Jennifer Hughes smiles during the Hardrock 100, an infamous 100-mile mountain race near Silverton, Colorado.

“I am 150k into the 330k challenge. It’s trying to kill me but I am not done,” Haines resident Jennifer Hughes texted the CVN last month, hunkered down in the Italian Alps during the Tor de Géants, or “Tour of Giants,” a notoriously difficult mountain race.

A few days later, a blizzard struck while Hughes was nearing the final summit…