Two of my hiking friends logged 1 million vertical feet in a single year — and one finished a month early.
What an amazing challenge accomplished 100% on foot. We’re talking over 90,000 feet of elevation per month on average. The mileage numbers are equally impressive: 2,500 over 48 weeks is an average of 52 miles per week. I often struggle to find time for 30 miles in a month, let alone doing over 200.
I remember first hearing about this goal back in January when I started the Utah Six-Pack of Peaks Challenge. The day I went off alone to do a Grandeur Peak Yo-Yo, I later heard Greg and Andee did a Grandeur Yo-Yo-Yo with some other friends that same day (up west, down east, up east, down dragon, up dragon, down west). Yes, a Grandeur Tripple!
Two weeks after, I ran into them again on Squaw Peak. While my group decided on a Rock Canyon Combo, Greg and Andee did the RUFA. I think they ended up summiting Squaw Peak 3 times that day.
As Spring rolled in, I got to join them for some mountaineering up Cold Fusion and White Baldy from Silver Lake. If there is somewhere cool to hike, you will find these two out there doing it.
My summer then splintered off to chase my own hiking goals for 2021. Our paths didn’t cross again until Fall, when I returned to local peak bagging. I heard they were doing a Timp Traverse that I’ve wanted to do for a long time. That was another epic adventure, full of tales from their Teton Crest trip and several others. All the while, right on track to meeting this goal of great magnitude.
Both are such a pleasure to hike with. Greg is a quiet powerhouse and super easy-going by nature, while Andee is always upbeat — full of positive energy and the most extroverted introvert I know.
As the small group of us hiked Andee’s last 5,500 feet of elevation up South Thunder on December 4, I asked her about their hardest day. It was a 50-miler with 12,000′ of elevation back in October, when they joined another group of hardcore hikers for a Grand Canyon Rim to Rim to Rim (R2R2R) in one day.
There was also injury and illness to take into consideration, like a broken rib and sprained ankle that each lasted a month. A sinus infection even threatened her big finish on that day, but she pushed through it anyway (which is likely how I was able to keep up). Since Greg wasn’t in on Andee’s goal from the beginning, he had some catching up to do. He reached his million just 14 days later, on December 18, after logging 147,000 feet of vertical in November.
What an example of setting goals and staying focused. There really is no other way to do hard things but to put one foot in front of the other and move forward, literally in this case. The things we are capable of are beyond imaginable if we just set our mind to it and stay positive along the way.
New Millioners
I often joked about whether or not they had real jobs. No, neither of these “average” hikers is retired or independently wealthy. They both still work full-time while maintaining this level of adventure. Either way, I’d call them millioners by hiking standards (pun intended).
Big trips certainly helped them accomplish this big goal, but the consistency of smaller local hikes was the ticket. An after-work hit up Olympus was the favorite. They also did Grandeur 65 times this year:
- 52 times from the West Ridge (Grandeur Peak Face Trailhead and back)
- 4 Yo-Yo’s (up east, down west, up west, down east)
- 1 Yo-Yo-Yo (up west, down east, up east, down dragon, up dragon, down west)
- 2 from Mill Creek Canyon (Church Fork Trailhead and back)
Nice job Greg and Andee, you totally crushed it! Can’t wait to see what you two do next year.
