Speed runner found guilty of cutting a switchback in Grand Teton National Park

News and Adventure from Glacier National Park

Under the file, “excessive punishment,” a United States Magistrate Judge for the District of Wyoming found a speed runner guilty of cutting a switchback in Grand Teton National Park on Tuesday. The runner, Michelino Sunseri, could be fined up to $5,000 or serve six months in jail.

According to the Pacific Legal Foundation, a group that fights government overreach and is currently representing the defendant:

On September 2, 2024, Michelino Sunseri made history, ascending and descending Grand Teton in 2 hours, 50 minutes, and 50 seconds, beating the previous record by almost 3 minutes.

Less than a week after completing the run, he learned that the National Park Service was pursuing criminal charges against him for running on a “restricted” trail.

Michelino chose to take a “social trail,” a commonly used path that is not formally designated as a trail. This decision was not uncommon. Many of the previous FKT record holders used this same trail, but no action was taken against them. Nevertheless, local national park employees chose to pursue criminal charges against Michelino, and the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Wyoming agreed to bring the case.

The federal judge presiding over criminal cases in Grand Teton and Yellowstone national parks, Judge Stephanie A. Hambrick, published her decision late Tuesday, stating that “The Defendant is adjudged GUILTY … for leaving the Garnet Canyon Trail to use the shortcut of the Old Climber’s Trail”

Cutting a switchback is a misdemeanor that comes with a fine of up to $5,000 or six months in jail.

Without a doubt, cutting switchbacks is a no-no anywhere, but the potential punishment for this “crime” is quite excessive.

According to Sunseri’s page on change.org

Michelino Sunseri is a professional mountain runner, Teton Valley resident and bartender at Grand Targhee’s Trap Bar. Multiple offers by Michelino for a reasonable resolution, proposing community service in Grand Teton National Park to improve signage, til the soil and revegitate have been rebuffed. The federal prosecutor’s best offer is a misdemeanor plea, and multi-year ban effectively forcing him out of town.

The same website also notes that:

Meanwhile, within a mile of the old climber’s trail, tens of thousands of tourists venture off-trail to Delta Lake every summer, legally causing 100 times the impact of 100 runners on the old climber’s trail. The NPS explicitly condones off-trail travel to Delta Lake, having installed a sign five-times larger than the old climber’s trail signs.

That particular inconsistency—combined with off-trail travel being broadly allowed throughout Grand Teton National Park (GTNP)—makes it difficult to understand the impact caused by Michelino’s use of the old climber’s trail and the motivation for criminal charges.

For more details on Sunseri’s ascent and descent into the history books, please click here.

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Check out our online trail guides:

• Glacier National Park: HikinginGlacier.com

• Grand Teton National Park: TetonHikingTrails.com

• Rocky Mountain National Park: RockyMountainHikingTrails.com