Wyatt Hughes, Norwood native and who like other mountaineers and adventurers simply cannot sit still, traveled to Steamboat Springs on the weekend of Oct. 24 to try a 100-mile ultra run course, called Run Rabbit Run. The course has loops, so that one who is unsupported and solo can return to middle ground for food and water.
“I was looking for something to do and felt like I could run 100,” he said.
Hughes didn’t follow the race’s exact route, but he said going into it he felt good, like he really could get 100 miles of trail running finished that weekend. The weather was “pretty nice,” with no rain or snow, so he did complete several loops.
He liked the terrain. The course there has 22,000 feet of vertical gain. In fact, the first day he completed 38 miles into the night and felt strong, though he was running downhill in the dark, and the trail was rocky.
He can’t remember exactly how it happened, but he ended up sustaining some injury to his right foot. Even so, he ended up running another 25 miles afterward. At about 64-65 miles, though, he was jogging more slowly and basically walking uphill. He then called the whole thing off
He told the Forum Nov. 4 it’s one of his worst injuries in his athletic career. Last week he wondered if it were a hairline fracture in his foot, along the growth plate. He wasn’t sure, and he had not seen a doctor as of press time. He was rehabbing himself and could walk. He hasn’t run since the 64-mile weekend, but he’s done the elliptical and stair-master machines to stay in shape. On that type of equipment, he doesn’t have pain.
He said he was happy he finished at least that many miles, and he said he’s done races of about that length before. Still, he was aiming for 100, and he’s interested in the 100-mile September races in Colorado, namely Leadville’s. He’s definitely fixated on Nolan’s 14, a Colorado ultra run of 14 mountains of 14,000 feet. He’d love to do that next summer.
He told the Forum he’s more of a mountaineer than ultra runner, however. In May of 2025, he summitted Denali. In May of 2026, he summitted Everest. He’s done all of Colorado’s highest peaks.
He said getting hurt has been humbling for him. Now he’s pausing, as best he can, and feeling gratitude for what he’s accomplished the last few years.
“It feels right to feel limits,” he said. “Now I am going to take a step back and say thank you.”
The Forum asked if he’d seen “Everest: The Other Side,” a film that premiered at Telluride Film Festival and launched in IMAX theaters on Oct. 30. It documents Jim Morrison climbing and skiing the north face of Mount Everest, something nobody has ever done previously.
The movie tells about Morrison’s feat, and the suffering he experienced when losing his first wife and two children, and later his partner Hilaree Nelson, of Telluride, another renown mountaineer.
Hughes said he watched the movie on a date in the Boulder area when it debuted two weekends ago. He loved it. He also said his father had met Morrison in the last year.
“My dad and his girlfriend met Jim Morrison and Jimmy Chin,” he said.
Morrison’s late son was also named Wyatt, and Howard Hughes wanted to share with Morrison that connection, that his son was also named Wyatt and he had recently made it up Everest.
Hughes aims for K2 in 2028.
