Former Brown and New Balance Boston runner Kate Goldstein missing in India.

The Boston Runner wrote:

Thoughts and prayers for the family. Hoping for the best.

http://wpri.com/2014/06/20/providence-woman-goes-missing-in-india/

She's one of the brightest lights. I hope for the best as well.

I tried to go for a trek from the town of Leh in Ladakh near there back in 1993. I started early, walked past the airport, crossed the Indus and went gradually up into the mountains, thinking I could get through a pass to another town. There are no trees. It is a barren landscape. I went up along a dry creek. The trail disappeared so I continued up through the creekbed. Gradually, it got steeper and there were dry waterfalls I had to climb, which was difficult with my pack and finally a rockwall with a glacier above, no trail, and no trail as the darkness encroached. All day, I saw virtually no one. And I made it back to that Srinagar-Ladakh road in pitch darkness and caught a bus back into the town. You have to remember that this is in Jammu-Kashmir province, and there is political instability and Muslim-Hindu India/Pakistani border strife in that region (Ladakh itself is a Tibetan area hard by the Chinese border). So, it can definitely be dangerous for Westerners who go off script. Good luck to her but it does not look good.

This is not a good situation and hopefully this comes to a peaceful end soon.

She was in a remote village outside of New Delhi, which is a few hundred miles from Pakistan. The poster mentioning freedom fighters isn't totally off the cuff with no basis, although there is no information saying there is a connection.

If you are female (probably even male), don't go off running in remote villages around the world by yourself, please.

Again, hoping she is found safe and unharmed soon.

RIP Kate

http://www.necn.com/06/22/14/RI-woman-dies-climbing-in-India/landing.html?blockID=868269&feedID=11106

RIP

Anyone know more details on the climbing? She must have been free climbing, and climbing alone.

Brown and MIT. She was a smart cookie.

Somewhat different details in this report from MIT News, citing her parents, who traveled to the scene. May have happened while running, not climbing.

Very, very sad in either event.

http://newsoffice.mit.edu/2014/graduate-student-kaitlin-goldstein-dies-india

Sad story. I hope her family and friends find peace soon.

Her body has been found. RIP

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2014/06/23/mit-graduate-student-dies-after-falling-off-cliff-in-india/

Heartfelt condolences to any family or friends who read this thread. It sounds like Kate Goldstein was a wonderful and inspiring person. Her life was too brief.

Wow this is really sad RIP my condolences I hope we can prevent this from happening to people ..How to head out for runs in another country?

Re: possible risks of training in unfamiliar areas/another country: About 2 years ago I went on a solo out and back run with Garmin on in Jiujiang China (Jiangxi province) and got lost. after heading out 30mins and figuring I could retrace my route, I couldn't and I was lost in a totally unfamiliar area where no one in this inland city could understand me. because the street curved gradually and I hadn't realized this, I couldn't retrace a 30min out, 30min back run back to the place I was staying. I couldn't speak mandarin so I had no way of getting back to the Chinese family I was staying with. I went from China skyscraper building to china skyscraper building hoping to find someone who spoke English. I made hand gestures to a front desk lady who got the owner to come down and he spoke a bit of English. I showed him the China condo entrance key card I was holding which I guess had a logo on it of the condo place. This hotel owner ordered a cab for me and told the driver in Chinese exactly where to go. Luckily I made it back. I found out that the family id been staying with was worried sick & apparently when I locked the "house" (more like an apartment in china) with my key card, that I had locked someone inside (in china they don't have the same safety codes as in USA, so you can lock someone in their own house & if there was a fire there would be no escape....). I got lucky as I was this close to walking into the Jiujiang Police station and I'm told there's no way they would've understood me and my passport and ID info was all back at the place I was staying that I had no idea how to get back to......

I grew up in a nice neighborhood in China in the 1980's. Nearly every building had a 18 inch Japanese satellite TV dish. You can use that as a compass since dishes are always pointed south towards the equator.

UW Huskies wrote:

I grew up in a nice neighborhood in China in the 1980's. Nearly every building had a 18 inch Japanese satellite TV dish. You can use that as a compass since dishes are always pointed south towards the equator.

Except in Australia

UW Huskies wrote:

I grew up in a nice neighborhood in China in the 1980's. Nearly every building had a 18 inch Japanese satellite TV dish. You can use that as a compass since dishes are always pointed south towards the equator.

Shanghai was about an 8hr drive east from where I was...

RIP damn

I'm very sorry to hear this. As my own experience indicated, a big fall off of a rocky, dusty trail was very easy to do in that area of Ladakh. My condolences to her family and friends.

This is sad, although I question what in the hell she was doing in such a crappy part of the world in the first place.

Isn't Leh, India at 11,000ft? That's insane! That's higher than Leadville, Colorado! 9 min pace would probably be almost a tempo run for an 18min 5K guy

So if she was in, say, 20min 5K shape at sea level, maybe she'd be hobbling along at 11min pace at 11,000 ft?

It's very dangerous for Westerners in India with the hostilities going on between the United States and neighboring Pakistan. I would not travel to India at all, period.

Well, damn. I was hoping for a better outcome. Condolences to Kate's family and friends.