Local Skier Smashes Lone Peak Tram, Big Sky, MT All-Time Record | 35 Laps and 50,750 Vertical Feet

Steven Agar |
montana, big sky, lone peak tram, record laps
Lone Peak Tram, Big Sky Resort. Fancy riding this 35 times in one day? Credit: onthesnow.ca

It was Valentine’s Day at Big Sky Resort, Montana and Rob Leipheimer was loving life. It had just passed 1 pm and he had just beat his Lone Peak Tram all-time record of 27 laps, reports montanauntamed.com.

“I was doing five laps an hour,” he said. “I was thinking this is a really good pace.”

Recently, Leipheimer, 50, had been talking to Luke Stratford, who some believe held the record for most tram laps in a single day, meaning between 9 am and 4 pm, when the public has access to the slopes. Stratford recorded 31 tram laps back in 1998.

“After I matched my personal record and had an hour still in the bank, I turned up the volume at that point,” Leipheimer said. “They were really fast laps after that.”

Leipheimer finished 35 Lone Peak Tram laps, a new record by many accounts. He started at 9:30 am loading the first tramcar and was in the last tram of the day at 3:06 pm. In total, he skied 50,750 feet of vertical, not including the Mr. K run at the end of the day to get back to his vehicle.

Lone Peak & Big Couloir. Credit: Big Sky

Leipheimer’s route down was the same all day: First Gully to Cron’s and back to the tram, the same as Stratford’s 20 years before. Leipheimer was walking right onto the tram and most of the day Leipheimer was skiing Lone Peak with very few others.

A Lone Peak Tram ride is, on average, 4 minutes long. Leipheimer was beating down the tramcar he rode up. The tram operators were cheering him on, helping keep track of his run count, he said. Leipheimer never stopped to eat, skiing only on the two cups of coffee he had earlier that morning.

“I feel good that I can achieve such a great goal at my age,” he said. “Skiing is an awesome sport.”

Leipheimer has been skiing Big Sky Resort since he was a teenager. This season alone he’s already logged 80 days on the snow, a majority of them at the resort. He knows every route, rock and ridgeline on Lone Mountain.

Posted by Steven Agar |

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4 thoughts on “Local Skier Smashes Lone Peak Tram, Big Sky, MT All-Time Record | 35 Laps and 50,750 Vertical Feet”

  3. Dear Snow Brains…
    Hi! My name is Fred Bacher. I’m not sure if this is worthy of sharing, but I’m 50 yrs old and I’d like to share a feat I accomplished this past Saturday at Vail… 38 lift rides, 13 unique lifts, 64,645 vertical feet, 60.9 total miles skied, max speed 83.2mph (or 87.2mph depending on the app). I skied from 8:30a – 4:00p (normal hours of operation this time of year) and only stopped once to quickly empty my bladder and refill my water bottle. 🙂 Keep in mind this was done on a busy Saturday at Vail during peak season on March 3rd. I have all the proof through Epic Mix as well as Garmin Connect and Strava which I’m happy to share and also happy to provide more details if needed! I am grateful and humbled to have been able to pull this at my age. Wow, what an EPIC day! Cheers!

    Reply

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