Ultrarunning is group. Group is private. Alex Pashley was each of these issues. He shall be so missed.
If you happen to by no means met “Pash,” I’m sorry, that’s your loss. Nonetheless, should you had met Pash, you suffered an excellent 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 kind 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 group comes from. That’s the center of … and, gosh, did Pash have coronary heart!
I used to be first launched to Pash through e mail by a mutual pal when Pash was headed to tempo somebody on the 2012 Leadville 100 Mile and I’d be there protecting the occasion. Whereas that meetup didn’t work out, Pash instantly supplied me a spot in his Steamboat Springs, Colorado, dwelling once I can be protecting the Run Rabbit Run 100 Mile a number of weeks later, wrapping up by saying, “It will 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 fulfill. Luckily, we met at a bunch run forward of that Run Rabbit Run race.
Alex Pashley nonetheless filled with power after ending the Hardrock 100 in 2022. Picture: iRunFar/Bryon Powell
Later in 2012, he was such a optimistic, supportive voice throughout our stay 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 at all times on the market supporting. A couple of years later, when he moved to a advertising function 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 bought an thought … what number of of us work at iRunFar?” Forward of sending over some Smartwool jackets. If you happen to ever purchased iRunFar’s Smartwool tee shirts in assist of our Hardrock 100 protection, that additionally was Pash’s thought and execution.
Being an enthusiastic ultrarunner in a single’s private {and professional} life is fairly cool, nevertheless it’s simply the tip of the iceberg. I could have seen him anyplace from as soon as to some occasions a yr at commerce exhibits and races, however he at all times wished 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 form of inquisition from an fascinating particular person solely makes you wish 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 an excellent 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 group. 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 bought to observe him end his second Hardrock. In 2023, he was atop Dives-Little Big 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 not less than as passionate, private, and community-driven on the snow aspect. Meaning a number of communities have now misplaced a luminary. Hopefully, within the years to come back, a complete 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 wish to scream, “Why, rattling it?!” This world has far too few individuals who preserve via all of the challenges of life that spark of their eye that lets their spirit glow and lightweight up the lives of others. If you happen to ever seemed Pash within the eye, you’d have seen that spark and, I hope, you’d perceive how he lived his life with ardour.
Your entire iRunFar staff sends its deepest condolences to all those that mourn Pash’s passing.
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Tributes from Others
Sending a smile and fist bump again at ya, Pash! Picture: Alex Pashley
