WORLD RECORD FOR VERTICAL SNOWBOARDING IN A DAY!

“Some live to work. I work to live.

A big part of living for me includes

snowboarding, which is my passion.”

– Tammy McMinn

On April 20, 1998 I set a world record for the most vertical feet snowboarded in a day – 305,525 vertical feet. At the time, I was 32 years old. I worked as a Senior QA Consultant and spent the rest of my time finding sponsorship, planning, preparing and training.

My First Time Snowboarding

I started skiing at age 7, and by age 10, I had advanced to the intermediate level. I didn't ski again until 1989 when I was 22 years old. In addition to a re-introduction to skiing, I also tried snowboarding for the first time.

I hadn't skied in 11 years when I arrived in Breckenridge, Colorado. This was the day I saw my first snowboard. Someone was going down the slope, and I turned to my friend to ask what they were riding. The next weekend I returned for my first snowboard lesson.

The first run took forever, learning my edges, stop drop and roll vs. trying to make a turn. I was guaranteed a pain free lesson by a new friend. He was partially right. On the second run, I made it all the way down the slope, and only fell once when someone shouted from the lift. I thought it was a friend of mine and turned to look... big mistake.

After the second run it was all down hill. I must have been tired. I caught edge after edge and was slammed into the snow a good 50+ times. On top of this, my "friend" decided to nail me with a snowball every time I fell. I persevered and I rode/fell all day. The next morning I had whiplash so bad I could hardly get out of bed. I actually had to roll on my stomach in bed, slide my knees onto the ground, and push up with my arms. I'm sure I don't need to mention the huge initiation bruise on my left (lower) cheek. I can also remember hobbling around and having people at work asking me what happened. They were shocked when I told them it was from snowboarding -- it was a pretty new sport back then -- and even more stunned when I said I couldn't wait to do it again. I remember saying, it even hurts to comb my hair.

For several nights I went to sleep picturing myself snowboarding and thought about my heel and toe edge. I knew I was catching edges because I would let the edge of my board drop too much and focused on correcting this in my mind.

Since the resorts closed down for the season, I wasn't able to snowboard again until the following winter. When I did go, I only fell 7 times on my second day of snowboarding. I was well on my way. I never skied again!

Living in Summit County Colorado

My snowboarding skills advanced a lot when I lived in Summit County in the winter of 1993/1994.

I was living in Tampa, Florida when I decided I needed to take a breather from the business world. Since Florida isn't known for snowboarding... nada. I moved to Summit County (Dillon) Colorado for the winter.

A good friend hooked me up with Bruce VanAusdale, who was looking for a season of skiing. For several months, snowboarding, hot tubbing, and having friends over became my daily routine. We both loved to joke about the ski slopes being our office.

Bruce was responsible for helping me make major strides in my snowboarding ability. He is one of the best skiers I know, and I followed him everywhere on the slopes. He introduced me to the steep chutes and gave me good pointers. An invaluable lesson he taught me was to look a short distance in front of me, rather than looking all the way to the bottom. This prevented me from freaking out because it was steep. Now, I enjoy the rush.

Making Sacrifices

For months, I woke up every morning at 5:45 AM, which was difficult because I'm not a morning person. My workout started shortly after this, and then I would contact a few sponsors. I would roll into work anywhere between 11 AM and 1 PM and get off of work around 7-9 PM, and the whole thing would start over again the next day, except when I would head to Tahoe Thursday night through Sunday to snowboard.

I was completely dedicated to setting the record. I didn't miss a single snowboarding weekend (normally 3 days) since mid-December. I even went during blizzard conditions. In the city, I only missed 3 workouts. Two of these, early in my training, were a result of a swollen knee.

Working, training and trying to find sponsors were all very demanding on my time. The stress was sometimes too much for me to handle. I was working on a deadline at the office, and I also had event details to wrap up. It was difficult, but I told my boss the deadline would have to wait until I returned. I knew I would remember setting the world record for the rest of my life, and a year down the road I wouldn't remember the deadline.

The biggest sacrifice I made, was not being able to spend quality time with my friends.

Training for the Event

I consider myself to be pretty fit, but by no means a superior athlete. I really feel a strong mind and a strong body powered me through this event.

I've never done anything of this magnitude before. The closest thing would be an 11 hour summit of Mt. Shasta, CA with an ice axe and crampons in June of 1997. The descent by snowboard was 1 hour. From this experience, I learned you have to be prepared mentally and physically to push yourself to your goal or beyond.

I wanted to make sure I did everything I could to make Operation Heli a successful mission. As a result, I decided to find a personal trainer. Just one problem, where was I going to find a trainer for setting the vertical record for snowboarding? I checked through several resumes of personal trainers. Each trainer had a specialized skill set. I soon realized it would be difficult to find one trainer.

Using a Personal Trainer

I was fortunate enough to find my personal trainer, Mischa Kubancik at the Embarcadero YMCA in San Francisco. She is a tri-athlete and has a special program specifically for tri-athletes. This sounded like the perfect way for me to build my endurance. The only downfall, she doesn't ski or snowboard. I weighed all of the factors, and I decided I needed more help off of the mountain than on.

Setting Up a Training Program to Build Endurance and Strength

Throughout my training, I met with Mischa only four times over 3 months. In each of these sessions, she would give me instructions on lifting weights and answer any questions I had. Each time we met, she would alter my weight training program. In the end, I was doing all free weights to isolate the muscles, except for the leg curls. My weight program was small in comparison to my cardiovascular training, which consumed 2 hours a day. My main cardiovascular training consisted of cycling and running. A few other activities were mixed in, including rollerblading, nordic track, stairmaster, ski conditioning and spinning classes. On the mountain, 7 hours nonstop of snowboarding was an average day. 

Increasing My Speed on the Snowboard

At this point, my snowboarding endurance was under control, but I wanted a few pointers on speed. Three weeks before the event, I decided to find a snowboarder with race experience.

On the day I met with the instructor, the snow conditions were poor. The snow was super chunky. I tried to crank up the speed a bit so he could see my technique, and I knew I was a bit OC (outta control) because of the chunks. I just B-lined straight down. He asked me if anyone associated a few words like crazy with my name!

My two hour lesson really paid off. The two most important things I learned were to:

·         always keep both of my hands in my field of vision

·         put my left arm straight out in front of me to break the wind

This second pointer was critical in the flat section at the bottom where the helicopter landed.

Visualizing the Event

I did a lot of visualization about the day of the event. I knew mental and physical strength would play an important role in what happened, as well as equipment, food and liquid. These were all things I had control over. Next to these, weather and snow conditions were just as important. I pictured a crystal blue sky with perfect corn snow. I also watched myself snowboarding the same run many times. I didn't see myself being tired at all.

Creating a Vertical Estimate Chart

The vertical estimates were tricky. I had three trial runs at Northstar in Tahoe on the backside where they have vertical readers. The backside is 1,860 vertical feet and estimated to be a mile long. On the trial days, I timed how long it took to get down each run and how long the lift up was. I also noted crowds, falls, pee breaks and liquid refills.

I felt great on each of the three days. The times were really consistent too. Based on the trial days, I put together spreadsheets and figured my average run times.

I'd seen the profile of the run Klondike Heliskiing had chosen for us. I knew it was 3,400 vertical feet for 2.5 miles (actual: 3,025 and 2.3 miles). I decided to take my average time from the practice days, doubled it and came up with the following:

Original proposal to Klondike Heliskiing consisted of a minimum of 180,000 vertical feet in 14.5 hours. Based on this, I broke the day into quarters and with 3,400 vertical feet per run this would be:

If we ended up doing something between 180,000 and 300,000 vertical, I'd be happy.

The Event

Starting Out

Monday, April 20th 1998, 5:45 AM: The boys were a bit early, so I quickly ate a few more bites of my cereal on the way out the door.

It only took us a few minutes to get to the small airport in the town of Atlin where we quickly loaded our gear into the A-Star helicopter and taped our food chart to the back of the helicopter pilot's seat. The helicopter fired up and Bill, George, Bernie, Jen and I headed for Paradise Peak, which is about 20 minutes away. George checked our avalanche beacons to make sure they were transmitting a signal and also warned us to stay away from the crevasses.

Making the First Run

6:50 AM: When we arrived at the top of the mountain, Jen and I jumped out of the helicopter, and the guides handed us our equipment. On the first run, I had to rock my board back and forth to get going since it was flat where the helicopter landed. I was worried because I knew this would slow me down and wear me out. As I headed down the mountain, I thought they may need to move the landing down a bit, but the second time was much better. My first track must have packed it down.

Putting Helmets On

On the third run, the light was still a bit flat and I was cruising. I don't know if the nose of my board dropped, or if I hit something. Anyway, I ended up doing two cartwheels. When I stopped, my hat was next to me and my goggles were up the hill. I quickly grabbed my hat and headed for the helicopter. I told myself I couldn't afford another fall like that, and I knew I was lucky for not getting hurt. When I reached the helicopter, George yelled at me and told me to slow down. He also gave me a cloth to wipe the snow off my face. I jumped in the helicopter, shook my hat off and put on my spare goggles. Jen said, "Maybe we should put our helmets on." I said, "Good idea."

Bill told us on our 4th or 5th run we were doing 7-8 minute round-trips. We were stoked. I knew we had to stay under 10 minutes to hit the target.

Planning Pays Off

10:27 AM: I logically broke the day into quarters. I knew we had to do 25 runs each quarter for a total of 300,000 vertical feet, plus a little more. Anywhere between 180,000 and 300,000 would be good. At the end of the first quarter (3.5 hours in), we were at 28 runs, which meant we were 3 above target. This was excellent news.

Bill told us it was time to refuel the helicopter, so we took a pee break on the way down, our second pee stop. You might be wondering where? Originally, they were supposed to build us some sort of a glacier toilet at the bottom of the run with a tarp, but it didn't happen. The mountain was pretty wide open, no trees, so we just picked a spot about 3/4 of the way down and told Bill to tell everyone to keep clear. Actually, on the first pee stop we joked with Bill about giving us a little heli air dry. When we reached the bottom we stretched our legs for 5-10 minutes until it was time to go. The helicopter would refuel at the end of every quarter, which was perfect for my quarterly thinking.

Every time we got in the helicopter, we checked our food chart (GU, Cytomax, Metabolol, and water) to see if we needed to eat or drink something. The chart went from 0 to 14.5 hours. I ate a GU every 30 minutes, and I drank 16 oz. of liquid every hour.

Throughout the day, I tried to be as efficient as possible. I focused on my breathing and really tried to relax my body, especially my shoulders and my legs. I thought about my form and made sure I stayed solid by keeping my arms in my field of vision at all times, legs bent and loose. I also tried to ease up on my legs by putting my arms out to slow down a bit when I made the left turn into the valley.

Hitting the Mid-Point

During the middle of the day, the sun baked the snow, and we were going very fast. Our quickest time down 3,025 vertical feet was 3 minutes. We had a few of these and averaged 5 minutes overall. During the quicker runs, George said we came in so close together we were both out of our gear in 2-3 seconds, in the helicopter and gone. I could never have done what I did without my K2 Clickers. With time being so critical throughout the day, it was essential for me to put my board on and take it off in a few seconds.

1:40 PM: At the end of the second quarter (7.25 hours in) we were at 53 runs, 3 above target. On our 60th run we broke 180,000 vertical feet, which was our original proposal. After the 66th run, Leo (owner of Klondike Heliskiing) interviewed us in the helicopter. He asked us how much we were going to do. I said, "Anything is possible. We're not going home until Bill tells us we have to go home (because of flying regulations)."

Ending the Third Quarter

5:32 PM: At the end of the third quarter (10.75 hours in) we were at 80 runs, 5 ahead of target. We were still hitting 7-8 minutes round- trip consistently. As the guides said many times, "UNBELIEVABLE!" At that point, I felt like I could go for 24 hours. I was definitely ready to go the distance.

Dealing with the Storm Followed by the Burn

Shortly after this, a storm started to move in and the light went flat. I noticed the snow slowed down quite a bit because I didn't have to hold my arms out anymore when I turned left into the valley.

Not far into the fourth quarter on run 86, we surpassed the women's 24 Hours of Aspen total. George kept us aware of these statistics to keep us pumped up.

As the storm moved in even more, the conditions really started to change. It was very difficult to see at the top, and the bottom of the mountain. At the top, I couldn't see anything under me, so I headed towards a rock I'd been looking at all day. I did touch and feel with the board and hoped I would not hit anything. It was during this time I could feel thigh burn on the long heel side edge near the top. I really had to focus on totally relaxing my legs right after my first turn to relieve the burn. I also focused on my breathing a lot more. At the bottom of the mountain, I pointed towards the helicopter and tried to avoid catching an edge. Looking back, I'm sure I was working twice as hard in these two sections.

On run 90, George said we surpassed the men's 24 Hours of Aspen total. At this point, Mark Bennett's world record was within our grasp. Beyond this run, I no longer felt thigh burn. My left foot was hurting a bit, but it didn't affect me. My mind and body were on automatic pilot.

Going Beyond All Records

George told us we had broken Mark Bennett's world record for the most vertical heli-skied in a day. I know I should have been really excited about this, but I wasn't. I was going for as much vertical as I could possibly do.

I ate a GU on practically every run towards the very end. I'm sure I was well fueled. There was definitely no chance of dehydration. In addition to 16 oz. of liquid every hour, I drained my water filled 70 oz. CamelBak twice.

My mind stayed sharp and in tune. There was never a time when I thought about how many more runs I was going to do. I just took it one run at a time.

Near the 100th run, my legs were getting a bit wobbly. I couldn't figure out how I could still possibly snowboard when I was having difficulty walking.

Making One Final Run

At the end of the 100th run as I came in, I released my bindings (quick release hooked between the two Clickers). When I did this, my right leg buckled under me. I started to push myself up and George may have grabbed the back of my jacket. My spirit was still up, but my legs must have been tiring.

George told us the helicopter needed a fourth refueling. He knew this was at a critical point, since we had been riding over 14.5 hours and it was nearly 9:30 PM. He told us to take our time coming down on the 101st run, to take a pee break, and then to stretch at the bottom.

On the 101st run, the visibility cleared at the top of the mountain. It was almost surreal. At the pee stop, I made a comment to Jen about the sunset. She said something about the glacier fall up on the mountain. It was the third time I'd taken time to look around all day. It was beautiful. I headed down into the valley and the light was still flat in the bottom.

I don't know if it was the flat light, squatting down for the last pee break or possibly my leg buckling on the last run, but I couldn't keep the board flat in the valley. I was afraid of catching an edge, so I kept going from my heel to toe edge as I approached George. It seemed like I would never reach him. When I finally did, I told him to get me out of my bindings. I told him it took everything I had to get across the valley. George knew I meant what I said. He said to wait until Jen got down. He asked her what she wanted to do, and she had her own reasons for not wanting to continue.

He tried to rally us for one more and neither of us was up for it. We were happy with 101 runs. When he realized it wasn't going to happen, he told us he was REALLY proud of us.

It was just as George said it should be, "There is never a last run, just another one." At that point, we were beyond our goal and we'd broken the world record set by Mark Bennett in April 1997. We completed 101 runs for a total of 305,525 vertical feet in 14 hours and 50 minutes. This works out to 232.3 miles!

Sponsors:
K2 Snowboards and Clicker, Klondike Heliskiing (host), Kluane Helicopters, Subaru, Oakley, MICA Sport Canada, Betty Rides (clothing), Acerbis (helmets), GU, Smartwool, Cytomax, YMCA, CamelBak

After Event Highlights

After the event I was on top of the world. I called my parents and one of my friends to share the good news. After this, we went out to celebrate with the town of Atlin.

That night I couldn't sleep for anything. When I closed my eyes, all I could see were black tracks on a black background, and my body was still zooming down the mountain. I couldn't stop it. It was the kind of feeling you get after you've been on a boat and you're still pitching from the motion.

Shortly after I fell asleep, I woke up at 9:00 AM. I looked out the window and couldn't believe my eyes -- it was snowing (April 21). We were lucky with the weather.

My legs were sore when I finished the event, but I really stiffened up the next morning. I hobbled around and my body finally healed on the 5th day after the event. On the 6th day, I started working out again.

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For more information and pictures, please refer to my website: www.snoofer.com/tammy

I do “Show & Tell Interactive Goal Setting” talks for children and tie it in with my record, please email me for more information chamonix_bsb@yahoo.com.

Best of luck with your adventures!