15 Jan Pair of snowboarders break North American record for most ski areas in a day
January 13, 2019 – Clarkston, MI – A pair of Michigan snowboarders teamed up with the Michigan Snowsports Industries Association (MSIA) to break the North American record for the most ski areas snowboarded in a 24-hour period.
“The Guinness record is 17 ski areas and it was set in Japan. No one in the U.S. has ever gotten that far,” stated David Zemens of Rockford. Together with Sabato Caputo of Lansing they began their quest on Friday night, January 11 and finished on Saturday night, January 12.
In 2013 Pat Bridges and a crew from Snowboarder Magazine set the previous North American record in Vermont with a 12-ski area trip. Zemens and Caputo smashed that record by including 16 Michigan ski areas in their trek. The two began at 9:00 p.m. on Friday, January 11 at Boyne Highlands in Harbor Springs. They continued on to Nub’s Nob that same evening and then headed down to Boyne Mountain in Boyne Falls to finish out the night. “This worked out well because Boyne Mountain was open for 70 hours straight to celebrate their 70th birthday and raise money for Challenge Mountain, a ski area solely dedicated to assisting people with special needs.” said Mickey MacWilliams, MSIA president.
On Saturday morning, the pair started in Gaylord at Treetops Resort, then Otsego Club and Resort. From there it was on to Schuss Mountain and the Summit slopes at Shanty Creek. Next it was Mt. Holiday then Hickory Hills in Traverse City then down to Crystal Mountain in Thompsonville, Caberfae Peaks in Cadillac and Snow Snake in Harrison. Heading toward Southeast Michigan, they stopped at Mt. Holly in Holly, Pine Knob in Clarkston, Alpine Valley in White Lake and ended the trip at Mt. Brighton in Brighton at approximately 8:00 p.m., completing the entire run within 24 hours.
“The thing I enjoyed the most was seeing all the different ski communities throughout the state,” said Caputo. “We saw young kids just learning, experienced shredders in some great parks and people of all ages out there having a blast,” he added.
“We planned this over January 11 and 12 because January 11 was National Learn to Ski and Snowboard Day. We wanted to draw attention to the fact that Michigan has so many great ski slopes within an easy drive of most metropolitan areas,” says MacWilliams. “In fact, we have more ski areas than any other state except New York. No matter where you live, in either the Upper Peninsula or Lower Peninsula of Michigan, you are within a 2 to 2 ½ -hour drive of a ski area,” she added.
Zemens hosts the popular snowboard website, agnarchy.com. More detailed information about the trip is available there, on their Facebook page with the same name and at #MichiganSnowballRun.
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