Industry News
62-year-old Brad Blacketor skied 188-days last year, in itself an impressive achievement. However, what if I told you that he averaged 66,000-vertical feet and forty chairlift rides on every single one of those days for an almost unbelievable 12.4-million vertical feet in one ski season. Now that’s an impressive achievement.
The part-time Breckenridge, CO, resident and Epic Pass holder rode his first chair of the season at Keystone, CO, on November 6th, and his last on May 16th at Breckenridge. His Epic Pass stats show him taking 7,363 chairlift rides over the course of the season, reports Summit Daily.
“He’s technically very good at skiing bumps and trees and all kinds of stuff. He can ski some of the hardest bump runs in Colorado top to bottom without stopping at the very end of the day — which is not something I can do. Sometimes we feel guilty that we are holding him back. He doesn’t feel too bad about splitting off when he knows it’s better for his vertical.”
– Brad’s friend, Tom Fralich told Summit Daily
Blacketor skied all but four days in February when he was recovering from an injury and the closing week at Breckenridge. And that’s with Vail’s reservation system.
On the hill, he doesn’t really stop for breaks, choosing to eat on the chairlift.
The exact amount of vertical feet Blacketor skied last season was 12,421,058, according to EpicMix, which is at least 2 million more than in 2018. The season before last, he was on target to ski 13 million vertical feet before the pandemic brought an abrupt end to the ski season.
“It’s important to get outside and make every day count. I don’t think you realize that when you’re young. When you get older you do realize you are going to run out of time. I’m not going to be able to do this forever. But, until that day comes, I’m going for it.”
– Brad Blacketor
According to the Guinness Book of World Records, the official current world record for most vertical feet skied in a year is 6,025,751, by Pierre Marc Jette at Whistler Blackcomb, BC, in 2014/15. Looks like Brad just blew that out of the water…
How much vert you get in a year is the most Vail Resorts gaper stat out there.
bwahahahah too true and what prize do you get, oh right ego just gets fatter n fatter.
I guess he never actually won any true ski comp events in his younger days so trying to make up for such.
old saying goes, he or she who is having the most FUN is winning.
Pretty impressive he was able to get that much vert this year with the crazy unpredictable early season where reservations were somewhat scarce, lines were long until December, and that he only skied until May 16th, despite Arapahoe Basin being open until June 6th (although those 20 days probably wouldn’t put much of a dent in his vert, I’ve tried really hard to log vert at A-Basin and maxed out at 35k and could’ve maybe had time for 40k if I didn’t veer of on several runs. )