Saturday was the 2008 Hope on the Slopes 24 hour skiing fundraiser at Stevens Pass. Matt and I arrived at 9am for registration where we were given RFID tags to wear on a rubber band around our wrists. Every time you got on a lift, you had to scan the tag at a special reader and wait for the beep. I'm going to be hearing that beep in my sleep for a while.
There were only two lifts that had the scanning device. We spent the entire day on Skyline Express because it had the most vertical of the two available lifts. Can you imagine riding a single lift over and over again for an entire day? We started off strong at 9:30AM and plowed our way through the day. A couple trips back to the car to fuel up with pretzels, peanut butter, bananas, granola, and Gatorade G2 helped to keep us strong.
By 7:30pm we were starting to fade so we headed into the lodge and had some real food. That was the first time that I checked how many vertical feet I had skied. I was right at 50,000 feet! The combination of knowing that I had reached my personal goal and tired muscles started to crush my willpower. Luckily Matt was there to get me back out on the slopes for some more runs.
After a couple of runs, Matt realized how tired he was too, and I knew it was about over when I found him sleeping under a tree. We had been skiing for 12 hours so we were both pretty beat up. I decided to do 5 more runs which would bump me up to 50 total runs and push me over 60,000 vertical feet for the day. That was quickly accomplished and we headed home tired, but happy with our day.
It was very interesting to watch how the snow and weather changed throughout the day. It started off pretty heavy and slushy, but as the sun went down, I could feel the snow getting harder up top. By this point, the other contestants and I had found the fast way down the mountain. A race rack was forming and people were just straight-lining the whole run. If you told me I was going 60mph I wouldn't have been surprised. 70mph wouldn't be a stretch either. It was quite a sight to see packs of 10-15 people in a full race tuck screaming down a sheet of ice at insane speeds.
Last year, the record was 86,000 vertical feet, but I bet that will be beaten this year. After the crowds died down, you could make a lap in 8 minutes (6 minutes up, 1 minute 40 seconds down.) Stamina would be the limiting factor, not time. I'm very proud of my 60,500 vertical feet. To put that in perspective, I have been keeping track of my vertical feet for the last three years. Of the 11 months that I have skied in the last three years, I have skied less than 60,500 feet in 7 of those months.
I thought that this event would be mind-numbing and boredom would be my biggest enemy. It was a big help having Matt sitting on the chair with me. We split up for a couple hours and that part was pretty boring. The MP3 player was also a big bonus. I had a Preston and Steve podcast going for most of the evening which helped keep me entertained.
If I do this again, here are some changes I'll make in my approach:
- We stocked up on the normal ski food, but I think you need more for this event. It would have been fantastic to have a big crock pot going in the lodge.
- I talked to the guy who got 3rd place last year. He was popping potassium pills every few hours. I really needed some of those.
- I don't think you can do the event safely without a little sleep.
- It's probably not worth pushing too hard during the day. There are a lot of crowds on the slopes and in the lift lines. The real money comes at night when there are no crowds and the hill is clear. Rest more during the day so you don't burn out.
- It seems silly to buy skis just for this event, but I would have loved some big 215 Atomic race skis. When you're going that fast, the extra length would be very useful.
But yada yada yada, as we all know, this wasn't really about the skiing. It was about raising money for the American Cancer Society. Thanks to everyone who donated to support me. Together we raised $810 and overall the event has raised $85,000! Thank you!
Season ski days: 24
Vertical feet: 60,500
Season vertical feet: 414,650