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No. 96 · Sunday 8 November 2026 · Canmore, Canada

Switchbacks

Free, every Sunday. Leave whenever you like.

Media kit

Who reads Switchbacks

A free Sunday letter on mountain races, huts and the back of the field. Its readers are runners, race organisers and the people who make their gear.

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  • Email list8.4Ksubscribers
Naoki at a plain wooden table with a notebook

Ages

  • 18–2412%
  • 25–3430%
  • 35–4434%
  • Other24%

Places

  • Canada41%
  • United States32%
  • United Kingdom8%
  • Switzerland5%

Rates

  • A sponsor’s note in one issue

    fromC$1,500

  • A commissioned feature

    fromC$3,000

  • A race briefing, panel or festival reading

    fromC$800

In print and on air

  • Ridgeline ReviewThe runner who writes about the people at the back2026
  • Rockies RadioWhy the best mountain writing is a free email2026
  • The Divide GazetteSunday panel: what the last finisher knows2025
  • Trail and Page QuarterlyEight races, one rucksack: a season on the trail2025

Sponsors, editors and organisers

Work with me

Tell me who you are and what you have in mind. I reply within a week.

  • Sponsor the letter

    A short note in one issue, set apart from the writing and marked as yours.

  • Commissioned writing

    A feature for your magazine or race, from a start line, a hut or a long climb.

  • Briefings, panels and readings

    Mountain races and writing, live or recorded, in English or French.

Your message comes only to me.

This week’s issue

The last runner off Larch Pass, and the hut that waited for her

Ninety runners, one hut and a stove that stayed lit until the last of them was in.

No. 96 · Nov 8, 2026 · 9 min read

Lone runner on a mountain ridge at dawn alpenglow

The final finisher came off the pass after dark in a borrowed jacket, laughing. Nobody had gone to bed. The volunteers had kept the soup hot for eleven hours, and I stayed up to ask them why.

This week I tell the story of the back of the field, the people who spend the longest on the same course, and make the case that the best part of a mountain race is the part nobody films.

Plus: your letters about hut etiquette, a short note on wool socks, and the wrong turn I still can’t explain.

Read: The last runner off Larch Pass, and the hut that waited for her

Close portrait of Naoki in his olive windbreaker

Naoki Ueda-Lachance

Twenty years of ridgelines, and I still prefer the back of the field

I’m Naoki. I took up trail running in my thirties in the Rockies and have run mountain races across North America and the Alps since. Most of what I write is about huts, weather and the people finishing last.

Switchbacks began in 2025 as a letter to a few running friends. It is still free, still written on Saturday night, and still one long read plus whatever I couldn’t fit.

Notebook and tea on a mountain hut table at dawn

Next issue: Sunday 15 November

Get the letter on Sunday morning

One long read from the mountains, a few short notes and your letters. Free, and it always will be.

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