Nearly 100,000 skiers and snowboarders activated their accounts in the inaugural season of EpicMix but only five people stood out from the crowd. By skiing over 100 days or all the resorts or having a cumulative age of 213, these EpicMix users caught the attention of Vail Resorts and are making the top 5 achievements list. Read on for their stories.
Charles A. Days skied: 171 Vertical feet skied: 7,209,005 Total pins: 102 Total points: 45,130 Position on the leaderboard: 1 No one, especially the former leader of the leaderboard, saw Charles A. coming. Throughout the season, Shawn C. held the position with a vice grip. Then Charles A. made his EpicMix stats public on April 10, the closing day at Keystone and BAM. History was made. With over 7 million vertical feet skied over 171 days, no other EpicMix skier could even attempt to keep up.
"There is only one way to put it," Charles A. said. "It's been an epic season."
Shawn C. Days skied: 160 Vertical feet skied: 7,072,484 Total pins: 68 Total points: 42,925 Position on the leaderboard: 2
It takes some seriously strong legs to snowboard as consistently and as constantly as Shawn C. A Vail resident, Shawn averaged 62,235 vertical feet a day in April and held the top of the leaderboard until April 10, 2011. All that hard work was for a reason too, according to rumors that the snowboarder dedicated his season to a friend who had recently passed away. Will the competition heat up between these two leaderboard conquerors? Only EpicMix will tell.
Mary P., Dean P., and Bill S. Combined age: 213 Known for: Conquering Keystone in two hours and 22 minutes on February 22, 2011. It's one thing to ride every lift at Keystone in a day. It's another to do it in a record two hours and 22 minutes. And it's incredible to do it with a group with an average age of 71. Mary P., Dean P., and Bill S., made headlines when they earned the Keystone Conqueror pin and created a game plan for others to do the same. But would they do it again?
"If we did this this year, what are we going to do next year?" Mary P. said. "We're excited."
Richard H. and friends Resorts skied in one day: 5 Known for: Conquering the Epic Pass If you're going to ski at every resort on the Epic Pass in Colorado in one day, you're going to need to know the right people to make sure it counts. Richard H. from Cleveland, Ohio and his two friends took the challenge and made the call to Shelly to make sure he did it right.
Richard called the Vail Resorts Corporate Sales and Services call center on Feb. 16 to speak with top agent Shelly so they could share their excitement as the team conquered their quest. The group jokingly added, while on their last Colorado resort that if Vail Resorts would supply them with a private jet, they would head on to Heavenly, Northstar-at-Tahoe and Sierra-at-Tahoe and conquer all eight of the Epic Pass mountains in one day. In Shelly's words, "we celebrated on the phone their Colorado mountain journey!"
Justin E. Resorts skied: 5 Resorts Conquered: 5
Arguably, the Epic Conqueror pin is THE hardest pin to achieve through EpicMix. It is only awarded to those who rode every lift at every resort with EpicMix -- a total of 92 lifts across Vail, Breckenridge, Keystone, Heavenly, and Beaver Creek. Only one of 100,000 people obtained this pin: Justin E. A resident of Keystone and originally from Edwards, Colo. Justin E. knew the ins and outs of every Vail Resort to efficiently get the Epic Conqueror pin and used EpicMix to search after powder and push the limits.
"It definitely changed the way I rode and pushed me to ride harder and longer, and put in more days than normal," Justin E. said. "It was an inspiration and a great one at that. I can't wait to see what next year holds."
Do you think you should have made the top 5? Or a to-be-created top 10? Leave your EpicMix story below.
--Morgan Bast