Latrobe attorney takes on another brutally cold, long Alaskan wilderness run

Latrobe labor attorney Tim Hewitt is at it again, putting his body through yet another outrageously long journey through the Alaska wilderness in the middle of winter.

He set the record for running the famed Iditarod Trail Invitational, billed as the “world’s longest winter ultra-marathon,” having covered more than 1,000 miles in 19 days and nine hours in 2016. This month, Hewitt embarked on an effort to cover close to 1,400 miles on a route from Fairbanks to Nome — and one that goes north of the Arctic Circle as he tries to stay alive in temperatures plunging to 30 below zero, or colder.

He knows the kinds of conditions he is facing because he started competing in the Iditarod in 2001.

The Iditarod distance can’t be measured exactly because it can change by tens of miles in any given year, veteran Alaskan journalist Craig Medred said.

“He is following a self-designed route that somewhat follows a snowmobile route,” said his wife, Loreen, from the comforts of their Unity home. It is not a race, Loreen said, because no one but him is on the route. Hewitt started Feb. 1. The Iron Dog Snowmobile Race starts Sunday.

As of Friday, the man referred to in Iditarod circles as Iron Dog Hewitt had covered about 320 miles, according to a live tracking page on Trackleaders.com.

“He is doing it on his own. He is forging through in some tough conditions,” with heavy snow on an unbroken trail, said Loreen, who leaves Feb. 27 to run in the 1,100-mile Iditarod Trail Invitational on March 1.

He is pulling a sled with his gear — a tent, food and medical supplies. He typically pulls a six-day supply of food and gets resupplied from packages he sent to stops along the route, Loreen said.

Hewitt could not be reached for comment — not surprising, given that northern Alaska is not prime cellphone tower territory.

While he is a veteran of long-distance endurance ventures in the worst of conditions, Loreen admitted their four daughters are “worried about this one.” He did get attacked by grey-horned owl, Loreen said. As for grizzlies, they likely are still sleeping in their dens, she said.

Medred, who reports for craigmedred.news, noted there is good reason for concern.

“It’s hard to imagine those temperatures, unless you’ve lived in them. These sorts of temps are truly life threatening,” said Medred, who is a veteran of thousands of miles on the Iditarod Trail. “Suffice to say, the only reality is that it is a long, long way in bitter, bitter cold. That is why Tim, at the moment, has the whole darn route to himself.”

When the snowmobilers reach him and pack a better trail, “I imagine he will be the happiest man in Alaska,” Medred said.