- Joined
- Nov 23, 2015
- Posts
- 62
During my many years skiing at Snowbird, I have often found some pride in skiing as much vertical feet as possible. For a while, the best way to do this was to simply hit every single tram. This would equate to around 60-65,000 Vert (21-23 trams X 2900'). On a fast day, it wasn't too challenging, and you'd still have time to grab a drink, hit the restroom, or even swap your skis (if parked in the right place) and still make the same tram (as long as it was a non-busy day).
I loved Snowbird for the simple reason that the resort skis so efficiently. Straight up, and straight down (whether down Great Scott/Silver Fox, or Chips).
This year, it dawned on me (I'm a little slow
) that the new Peruvian Express lift, that they put in about 13 years ago (and I'm not a fan of it or the tunnel) covers nearly 2600 vertical feet. The lift takes the same approx. 8 minutes to get to the top. If they kept their publish SLA, I figured I had a shot at 90,000 vertical feet.
So, I picked a day mid-week, when the crowds would be down, but the snow would still be fast. I waxed my skis, loaded up a Camelback, some protein bars and went for it.
This ended up being one of the toughest things I have ever done. My legs were fine. However, I found that the lift did not maintain it's eight minute pace and this would mean I had no margin of error. After about four runs, I knew 90k was out of reach, so I reset my goal for 80,000.
Before the days of the current Peruvian chair, it was quite easy to fly down the mountain, because the beginners crowd didn't ride the Tram much and preferred to stay in the Gad Valley. Even though I chose a great day for crowds, I had to watch every line and area very carefully. I had flat lighting all day and this added to the challenge...as did colder weather than I was prepared for, and a full bladder I couldn't relieve until after I hit my goal.
I've included a screen shot of my Ski Tracks report, but as some of you may know this app isn't 100% accurate. I know the Vertical feet is accurate (because I manually counted the lifts as well), but the number of runs isn't. I actually had 34 runs. One Tram (First run @ 9am), 29 Peruvian Expresses (until 4pm), and four Wilbere.
I think the craziest stat here is that my body traveled 113 miles (including lift travel) in the 7.5 hours of skiing.
I'm not sure what the record is at Snowbird or anywhere else, but I'm pretty sure this is right up there w/the most vertical ever skied in a single day (under normal operating hours - 9:00am-4:30pm...and not bad for an older forty-something dude Thanks for letting me share.
I loved Snowbird for the simple reason that the resort skis so efficiently. Straight up, and straight down (whether down Great Scott/Silver Fox, or Chips).
This year, it dawned on me (I'm a little slow
) that the new Peruvian Express lift, that they put in about 13 years ago (and I'm not a fan of it or the tunnel) covers nearly 2600 vertical feet. The lift takes the same approx. 8 minutes to get to the top. If they kept their publish SLA, I figured I had a shot at 90,000 vertical feet. So, I picked a day mid-week, when the crowds would be down, but the snow would still be fast. I waxed my skis, loaded up a Camelback, some protein bars and went for it.
This ended up being one of the toughest things I have ever done. My legs were fine. However, I found that the lift did not maintain it's eight minute pace and this would mean I had no margin of error. After about four runs, I knew 90k was out of reach, so I reset my goal for 80,000.
Before the days of the current Peruvian chair, it was quite easy to fly down the mountain, because the beginners crowd didn't ride the Tram much and preferred to stay in the Gad Valley. Even though I chose a great day for crowds, I had to watch every line and area very carefully. I had flat lighting all day and this added to the challenge...as did colder weather than I was prepared for, and a full bladder I couldn't relieve until after I hit my goal.
I've included a screen shot of my Ski Tracks report, but as some of you may know this app isn't 100% accurate. I know the Vertical feet is accurate (because I manually counted the lifts as well), but the number of runs isn't. I actually had 34 runs. One Tram (First run @ 9am), 29 Peruvian Expresses (until 4pm), and four Wilbere.
I think the craziest stat here is that my body traveled 113 miles (including lift travel) in the 7.5 hours of skiing.
I'm not sure what the record is at Snowbird or anywhere else, but I'm pretty sure this is right up there w/the most vertical ever skied in a single day (under normal operating hours - 9:00am-4:30pm...and not bad for an older forty-something dude
Thanks for letting me share.
