Big Mountain Vertical

Introduction:  

Since the 2003/04 ski season pass holders have been afforded the friendly competition of measured vertical skiing.  

Each run your pass is scanned at the lift - each lift has a value of vertical gain.  Each day the summaries are posted to the resort's web site.  There is a feature to choose "buddies" to follow.  As the season progresses it becomes quite competative and the talk of the chairlift.

The big prize at the end of the year - bragging rights.  High fives and fist pumps around!

It's a record - There's a new sheriff in town - Michael Donnay - 10,347,920 ft. 

In December Michael said his goal, if everything aligned, was 10 million feet.  And, he did it!  Several days it must have been a tough go - thick fog, rime ice, serious windchill, deep tracked-out "powder" and holiday crowds.  And, the long days - bell to bell on nightskiing days. Congratulations Michael - you hit your goal, and then some.

Fun Facts - the highest vertical score now is 10,347,920 ft.  Let's say it was all on Chair 4 - that's 4,653  chair rides with 543 hours or 22.6 days sitting on the chairlift at 0.16 cents per lap.

The former record was 8,058,144 ft set by Ken Jones in 2016 (prior to the Chair 4 installation). 

2020/21 Season - Winner, Jesse Black had a goal to hit each million foot mark on the dot, right to the foot.  He hit all but one of the six chances - 6,000,000 ft for the season.

Iron Man Fred - Of his 20+ seasons on the top 100 list - Fred Frost has skied 81,916,893 ft (15,614 miles).  While it's not skiing from the moon to Earth - It is skiing 59 times higher than the space station to the base lodge!

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Another related fun site - bigmountain.rodeo