The family and friends of Ian Cox are turning loss into legacy by honoring and remembering him through one of the wackiest, most Seattle challenges to come about: the Dicks-A-Thon.
It’s happening on Saturday, October 21, and the organizers say it’s a test of your physical, mental, and gastrointestinal strength. The race is being held in honor of Ian who went missing in August of 2022 when he was out on a solo climb in the North Cascades.
“They have a theory, I think because of climate change, the glaciers are receding. Unfortunately, that particular time of year in late August the snow was receding, he probably stepped from glacier to rock and the ice probably gave way,” Marla Cox, Ian’s mother, said.
Marla said Ian was supposed to check in with them upon returning, but never did and that’s when they knew something was wrong.
“Piecing it together why didn’t his beacon, why didn’t he trigger his beacon,” his father, Duncan, said. “And why didn’t that go off?”
Crews searched for about a week, working tirelessly to find Ian, but they were unsuccessful.
“Finally there’s the realization that even that little bit of hope is no longer present,” Connor, Ian’s twin brother, said.
The family said one of the hardest things is not knowing what happened to Ian.
“I think the hard thing for all of us was not knowing what happened. Search and Rescue,” Marla said. “They either have a recovery or rescue but to have a non-result, to not find the person or have a resolution, that was hard for me, it still is.” Ian was an experienced climber and mountaineer and often went on solo trips.
“And then you’re thinking, Ian’s too smart not to use that stuff something’s going on so you already are processing in your mind you know the end result,” Duncan said.
The family said they’re extremely grateful to everyone who stepped in to help try and find Ian.
“We just feel really grateful to them because we know I mean as awful as this was we also know they did all they could do, they couldn’t have done more,” Marla said.
The family said it was an extremely emotional week, not just for them but for everyone involved, even those who didn’t personally know Ian.
“The ranger, head ranger up there at the time he just started crying you know and so you could tell wow for them it was a really, really hard rescue,” Duncan said.
Although they still haven’t found him, the family said they’re at peace knowing he’s in his final resting place.
“He’s in his final resting place now, that was his happy place anyway if we would have recovered him, we would have spread his ashes out there anyway,” Marla said.
In the days following his death, friends of Ian’s asked the family if they could do something to honor him. That’s when the idea came about to resurrect a brotherly challenge from 2018 between Connor and Ian.
“The original idea came about just as I looked at a map and saw there’s five Dick’s in the city of Seattle and they go almost in a perfect circle,” Connor said. “When I mapped it out it came out to about 22 miles and I thought why not run it?” That was the first Dicks-A-Thon.
“I challenged my brother Ian to run it with me and I came up with some rules about what we had to eat along the way, we couldn’t just run there and not eat so I made up some rules about eating the deluxe, the special, the cheeseburger, the fries, and the milkshake,” Connor said.
Fast forward to October of 2022, just two months after Ian’s death, nearly a hundred runners participated in the event.
“We say it’s a test of your physical strength, your mental strength and your gastrointestinal strength,” Connor said. “Instead of the numbers on your race bib, it’s the menu items you get the menu item from a Dick’s then a volunteer will check it off and you go on to the next one.”
The family said Ian would love all of this especially because the proceeds go to benefit Search and Rescue teams in Washington and to the Mountaineers Access Fund, which provides people who may not have the means to outdoor activities, funding and access to the outdoors.
If you’d like to participate you can sign up here: https://www.dicksathon.com/home