Ultrarunning is neighborhood. Group is private. Alex Pashley was each of these issues. He shall be so missed.
Should you by no means met “Pash,” I’m sorry, that’s your loss. Nevertheless, in case you had met Pash, you suffered a fair larger loss when he and two others met an premature finish in an avalanche within the Kootenay Mountains of British Columbia, Canada, on March 24, 2025.
As I sort this, I can hear Pash asking one thing like, “Hey bud, what have you ever been as much as?” And it might be his complete being ready to listen to your reply. He was there. He was current. He was yours. It was that private. And that’s the place neighborhood comes from. That’s the guts of … and, gosh, did Pash have coronary heart!
I used to be first launched to Pash by way of e mail by a mutual pal when Pash was headed to tempo somebody on the 2012 Leadville 100 Mile and I’d be there masking the occasion. Whereas that meetup didn’t work out, Pash instantly supplied me a spot in his Steamboat Springs, Colorado, dwelling after I could be masking the Run Rabbit Run 100 Mile a couple of weeks later, wrapping up by saying, “It might be our pleasure. Least we will do in assist of the positioning.” All this from a budding ultrarunner who I used to be but to satisfy. Happily, we met at a gaggle run forward of that Run Rabbit Run race.
Alex Pashley nonetheless filled with vitality after ending the Hardrock 100 in 2022. Picture: iRunFar/Bryon Powell
Later in 2012, he was such a optimistic, supportive voice throughout our dwell protection of The North Face 50 Mile Championships in San Francisco, California, that I wrote him after the occasion thank him. It by no means stopped. He was all the time on the market supporting. Just a few years later, when he moved to a advertising position at Smartwool he reached out, “Hey Bryon, will iRunFar be at Run Rabbit Run this yr, we’d like to assist you.” Then, “I’ve received an concept … what number of people work at iRunFar?” Forward of sending over some Smartwool jackets. Should you ever purchased iRunFar’s Smartwool tee shirts in assist of our Hardrock 100 protection, that additionally was Pash’s concept and execution.
Being an enthusiastic ultrarunner in a single’s private {and professional} life is fairly cool, however it’s simply the tip of the iceberg. I could have seen him wherever from as soon as to some occasions a yr at commerce exhibits and races, however he all the time needed to know what I used to be as much as. Not the work. Not the enterprise. No, what you have been actually as much as, what you have been striving for. And that type of inquisition from an attention-grabbing particular person solely makes you need to discover out what’s lighting their fuse with equal vigor. For half the yr, that was ultrarunning for Pash, whereas snowboarding was his wintertime ardour. That’s what made him such a superb match as an athlete supervisor amongst different roles at Smartwool and, later, as an athlete supervisor on the snow sports activities aspect at The North Face.
As our varied jobs advanced, I got here to know Pash extra as a part of the Hardrock neighborhood. He was there in particular person as early as 2014, when he was supporting Smartwool athletes on the race and pacing fellow Steamboat Springs ultrarunner Amanda Grimes. Between pacing, racing, volunteering, and dealing in his roles as athlete supervisor and sponsor consultant, I’m guessing Pash didn’t miss many Hardrocks after that. It doesn’t matter what he was doing, he was sharing the stoke on the course.
He ran the race in 2017. He was cheering and taking photographs on the 2018 race. I can’t discover a picture of it, however I swear we frolicked at Maggie Gulch in 2021, the place we have been each taking pictures photographs. In 2022, I went for my annual Hardrock Saturday evening streak-keeper run on the course close by the end line, randomly bumped into Pash, and received to look at him end his second Hardrock. In 2023, he was atop Dives-Little Large Move, handing out fist bumps and taking candy photographs. If he was at Hardrock, he was all in.
Pash, crouching with a digicam on the far proper, at Grant-Swamp Move in the course of the 2018 Hardrock 100. Picture: iRunFar/Bryon Powell
I can solely think about Pash was at the very least as passionate, private, and community-driven on the snow aspect. Which means a number of communities have now misplaced a luminary. Hopefully, within the years to return, an entire lot of us from all of Alex Pashley’s communities will stand atop a mountain, look out over the expanse, break right into a Cheshire cat grin, and ship it whereas pondering of him.
Now that he’s gone, I need to scream, “Why, rattling it?!” This world has far too few individuals who keep by means of all of the challenges of life that spark of their eye that lets their spirit glow and light-weight up the lives of others. Should you ever regarded Pash within the eye, you’d have seen that spark and, I hope, you’d perceive how he lived his life with ardour.
Name for Feedback
Please, in case you knew Pash, share a narrative or your favourite issues about him.
Tributes from Others
Sending a smile and fist bump again at ya, Pash! Picture: Alex Pashley