This is actually how I ended up spending a lot of time in Seward – running this mountain, which is home to one of the oldest foot races in the US. The Mount Marathon race started in the early 1900’s as a bar bet (because, of course you have to be drunk to come up with an idea like this) and has been the highlight of the 4^th of July in Seward for the past century. Whether you’re a trail runner who wants to take part, or you just want to witness something truly insane, this race is not to be missed. I’ve ran the race three times and hope to run it again soon.

Mount Marathon is one of my favorite all time mountains to hike in Alaska. It has played an instrumental roll in my progression as a hiker and trail runner. It can be an intimidating mountain if you’re not familiar with it or don’t have a lot of experience, but there’s a way up and down for all levels of experience, as shown by the map at the bottom of the mountain.

Choose Your Adventure

You can choose from a few different ways to start the hike, which all intersect with the main up-trail for the race. My personal favorite is the “roots,” which is a cliff side with a bunch of roots hanging off it, making for easy holds with which to pull yourself up.

The switchbacks are the easiest route on this side of the mountain. Just be sure that when you come out of the trail, you cross over at the sign to get on the up-trail for the race, otherwise, you’ll be hiking up all the scree in the gut and chute.

You can also take the Jeep trail (It’s been renamed “Mount Marathon via Skyline” on Alltrails), which is a much more gradual ascent and takes you into the bowl. Near the beginning, the trail forks off: left will take you to the racer’s up-trail, and right will continue on the Jeep trail into the bowl. From there, if you want more elevation gain and better views, you can then take the ridge line up to the race summit. Elevation at the race summit is just under 3,000’.

But Wait, There’s More

The view from the race summit is one of my favorite in Alaska, with its 360° views, but you don’t have to stop here. I always like to run the ridge line back, past the race summit a ways. There’s often a herd of mountain goats, lower down on the south face, once you get past the large field of scree below you. If you’re wondering, the entire ridge line around the bowl is doable, but it’s incredibly sketchy and I only know of one other person that’s done it. If you go back a ways, be sure to comment and let me know how far you got before you decided to nope out.

The Descent

Once you turn around and head back down, this is where the real fun begins if you like to run scree. If you don’t, I’m sorry you don’t like to have fun. You can take the ridge line down into the bowl and walk your no-fun-having ass down the Jeep/Skyline trail back to town (or take the racer’s up-trail back down). But seriously, I urge you to give it a try. It’s intimidating at first, but once you figure out the technique, you might find yourself climbing mountains just to run down scree. My girlfriend wasn’t sure about it at first, but very quickly grew to love running scree after her introduction to it in Alaska.

The scree path starts on the east face and winds around to the south face, where it crosses over and heads down into the chute. If it’s spring, there’s probably still a lot of snow on the mountain, which means doing some glissading if you’re taking the racer’s down-trail. Glissading is basically a controlled slide down a snowy slope. Once enough people slide down the first section, it ends up looking like a playground slide, carved out of the slope by countless butts.

In the morning and evening, this slide will probably be icy, which means you’ll have a hard time stopping yourself, so be warned. I also suggest using the technique I use, which means sitting with one foot under you and one foot in front of you. The foot under you can keep your butt off the ground and help you avoid tearing a new one when the snow thins out and rocks stick up. The foot in front can help slow you down. I tend to keep my hands in and use my elbows to stabilize and also slow me down (it’s helpful to bring gloves for this).

Back Down the Up-Trail or Take the Chute

Once you come around the east face to the south and cross over the up-trail, you can either go back down the up-trail, or continue into the chute. As the chute narrows into the gut, there is a stream that runs through it. In the spring, this area is still covered with snow, but it can be dangerous as it gets hollowed out from the stream. There is a risk of falling through and getting injured or trapped, so travel this section at your own risk. There’s a bail-out point right around where the stream starts. There’s a hump sticking out from the cliff side that you can climb up, which I think comes out right around “Squirrels Inn” on the up-trail. From here, just take your same route down as you did going up, or try one of the other routes at the very bottom.

This mountain is such a fun playground. There’s so many different routes and so many different areas to explore. It never gets boring. I hope you end up enjoying it as much as I do!