Snowbird's 6-Million Don Derby

As of June 20, 2010 a 67 year old skier had logged an impressive 6,343,661 vertical feet while skiing 133 days in Snowbird, Utah, starting back on November 20, 2009. That's an average of 47,697 vertical feet a day! To most skiers, this might seem hard to believe, but with an excellent physical condition, a deep passion, total dedication and plenty of time available, that performance is totally possible, but what's truly amazing is the age of its author!

Donald Derby is measuring his skiing in vertical feet and is doing everything he can to rack' em up. Like some addicted frequent fliers, he's seeking the ultimate level and has already broken the 6 million vertical foot barrier in one single ski season. As a senior with a weekday pass, Derby has avoided the busy weekends and be able to focus on logging as much vertical possible whenever he is on the hill. Arguably, Snowbird is the best place for breaking this kind of record, with a season running from November to June!

Derby began skiing back East, as a college student when he was 19, and spent two winter seasons in Aspen until he was drafted into the Navy in 1966. During the four years he was in the Navy, he didn't ski much as he was mostly stationed in the Pacific. He returned to his passion and to Vermont once he got out, but soon found himself busy raising a family and not skiing that much. He rediscovered the sport on another trip to Aspen and continued skiing in Killington where he began to keep track of his vertical. During these years and in spite of two torn ACLs he managed to ski significantly close to 2 million vertical each season. In 2007, he left Vermont and finally moved to Utah, so he could ski Snowbird, his favorite resort.

Usually, Don is one of these folks who get to the Snowbird tram first thing in the morning and focuses his skiing on “groomers” that are most time-effective for racking up vertical. During the 2008/2009 season, he skied 93 days for 2.1 million vertical feet. After losing 60 pounds during the summer of 2009, he set his sights on the 6 million vertical foot record that he broke late May 2010. One of Don's ironclad principles is that, if skiing becomes suddenly "no fun," he stops. For the next seasons, Don Derby says that he will try to ski more challenging terrain, forget about that once-in-a-lifetime record, but still keep track of his vertical!

Account adapted from an article originally written by Amy Donaldson and published in the Deseret News on May 20, 2010. Photos by Ravell Call.