Ski mountaineer Greg Hill
How’s this for a New Year’s resolution: to climb and ski two million vertical feet (609,600 meters) in one year?
Lofty, we think (pun kinda intentional).
Canadian ski mountaineer Greg Hill has set out to do just that.
As you know, there’re 365 days in a non-leap year … whip out the calculator, and you quickly discover such a goal involves climbing and skiing 5,479 feet (more than a mile; 1,670 meters) every single day.
What happens if he gets sick or injured or wants to mountain bike or spend time with family or just doesn’t want to get out of bed on a given morning? Then maybe he rallies anyway, or he does 10,958 feet tomorrow or ups his average to 8,000 feet per day … definitely as much a mental challenge as a physical one.
Since making his 2010 resolution, Hill has knocked off 1.28 million vertical feet in North and South America.
You could say Greg Hill is a numbers guy. The Canadian ski mountaineer has clocked 50,000 feet of vertical in 24 hours, 80 10,000-foot days in one season, a million vertical feet in one season, and skied the 21 summits of the Monashee Mountains in 21 days.
Read the entire Backcountry.com post and link to his recent adventures.
But of course, he’s in it for more than just the numbers. As Greg Hill said to ESPN:
Deep down I’m an explorer and an adventurer and a guy who really just likes skiing nice powder on cool-looking lines.
Sounds like good enough reason to get up in the mornings.
To learn more and see videos, visit Greg Hill’s blog.
Want to ask Greg a question? Go to Backcountry.com’s Facebook page and write on the wall, or post it below.
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Tags: backcountry skiing, pro athletes, ski mountaineering, skiing