On March 2-3, 2019, 1,604,138 meters of vertical were accumulated at Dynafit’s International Snow Leopard Day. That’s a new record!
In 11 countries, a total of 1,141 athletes took part in the event for a good cause. All told, they racked up over a half-million meters of vert more than last year.
A Snow Leopard Trust partner since 2008, the ski-touring brand with the snow leopard logo has been hosting this innovative fundraising event for these cats for nine straight years. For every meter of vert climbed by participants, Dynafit donates one Euro cent to the Snow Leopard Trust. For 2019, this will total 16,042 Euro (ca. US$ 18,000).
Proceeds from this year’s Snow Leopard Day will go toward research into the habitat and behavior of the snow leopard, as well as toward PAWS, the first global census for determining a comprehensive inventory of the population.
A special shout-out is due to participants in North America’s first Dynafit Snow Leopard Day, held at Aspen Snowmass CO, where they significantly surpassed all other countries in terms of vert accumulated with 642,214 meters.
The crown for the most vert per participant was taken by Stephan Hugenschmidt with an unbelievable 8,003 meters of vert at the Swiss Snow Leopard Day. To give some perspective on that achievement: that’s equivalent to almost three ascents up Mt. Rainier in one day! Stephan, you truly are an honorary snow leopard! But then, as the late, great Aspen resident Hunter S. Thompson observed, “at the top of the mountain, we are all snow leopards.”
From all of us at the Snow Leopard Trust, a huge thank you to the entire Dynafit team for their incredible work on behalf of snow leopards, and to all 1,141 athletes who gave their sweat (but hopefully only tears of joy and no blood at all) to the cause!
Check out photos from the various Snow Leopard Day events here.
You forgot to define vert for those who saw this article but aren’t familiar with skiing.
Very true – sorry about that! Vert (short for vertical) refers to to elevation a skier gains when climbing up the mountain. In ski touring, skiers typically don’t use lifts, but instead climb up the mountain they intend to ski down, using so-called skins that are attached to the underside of their skies and allow them to get traction on the snow. Dynafit is a brand that specializes in ski touring equipment, so their event is mainly aimed at such athletes – and hence they donate one cent for each meter of vertical gained by participants.