I first skied in 1976 and became an avid skier over the 1978-79 season. From that season through the mid-1990's I averaged about 25 days per season with one week of destination skiing. The rest of my skiing was on weekend trips mostly to Mammoth and some daytrip skiing in Southern California. In 1979 nearly all of Mammoth's terrain accessible today was served by 16 fixed double chairs, the gondola and two T-bars. Mammoth drew over one million skiers per season starting in 1978 and thus had some severely long weekend lift lines, often half an hour or more at chair 2 and for the gondola, then the only access to most of the expert top runs. Between 1979 and 1982 seven more chairs, mostly fixed triples, were added to relieve the worst crowds, but it was not until 1988 that high speed lifts were introduced.

In March 1984 I had the then rare opportunity to go to Mammoth a day early and ski Friday before the weekend. I had only exceeded 30,000 vertical in a day twice before, so I made it my mission to see how much I could ski while still covering most of the mountain and the terrain I enjoyed most. Weather was cooperative: the morning was windy but clear and not strong enough to close any lifts. The afternoon was calmer and warmer, but most of the mountain had packed powder winter snow. Spring conditions existed only on the lower sun exposed sectors around Canyon Lodge and chairs 9 and 15.

I warmed up on chairs 1, 2 and 3. In terms of expert runs I skied 3 off the upper gondola, 2 off chair 22 and 4 off chair 23. Back then there was more recreational interest in racing, so I skied two runs on a pay race course off chair 8 above Canyon Lodge. 1984 was also the season I raced for Transamerica in a corporate league of a few large companies in Southern California, first in January at Big Bear, then in April at Mammoth.

I skied bell to bell with no lunch, not quite achieving a goal of 40,000 vertical. In those days before altimeter watches, I counted vertical by chairlift as listed on the trail map and the total added up to 39,250. It turns out the trail maps of the late 1970's/early 1980's were estimates for many of Mammoth's lifts. A few lifts were over or understated by 100 vertical, but chairs 5 and 16 were overstated by 250 vertical. I recorded all of my lifts and runs and have listed them below with the corrected chairlift verticals.

The corrected total of 37,600 vertical feet is still a milestone for that era of all fixed grip chairlifts. Over the next 12 years I only exceeded 30,000 seven more times, with the next closest total being 32,100. From 1982-1995 only 10 days exceeded 30,000, 2.8% of my ski days. These days became less rare with the advent of high speed chairlifts. From 1996-2010 I exceeded 30,000 vertical 30 times, 5.9% of my ski days. I retired in 2010 and have skied many more days per season since then. From 2011-2018 I have exceeded 30,000 vertical 22 times, 4.3% of my ski days. I believe that percentage has decreased because most of my skiing in retirement is on multiday extended trips requiring a more measured and consistent pace. The "ski until you drop" mentality is more prevalent when you're a weekend warrior sking one or two days at a time.