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2.5 Million vertical feet

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Or a ski tourer's love affair

Aaron Rice has a suntanned face. Around his eyes – where his ski goggles sit – he’s pale. His smile is reserved, a little exhausted. Recently, the American spent a lot of time ski touring – a heck of a lot. To be exact: Aaron Rice climbed over 2.5 million vertical feet on skis. And broke the world ski mountaineering record.

In just one year, Aaron climbed 2.5 million feet on skis. That’s the same as 762,000 meters or climbing Mount Everest from base camp to summit 216 times. 2,000 vertical meters a day on average. This meant that Aaron was able to break the six-year-old world record held by Canadian Greg Hill.

2.5 Million is the story of a ski tourer from Utah whose love of ski touring and the backcountry led him to go beyond his own limits. 

2.5 Million - the facts

THE PROJECT
A new world record for ski mountaineering meters climbed within one year

DISTANCE
762,000 vertical meters in total, on average 2,000 meters a day.

TIMEFRAME
One year

FREE TIME
1.5 hours a day – spent between tours, when eating and when travelling to the mountain

MOTTO
Ski Hard, Ski Fast, Ski Long

330 Days of snow

To be able to ski for a whole year, Aaron had to follow the snow. That’s how he ended up spending 330 days ski touring in Argentina, California, Chile, Colorado, Utah and Oregon.  Phenomenal snow conditions in Argentina gave him brand new motivation – just when everyone at home had stopped thinking about ski touring and he had to pursue his goal alone.

Challenges

In addition to the alpine dangers, unpredictable changes in the weather, and one or two injuries, the greatest challenge for Aaron was the mental and physical strain: “The worse your body feels, the harder it is to motivate yourself in the morning”.

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