Photo by Tommy Chandler
Our man Greg Hill hit his goal of 2 million feet of vert for 2010. (As of yesterday afternoon. He did another 1500 ft. lap after our photographer Tommy Chandler snapped this pic, and he’s planning a few more today.) Next year? 2 billion vertical feet. Better get started now.
Congrats Greg! And Happy New Year everyone.
Budget cuts have meant that Devil’s Tower National Monument in Wyoming can’t afford to keep climbing rangers on year round. Of course, inexperienced climbers don’t stop showing up on the last day of the season. So what happens when a few kids on their winter break from college get stuck? They call in the locals…anyone who’s qualified and willing to help. Recently a crew of three spent from 10pm to 5am helping a few climbers down from about 120 feet below the summit.
When everyone was safe and beginning to warm up, Engle, Schrall and Noback spent a few minutes explaining to the inexperienced climbers where they went wrong and how they could climb safely in the future.
That’s probably not a lecture the 3 stranded climbers wanted, but at that point you just have to sit still for a few more minutes and take it.
Another East Coast chairlift broke down yesterday requiring 76 people to be evacuated from a lift at Whiteface Mountain near Lake Placid. They were lowered via a rope and pulley system, and the operation that took from about 11am until 12:45pm. While that’s a long time to wait for one run, I bet it was a pretty thrilling ride down. This is what happens when the East Coast gets snow. We can’t have anything nice.
The Goat pops into a Daily Camera article about a Colorado man starting his own magazine. What’s the hook? Well, just check out the article and scroll down a bit for our Goat friend.
Thanks Ryan
He did it! Today, with only one day to spare, Greg Hill completed his mission to climb and ski 2 million vertical feet in one calendar year. He hit his mark at Revelstoke amidst his friends and family and a posse of supporters who came out to cheer him on. All of us at Backcountry.com send him huge congratulations and a big standing O for his sacrifice, his dedication, his sheer athletic prowess and his ability to rise — all 2 million feet — to the challenge.
Photo: Tommy Chandler
A Canadian snowmobiler fell about 100 feet down a mine shaft that had been covered over with snow while he was riding in British Columbia. By the time he spotted the mine shaft it was too late. He tried to gun his machine over the open mine but ended up taking a fall. The shaft didn’t straight down but dropped him onto a steep surface that he slid down (bumping over a few ledges on the way). With the help of two friends and a rescue team, he found himself in a hospital bed with only a couple broken bones a bit later.
And your parents said you’d never use that degree in comparative cultural studies with an emphasis on BS. Now’s the time to marshal your talents and work hard for a couple days so that you can take the next year off. Sure, maybe it’s hard to live on the $7k per year you get from the McNeill-Nott Award, but it beats working. The Lyman Spitzer Cutting Edge Award can be your fallback. Get cracking - they’re both due on Friday.
A backcountry stash that’s been a popular spot for skiers and snowboarders to lap using their snowmobiles will become a motor-free zone shortly. The park service will ban snowmobiles at Richmond Hill near Aspen. Good news for backcountry skiers, bad news for snowmobile dealerships.
It’s turning out to be a rough week for East Coast ski resorts. You throw a couple feet of snow into the normal rotation of ice/rain and it really messes up their game. On the heel’s of yesterday’s lift derailment at Sugarloaf, officials at Snowshoe Mountain Resort in West Virginia had an announcement of their own:
Officials at Snowshoe Mountain Resort in Pocahontas County say no guests were injured during a leak of carbon monoxide at one of the resort properties this past weekend.
At one time, though, five maintenance and housekeeping workers were hospitalized for treatment because of exposure.
Well, as long as none of the guests were hurt, I guess that’s okay. Snowshoe announced the problem yesterday afternoon, right in the midst of the emergency at Sugarloaf. Their PR crew must have been giving high-fives that the Sugarloaf story buried theirs.
