24 Hours of Sunlight – Quick Finish Report

Generation Gap got 5th for the 5-person teams, and I’m pretty sure 3rd or 4th for teams with all skiers (other teams had fast up/down snowshoers that were impressive — but that’s not ski racing.) But the big news is Greg Hill and Jimmy Faust skiing into the finish arm-in-arm with at least 50,000 vertical feet under their belts (They skied an extra part of a lap to add 240 verts to their official race total of 47,760, making it easily 50,000 because the course had a few small ups/downs that may not have been included in the official vertical.)

I’ll blog more on this tomorrow, gotta get some sleep, but check out Greg’s altimeter watch from after the race today (see photo below). He said some guy gave him $200 for his watch with a million vertical on it from last season, any bids for this one showing a world record (contact Greg)?

Everyone I spoke with was stunned by this athletic performance. Hill and Faust did 32 laps, all but their last with incredible speed, and with lighting fast skin transitions as those used in randonnee rallys — that means they had to do a skin on or off about 62 times (not a firm number as racers could swap skis in their pit if necessary, though if these guys did so it was very seldom). All the lap times are here. Congratulations to Steve Romeo for his 3rd place in the solo men’s class! Luckily he only had to buy cases of beer for Hill and Faust (he’d promised a case to anyone who could beat him.) And how about Polly McLean? Twenty laps and 31,000 vertical feet for a women’s world record on vertical skied in a day. Andrew McLean put in a good effort as well, 6th solo with 24 laps, 37,320 vert.

Greg Hill’s altimeter watch after 24 Hours of Sunlight ski endurance race, Sunlight Ski Resort, Colorado, February 11-12 2006