The search for missing Mount Marathon runner Michael LeMaitre has intensified, but with no results yet. LeMaitre, a 66-year-old-Anchorage man, ran the annual July 4 race in Seward, and was seen near the top of the mountain Wednesday, but not since.
Alaska State Troopers and the Alaska Mountain Rescue Group, assisted by rescue dogs and helicopters, began a search in the early hours of Thursday. Rain and fog has hampered their efforts.
Friday between 30 and 40 people are looking for LeMaitre, according to Trooper spokeswoman Beth Ipsen. She says today searchers are focused on the east side of the mountain.
LeMaitre had never run the Mt. Marathon race before, according to his family.
Weather on the mountain has improved since Thursday, Ipsen said.
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APTI Reporter-Producer Ellen Lockyer started her radio career in the late 1980s, after a stint at bush Alaska weekly newspapers, the Copper Valley Views and the Cordova Times. When the Exxon Valdez ran aground in Prince William Sound, Valdez Public Radio station KCHU needed a reporter, and Ellen picked up the microphone.
Since then, she has literally traveled the length of the state, from Attu to Eagle and from Barrow to Juneau, covering Alaska stories on the ground for the AK show, Alaska News Nightly, the Alaska Morning News and for Anchorage public radio station, KSKA
elockyer (at) alaskapublic (dot) org | 907.550.8446 | About Ellen
