from www.aspendailynews.com - February12, 2006

World record set at Sunlight

By David Frey

Aspen Daily News Correspondent

GLENWOOD SPRINGS -- Endurance skiers Greg Hill and Jimmy Faust carved down Sunlight Mountain Resort hand in hand Sunday morning to jointly set a world record of 50,000 vertical feet skied self-powered in a day, launching the inaugural 24 Hours of Sunlight endurance race by putting the event in the record books.

Hill and Faust each hiked up and skied down just over 32 laps apiece, beginning as competitors to join forces midway through the race and beat Hill's previous record simultaneously. Event organizers plan to document the achievement and list it in the Guinness Book of World Records.

" These guys went up Everest from sea level, skied back down, went three quarters of the way back up and skied back down again," said announcer Dave Towle.

Their tied-for-the-top finish captured for many the tone of the event, equal turns competitive and collegial.
" I really like the sportsmanship that was reflected in that," said event director Laird Knight. "I think that's really remarkable and honorable."

Hill, 30, of Revelstoke, British Columbia, was known to be gunning for the record of vertical feet skied under his own power -- no chair lifts. He was trying to beat his own unofficial record of over 40,000 feet he set last year backcountry skiing in Canada's Selkirk Mountains.

Faust, 39, of Crested Butte, a three-time winner of the Elk Mountain Grand Traverse endurance race between Crested Butte and Aspen, hung just behind Hill throughout the first half of the race. Around midnight, under a full moon and single-digit temperatures, the two joined forces and skied side by side until they crossed the finish line together, hands clasped.
" All of a sudden I was just next to him," Faust said. "We started chatting: we could just help each other and tie. When you're alone out in the cold and dark, it's easy for the mind to wander. When you have someone to ski with you stay a little more focused."

Hill, who was wary of a dark horse like Faust emerging from the beginning, agreed.

" In the end it doesn't matter about the record books," he said. "I think we're both stoked."

The two were among over 100 competitors, including 38 teams, who set out Saturday morning to test their mettle hiking up and riding down the ski area in a grueling 24-hour test of stamina on snow. The event was believed to be the first-ever of its kind.

The course sent competitors up a challenging hike of over 1 1/2-miles and 1,555 feet of vertical gain on the Beaujolais run, then left them to get down however they could.

A fund-raiser for the Edwards-based Heuga Center for multiple sclerosis, the event was the brainchild of Aspen mountaineer Mike Marolt. Marolt fashioned it off of the old 24 Hours of Aspen competition. But while that pitted hotshot ski racers riding up the gondola and schussing down, Marolt took out the gondola and the elite racer cache, creating a race for all-comers among endorphin junkies -- anyone willing to hike uphill to earn their turns for 24 hours.
The event was organized by Granny Gear Productions, the team responsible for endurance events like the 24 Hours of Moab bike race.

" It's phenomenal, just phenomenal," Marolt said after the race. Two weeks earlier, he said, just 11 individuals and teams had signed on and the race seemed poised for disaster. Now, after racers raved about the event, he's hoping to make it an annual tradition.

The crowd of competitors gathered en masse at the base area at 10 a.m. Saturday, and as the gun fired, they bounded uphill in just about every way a mountain can be climbed. Ski boots. Cleats. Fuzzy climbing skins attached to skis or split board snowboards. At the top, they turned around and rode down on free-heeled telemark skis, click-down randonee gear, skinny cross-country skis, snowboards, snowshoes and for some, their posteriors.

The race ended at 10 a.m. with exhausted smiles and not one but two records broken. Jonathan Baker, 38, of Salt Lake City, completed 13 laps to set the first world record for snowboarding under his own power, at 20,215 vertical feet. Making his accomplishment all the more incredible, Baker is a cancer survivor who just a year ago was given a 50-50 chance of surviving.

After what he described on the event Web site as "super gnarly surgery last spring," Baker got the doctor's go-ahead to compete.

For some, the race was a chance to vie against other elite winter athletes. But many were competing only against themselves, seeing how far they could push their limits.

Jaywalker Lodge, a Carbondale alcoholism and drug addiction recovery center, sent two four-man teams up the mountain.

" There are a lot of metaphors," said Bob Ferguson, Jaywalker's director and one of the teammates. "Don't ever quit. Take 24 hours a day. And climb every mountain. Dream it. Do it."

Participants had a cold day for the race: a sunny, chilly day on Saturday turned into a frigid moonlit night with the mercury dropping to eight degrees. Throughout the night, racers battled fatigue and icy temperatures until for many, hopes rose with the sun.

" Being on top when the sun was coming up just made the whole race," said Bob Derkash, of Glenwood Springs, who at 60 was the oldest competitor.

Derkash was part of a team of five parents who boasted having raised their children at the ski area. Holed up at an on-mountain condominium when not racing, teammates watched the Olympics on TV for inspiration before setting out on their laps.

Hill and Faust dominated the race, using light-weight randonee gear and making quick changes to put on skins at the bottom and strip them off at the top.

Race photographer Erin Cady said they were so fast, they beat her to the top as she rode a pair of chair lifts to photograph them.

" I turned the corner to see them, skins off, blazing down the hill," she said.

The pair capped their race after 32 laps with a short jaunt uphill about 240 feet to round out the goal of 50,000 vertical feet, with ski patrollers confirming the record with GPS units.

Each began the race turning around 31-minute laps, their times steadily growing over 24 hours. Their last full lap took them an hour and seven minutes.

Polly McLean, of Park City, Utah, won the women's solo, with 20 laps.

The Glenwood Springs Post Independent team, G(A)SPI, topped five-person teams, with 31 laps, coming in just behind Hill and Faust. Teammate Heidi Vosbeck, 45, of Glenwood Springs, notched the top lap time of all five-person team members at 38:35.

Duo Brian Johnson, 37, of Carbondale, and Tim Grogan, 43, of Woody Creek, calling themselves The Highlanders, won in the duo pro category, with 31 laps.

Among men solo competitors, the top five finishers, rounded out by Steve Romeo, of Jackson Hole, Wyo., Dave Penney, of Crested Butte and Dustin Lemke, of Jackson Hole, all broke Hill's record last year.

dfrey@aspendailynews.com