It’s been almost two weeks since Kalie went missing on the Matterhorn. By now, we would have all hoped to have some form of an answer.

Like Hillary Gerardi said this week in City News, Kalie is symbolic for what so many trail runners aspire to be and dream of doing. The dream of spending long days in some of the coolest mountains around the world, racing at a professional level, and being one of Canada’s best.

So many of us see ourselves in Kalie. Not because we could ever be as talented. But because she’s an inspiration for what we’d hope to someday be able to do, in our own way.

In many ways, Kalie is a trailblazer.

It was on the 2023 Dolomyths livestream when I first learned of her name. Dolomyths was in its final year as a Golden Trail World Series race, known for being one of the most technical courses on the circuit. Kalie finished 10th that day – the first time that a Canadian woman accomplished such a feat in a Golden Trail World Series race.

That day, the other women in the top ten included Judith Wyder, Sophia Laukli, Elise Poncet, Malen Osa, and Karina Carsiolo. She was far and away the least ‘known’ athlete in the top ten; and at the time, Canadians weren’t even competing, let alone finishing within the prize purse bracket.

She had no team or sponsor listed, yet had finished alongside some of the best women in our sport.

To be like Kalie, living and working in B.C. yet racing all over Europe, was totally unheard of. Even entering Golden Trail to begin with was a non-starter for most Canadians back then. Before 2024, it was only Kalie and Sam Hendry.

As more investment has come into the sport and more athletes have followed in Kalie’s footsteps, we’ve seen Remi Leroux and Jade Belzberg finish among the top ten at GTWS races. But Kalie’s results and accomplishments remain rare. Most Canadian trail runners (including the ones listed) spend the majority of their time racing in Canada. Kalie was one of the very few to follow a different path.

That relentless desire paid off in how she performed on the world stage. Kalie was a key fixture in the Canadian team at both the World Championships in 2023 and 2025, where she was our top performing short-trail athlete (24th and 12th overall respectively).

Over the past few years, she’s also been one of the best Skyrunners in the world. Her accomplishments include a win at the 4 Refugios race in Argentina this year, a silver medal at Stranda Fjord in 2025, and a 4th place finish at the Matterhorn Extreme 2025 race.

As you can likely tell from her results, Kalie raced with her entire heart and desire. She was able to get more out of herself in races than most. I for one can remember her going out with the lead men at the 2024 Squamish 50K – our National Championships, fully going for the day that she wanted.

Her ambitions have always been high, and she hasn’t shied away from testing herself against the odds. After setting the FKT on Elfin Lakes and Tantalus Ridge closer to home in Squamish, she set an unsupported FKT record along the Matterhorn this August.

The Matterhorn has two roundtrip FKT options – one involving Lion Ridge, and the one Kalie set back in August along Hörnli Ridge from Zermatt. We know that Kalie was following her ambitions in either training for or attempting the record on Lion Ridge when she went missing on September 1. She was doing this just two days after a hike and fly race in France called PEAKRACE, where she won the two-day Mini series.

For future generations looking for inspiration and hoping to become a professional mountain or trail athlete in Canada, superstar role models don’t exist like they do in other sports.

Kids of today (and yesterday) could dream about being Sidney Crosby, Christine Sinclair, or Summer McIntosh.

In our sport, that simply doesn’t exist. Kalie has been one of the only people putting themselves out there in elite competitions around the world, while still calling Canada their home. She’s embodied what could be possible if you made it your mission to try. She was going out to the Matterhorn in Europe to test herself against the odds and to be spectacular, just like she did in setting her FKT’s closer to home on Elfin Lakes and Tantalus.

The hope is that more Canadian athletes hoping to do this sport professionally or even just as a hobby can gain inspiration from Kalie. By the way she challenges herself all over the world. By the way she puts herself in the thick of races like Zegama, Dolomyths, Sierre Zinal and the World Championships.

Kalie’s legacy as one of our best ever trail and mountain athletes will never be forgotten, and I hope that more are inspired to follow in her footsteps.