2018 Westmore Mountain Challenge Results!

We are pleased to announce the second annual Westmore Mountain Challenge was a success!! For this year’s event, Forests, Parks & Recreation extended our permit to 150 participants, which sold out by August. The conditions were pretty rough for hikers on Saturday in the AM with temperatures in the 30s and 40s, light rain in the low elevations and snow on the mountain tops, but the sun peeked out in the afternoon.

This year the official finish was the full 26 mile marathon length from the drop-off at Moose Mountain Trail Head over Moose, Hor, Pisgah, Haystack and Bald, then back along the road and across the finish line on the NorthWoods driveway. Shuttles were available at points along the trail for those who preferred to do part of the trail. On the day of, we had 138 who participated in the event, and 58 who completed the full marathon!

The two youngest finishers of the full marathon were Lucas Switser (8, photo with family above!) and Kyler Sylvester (11).

The Fastest Time – Male was Ethan Niederer at 4hrs, 43 minutes.

The Fastest Time – Female was Elena Mihaly at 5hrs 50 minutes.

We were so impressed with the fortitude of our hikers! We had participants of all experience levels, from ultra-marathoners to groups of friends and families with children who simply enjoy hiking. We were equally inspired by those individuals who turned up the speed and crossed the finish line hale and hearty in less than 6 hours and by those families who came through the door after 13+ hours on the trail, tired and footsore but beaming with accomplishment! One of our fastest young participants was Joshua Kelley – 16 years old, who recently spent the summer building and maintaining trails in the region as a member of our summer youth Conservation Corps. We like to think that 6 weeks of running wheelbarrows full of stay-mat gravel on the Moose Bog trail might have helped to condition him for finishing the Challenge in 5 hours and 59 minutes!