One mountain race, and its rallying community

The 12th annual Rut sees local winners, 50K record breaks and the season’s first snow

By Mira Brody VP MEDIA/EBS RUT CORRESPONDENT

“We don’t want the Rut to be too easy. We added some snow this year,” said an announcer over the PA system at the 12th annual Rut Mountain Runs. It was seconds before wave four of the 28k event would leave the gate and temperatures barely hovered above freezing, crisping the grass along the Big Sky Resort Base Area. Early morning sun illuminated the remaining snow that lined Lone Mountain from a Thursday night storm—the first snowflakes the region has seen this season.

The sound of a gunshot. A collective cheer. And the runners began their biggest challenge of the day—ascending Lone Mountain.

The Rut Mountain Runs are a three-day mountain running festival featuring a VK vertical kilometer, 11K, 21K, 28K, 50K and Rut Runt Run featuring young aspiring athletes.

“As you can see we’ve got some snow up in the mountain in the alpine,” Mike Foote, the Rut’s race director, told EBS on Friday morning. “That’s part of being in the mountains. It’s going to be a cold day.”

Before any of the runners had taken to the course for the weekend, Foote said both Rut and Big Sky Ski Patrol crews had ascended the snowy peak at 6 a.m. for a literal safety sweep; co-director Mike Wolfe had been spotted in a social media video with a broom in his hand, sweeping the trail of powder above the tree line.

The inclement weather was a perfect example of the spirit behind the race and those who work to make it happen each year. Volunteer Coordinator Danelle Gjetmundsen said she estimates the Rut has the helping hands of around 600 volunteer each year, who make possible everything from packet pickup, to aid stations, set up and clean up, course marking, course clean up and medical and safety.

“We couldn’t do the race without them,” Gjetmundsen said. She’s been coordinating volunteers every year of the race except the first two. “We have volunteers for three or four days. We have volunteers in the race area, we have volunteers on course, we have volunteers at aid stations, setting up before the race and we have them after the race as well.”

“They rally,” she said of her crew.

Rally indeed—despite gale force winds and below-freezing temperatures on the summit of Lone Mountain, the volunteers atop were in high spirits, dressed in unicorn costumes and ballerina skirts over their ample layers, filling water bottles and handing out snacks, cheering for every single runner to crest the ridgeline.

“The Rut is like the highlight of the year for us and we like being around the energy of the runners and the volunteers, it’s just such a fun and beautiful event,” Sara Boughner said, gesturing behind her at the sea of snow-capped mountains. Boughner has been volunteering for “eight or nine years” she confirmed, just as yesterday’s VK champion, and 28K leader (and eventual winner), Cam Smith arrived at the top.

Peering down Alto Ridge from the summit, hurried figures coming into view as they make their way to the top. There are also a couple stationed and unmoving with familiar green crosses on their uniforms. Big Sky Ski Patrol has been involved in the Rut since its inception, helping to provide medical coverage across the mountain as athletes navigate the treacherous terrain, in sometimes treacherous weather.

“It’s awesome to see all the athletes come up and just the camaraderie and their attitude … and basically this environment the beauty of your surroundings,” said Cindy Dixon, who has been with ski patrol for 43 years, including every single Rut. “It’s a great event.”

Down in slightly more favorable conditions, a winter wonderland is displayed at the Swift Current aid station, located at the top of Swift Current 6 chairlift—it’s the final aid station before the race’s most challenging ascent to the top of Lone Mountain where Boughner and Dixon, and their teams await. There’s Christmas music playing, a cardboard cutout of Buddy the Elf, inflatable snowmen and Santa himself.

Santa, who is really longtime volunteer Eivind Gjetmundsen in costume, said his highlight so far has been seeing the vertical kilometer runners pass through. Like all aid stations, his team’s job is to ensure runners have the water and calories they need to make it through the next stage of their race, and provide medical care if needed. He adds that they also provide a critical element, especially before the summit climb—encouragement.

“If they make it here, they usually can keep going,” Gjetmundsen said with a smile.

Gjetmundsen also notes that as the running festival has grown, so has its global reach.

“It’s just really grown into a huge festival that there’s thousands of people from all over the world,” he said. It seems the craving for Lone Mountain is transcendent.

Doug Neil and his brother Jake Neil know this all too well. Born and raised in Bozeman, the twin brothers tied for first place in the 21K on Friday, crossing the finish line together. Rut veterans, and training partners, Doug said the atmosphere and trail system around Big Sky keeps him coming back. Did they have intentions of winning?

“Definitely not,” Doug laughed. “That was a surprise. We didn’t even really know we were winning … we thought maybe we were in the top three but didn’t know exactly where. We were pushing as hard as we could because we knew a guy was on our heels.”

While in most competitive sporting events, athletes will push to pass a leader in the final moments at all costs, Doug and Jake finished at 2:12:26. While competitive with each other, it felt right to complete the race together and share that time.

“It kind of worked out,” Doug said. “We train together all the time and we do a handful of races and sometimes we and up together, and sometimes we don’t. It just depends how the day is going. I think we just felt really good and ended up doing the whole thing together. It was really fun.”

Down at the resort’s base area, friends, family and fans cheer finishers in, and tents dot the pavement with booths. One such booth is the Inclusive Outdoors Project, an organization that supports Adaptive, LGBTQIA2S+ and BIPOC communities in the mountains. At the Rut, they’ve worked with Foote to create a nonbinary category for runners, and this year are sponsoring 20 nonbinary athletes.

“With the Rut partnership … [we’re able] to provide some social change and policy change with the race itself and work with some of the nonbinary runners that we’ve been able to highlight and sponsor,” said founder Vasu Sojitra. “They’ve been able to help us create a nonbinary category and podium so that that category can be highlighted in ceremonies and throughout the race, so it’s been really cool to involve their voice.”

At a neighboring tent, there’s a face glitter station with the sign: “Running is hard & glitter makes everything better.”

The glitter station is a part of Girl, Get After It, an organization that began in Bozeman with founder Cass Wendell, and has since grown to a national reach. They help women meet new people and try new things in a fitness space, from workouts at local gyms, to hiking and skiing.

“We want everyone to be included and everyone to not be so intimidated so we help women kind of get more involved and try new things so it’s not so scary,” Fox told EBS; Wendell was out running the 28K. Fox has been with GGAI since 2020 and has been a community lead for the last two years.

Kids too, are celebrated here, first with a forum in which they question North Face athletes on all subjects: What’s your favorite snack (gummy bears); Is your favorite part the start or the finish (the finish); Have you been to a baseball game (Yes, a Colorado Rockies game); What’s the steepest run you’ve ever done (That one, pointing to Lone Mountain). After that, the chaotic, and largest-ever Runt Run kicks off with both victories and tears.

Cheers ring out from the finish line of the 28K as runners who have been on course for nearly eight hours reach their destination; those both familiar and unfamiliar with the arriving runner cheer, jump and ring cowbells.

It’s golden hour, the last hour of a race wherein we celebrate not how fast we are, but how we—as collective humans of all ages, races, genders, shapes, sizes and pace—have persevered through a tough challenge.

Rut Mountain Runs 2024 results