds.

“I intended this to be a recon run, but it ended up faster than I thought,” McCrystal reported to the FKT website.

Several athletes close to McCrystal have noted that the Lion’s Ridge route was well within her ability.

“She knew what she was doing,” says McCrystal’s friend Hilary Gerardi, an American skyrunner and mountaineer who lives in Chamonix, France, and has known McCrystal since 2023. “This isn’t one of these stories of a trail runner getting in over their head. She summited the mountain many times, but she also spent time over there not necessarily summiting, but just going up there and checking the route.”

Gerardi was in Cervinia over the weekend helping coordinate search efforts and talked with an Italian mountain guide who had met up with McCrystal while he was descending the mountain with a client last Tuesday. That guide confirmed that McCrystal was actively talking to all of the guides and local climbers to get as much information about conditions as possible.

“He told me that ‘she was moving super well, competently, skillfully and that she was calm, relaxed,’” Gerardi said. “He said that he did not feel at all that she was being reckless, that she was in her element. He wasn’t worried about her at all.”

McCrystal is well known within international skyrunning circles as a highly capable and experienced high-altitude athlete, with a long track record in technical alpine terrain. She has competed in numerous races this year, including a victory at Cuatro Refugios race on February 22 in Argentina. That’s a 24.8-mile point-to-point race with 10,800 feet of vertical gain and loss.

She also recorded a fifth-place finish in the Beast of Big Creek 22K skyrace on August 1 near Hoodsport, Washington, and a fourth-place finish in the Trofeo Kima race, a 52K race with more than 13,000 feet of elevation gain in the Lombardy region of northern Italy. In 2022, she won the Whistler Alpine Meadows 50K in a course-record 5:59:32.

McCrystal was slated to compete in the 2026 Skyrunning World Championships on September 18 to 20 in the Canary Islands. Last September, she placed 12th in the 45K race at the World Mountain and Trail Running Championships in Spain.

While back home in Canada this summer, McCrystal set a new women’s unsupported FKT on a route known as the Tantalus Traverse, a 26.3-mile point-to-point route with 12,000 feet of vertical gain and loss as it goes up and over Mount Tantalus in Squamish. She covered that distance in 9 hours, 40 minutes, and 32 seconds, taking nearly three hours off the previous women’s mark.

McCrystal was last confirmed seen on the afternoon of September 1, spotted by a group of Polish climbers making their way down the mountain near Pic Tyndall, a shoulder of the peak sitting above 13,800 feet and just short of the 14,692-foot summit, not far from the Jean-Antoine Carrel hut. On the same day, she was spotted near the summit through the long-range telescope of a search and rescue group near Cervinia as part of standard observations of the mountain.

“She saw her still going up, going quite quickly and she told the guide that she was training because she wanted to try the records. That’s the only information we have,” says Valerio Segor of Valle d’Aosta Mountain Rescue in Italy.

No one has reported seeing McCrystal since, despite an extensive search.

Search and rescue crews from Italy and Switzerland responded with an extensive aerial and ground operation, combing steep gullies, cliff bands, and stretches of the route on all flanks of the mountain. Helicopters equipped with RECCO technology—a system designed to detect reflective tags built into some outdoor gear—were brought in after McCrystal’s friends indicated her backpack likely contained one of the devices. The equipment failed to pick up any signal.

By last Thursday, after a full day of extensive helicopter sweeps produced no results, authorities made the decision to pause the aerial search. Ground efforts and investigative work have continued, although it’s near impossible for search crews on foot to access anything but the deep gullies near the base because of the steep faces of the mountain.

“There are very few routes on the Matternhorn because there are only a few safe ways to go up it,” Gerardi said. “Because it’s so steep and so dangerous with rock fall and, you know, glaciers at the bottom and crevasses. And it’s really sort of complex, very steep terrain.”

Italian investigators have reportedly turned their attention to a second SIM card McCrystal was known to be carrying, hoping that records of its last connection to a cellular network might help narrow down her location. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police is also reportedly working to gain access to digital devices that might provide clues as to where on the mountain she was last active.

As the days pass without any sign of her, hope for a positive outcome has reportedly begun to fade among those close to the case, though her family, friends, and the broader mountain-running community continue to hold out for her safe return. Her mother traveled to Italy from her home on Vancouver Island late last week, while her sister arrived from London.

Capilano University and the Skyrunner World Series issued statements expressing support for McCrystal and her loved ones during the search. Athletics Canada, meanwhile, asked the media to help raise awareness of the search, describing McCrystal as a deeply respected figure both within Canadian athletics and the global skyrunning community, and expressing hope, on behalf of her family and everyone close to her, for her safe return.

“I think it’s a shock for me and for all of us because it’s so hard to lose track of somebody that we love so much,” Gerardi says. “And also, for so many of us, we can see ourselves in Kalie.”

- Brian Metzler