Greg Hill by the numbers
Last March Greg Hill went on a quest, he wanted to ski tour 100,000 metres in the month of March. He succeeded and here's what it looked like:
The official press release is below with all the crazy details and pictures courtesy of Bruno Long. If you want to see Greg's daily totals and other data from his quest check out his Movescount page here.
Greg Hill's human-powered month of madness
Canadian ski mountaineer succeeds in his goal to ascend 100,000 m
He said he wanted to see how far he could push his body. In March, ski mountaineer Greg Hill got his answer – he ski toured a total distance of 700km and ascended 100,628m (330,144ft), more than 10 times the height of Mt Everest.
In doing so he succeeded in his goal to clock 100 vertical kilometers and proved that when it comes to cranking out vertical, there's no one quite like Greg Hill.
These weren't just circuits up and down his local ski resort but individual hits deep in the Canadian wilderness — each one demanding its own planning and scrupulous avalanche awareness.
It was quite an adventure. He battled through soul-destroying deep trail, faced his doubts and fatigue, lost almost 5kg, summitted 10 peaks, was nearly avalanched but got to ride some epic descents.
“It was a big mission,” says the 38-year-old Suunto ambassador, recovering at his home in Revelstoke, British Columbia.
“It was as hard as anything I've done, waking up every morning and getting out there. I was willing myself to keep hiking and keep doing it but I always knew I had that reward of great skiing coming.”
Every day, Greg would be out there for up to 10 hours, skiing between 3,000 – 4,000m (10,000 -13,000ft). During some of those ascents he would literally swear at himself to keep going. “There were many, many times during the day that I was mad at myself for doing this.”
One of those days was on March 6th when warm weather and rain conspired to create nightmare ski-touring conditions. “My skis were weighing probably 20kg (44lb) there was so much snow stuck to them,” says Greg. “That was as bad as it was.”
Fortunately, most of the time the descents more than compensated for the pain — and there were a lot of them. “It was the best human powered powder month ever! It was ridiculous. This was 97% great skiing.”
On some days Greg was joined by friends, but on the first day he was joined by his wife Tracey and his seven and eight-year-old kids Charley and Aiden who hiked the last part up Mt Mackenzie. “Being able to share my first summit of this challenge with my family was priceless,” he says.
In total, Greg skied 117 different lines. “A lot of those were fantastic couloirs and faces. It was pretty amazing. I love the challenge of the up but the reward of the down is why I do it.”
Amazingly, he says that far from satisfying his curiosity, his 'March Madness' project has just inspired him to explore more. “I look back at the tracks on Movescount and see how much more skiing there is around here. It's pretty endless!”
But the epic powder conditions also brought with it a high avalanche risk — and one very close call for Greg, in which he triggered a category 3 slide that took out the slope he'd just hiked up.
“We had slides that were the biggest in 30 years. Massive things were coming down. It was mostly scary all the time,” he says. “You had to use every trick in the book to stay safe as it was so sketchy.”
Experience is one thing Greg has. In 2010 he gained notoriety after skiing 2 million feet (610,000m) in a year. But it's never an excuse to be complacent.
“I always fear the mountains. That way correct decisions can be made and escape plans are always ready.”
There is something else however that Greg has been afraid of lately – stairs. “My body managed to hang on but going up steps is tiring,” he says.
Having hiked to the equivalent of outer space and back, it's forgivable for Greg to feel a little tired in the legs. But if one thing's for certain, he'll be back for more.
