A few ski touring news items:
Northwestern U.S. ski historian and backcountry skiing pioneer Lowell Skoog recently organized a re-enactment of the Silver Skis, a historic downhill race that was held in olden days from Camp Muir on Mount Rainier down to the Paradise ranger station and parking area. Looks like fun was had.
Department of Lungs: I just got off the phone with ski mountaineer Andrew McLean, who recently returned from an Alaskan expedition (he got skunked by the weather). Incredible endurance skier Greg Hill was along on the trip. According to Andrew, Greg’s latest enduro endeavor is to log as much ski climbing vertical as possible in one 24 hour period. His best yet is 40,000 vertical feet in one 21 hour period, starting at midnight. That’s not a typo. Along with that, he’s trying to log a million vertical feet in one season, and had 940,000 feet the last time Andrew spoke with him.
WildSnow.com publisher emeritus and founder Lou (Louis Dawson) has a 50+ years career in climbing, backcountry skiing and ski mountaineering. He was the first person in history to ski down all 54 Colorado 14,000-foot peaks, has authored numerous books about about backcountry skiing, and has skied from the summit of Denali in Alaska, North America’s highest mountain.