The results are in! Dynafit hosted their 12th Annual Snow Leopard Day – a ski touring contest to benefit snow leopard conservation – on March 16th. This year, the mountain endurance sport company raised a whopping 11,341 EUR for snow leopards. They were able to amplify their impact this year by donating 10 Euro cents for every vertical meter that athletes climbed on their skis, compared to the past donation rate of 1 Euro cent. Over the course of a 13 year partnership Dynafit has contributed an astounding 135,000 EUR to Snow Leopard Trust’s conservation efforts!
The COVID-19 pandemic caused this year’s Snow Leopard Day to look a bit different. In prior years Snow Leopard Day took place in 13 countries and had over 1,400 participants. This year participation was limited to Dynafit’s team of 45 athletes from 10 different countries. Where the athletes were able to gather, such as Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Italy and Poland, they came together at the mountain to ski tour in the name of snow leopard conservation. The rest of the athletes took on the endurance race solo from their home mountains – just like a snow leopard would. These 45 athletes covered 113,415 vertical meters, the equivalent of climbing Mt. Everest almost 13 times, all in one day! Sebastian Korvig of Norway accumulated the most vertical meters climbed, covering over 8,851 meters in 9 hours and 45 minutes.
“The Snow Leopard Day is a fixed date in our community for years now and an essential part of our commitment to wildlife conservation. The snow leopard and our long-time partner, the Snow Leopard Trust, especially need support in these difficult times. Unfortunately, we were not all able to head out together on a ski tour, but with the format ‘by athletes, for athletes,” we created an opportunity so the concept of the Snow Leopard Day didn’t have to be shelved this year. We put our passion for ski touring to service for a good cause and then spiced it up with a dash of competition. Our DYNAFIT athletes were extremely motivated and really gave their all to rack up money for these cats who represent us all in such a worthy manner”, says Alexander Nehls, DYNAFIT International Marketing Director.
Dynafit has been an exemplary partner for snow leopards, making great strides in the protection of this endangered cat. Snow Leopard Trust is both inspired by their amazing feats of athleticism and grateful to have such a dedicated partner. Thank you to the entire Dynafit Team of both staff and athletes for advocating and raising awareness for snow leopards!