Rainer Hertrich, record copper mountain skier, tinker new life

Rainer Hertrich went out the powderage. But he will always have motorcycles and a boat.

The 63 -year -old Hertrich, the national attention when the long -time resident of the Summit County drove 2,993 consecutive days from November 1, 2003 to January 10, 2012. During his record streak of the endless winter, which lasted due to cardiac arrhythmia, Hertrich drove 98.45 million vertical feet.

But Hertrich's ski-bum lifestyle has collapsed for more than ten years. His left foot was amputated in 2016 due to a staphylococcal infection. His right foot was damaged in a motorcycle accident that crushed his ankle, as well as another staphyte infection that had nothing to do with this crash.

As a result, he has not driven for about three years. And he is currently launching his cave apartment, which will mark the end of a 44-year-old run as a Copper Mountain main support.

Hence the boat and a love for Adventure motorcycles, which grows more than ever.

“Since I was a child when I learned how to sail, kayak and water ski, I had a falling in love with boats and sailing,” said Hertrich. “I now have another place in Lake Havasu with two seedoos and recently acquired a 25-foot sailboat.

“This is my new solution. I don't want to put around and look at the snow if I can no longer ski. So my plan is to spend a lot of time at the lake and drive a lot with my bicycles. And I'll probably go back to Hawaii, make a few diving. I still come outside and hunting adventure. It just looks different now. “

Hertrich was born in Düsseldorf, Germany, but grew up in Boulder and Estes Park and was obsessed with adventures at a young age.

He made his career as a snow groomer at copper and had a revelation when he was sitting in a bar in Jackson Hole, Wyo in 2002. He noticed a badge on the wall that recognized a club of people who had recorded 6 million vertical feet in one season. It calculated him that he could also achieve this service and possibly exceed.

The strip was born soon enough. Hertrich aimed to ski 33,000 vertical feet every day, which set him to around 1 million vertical feet every month. He made 4 million in the first year, then 6 million next year, then 7 million in 2004.

While he was pursuing the strip and vertical feet, Hertrich spent winter/spring in Copper and The Summers in Timberline Lodge on Mount Hood in the ORE government camp. When the season there ended at the Labor Day, he went to South America for a month or two to continue his series.

“I don't know how he did it, to be honest because he drove hard all day and then came in there for 8 to 10 hours a night,” recalled Jeremy Caves, the slope expectation manager at Copper, who worked with Hertrich in the resort.

“For this reason, he has quite the legacy that is never forgotten. He has not been cared for with us for about 10 years, but we are still talking about him and there are “Reiner the Legend” stories that appear all the time. “

One of those in which a hertrich, which was equipped with false, drove a black diamond run in the dark to save a colleague whose snow cat was in a deep powder. For Hertriche, it was common to take on dangerous tasks on the upper mountain. In the early morning hours after his own layer ended, Hertrich left the vehicle and drove it to an old wooden input street with which he brought it back into the central part of the mountain.

“Then he went home and slept something, got up a few hours later and hit the mountain again to drive skiing,” said Caves.

Hertrich increased the same relentless approach to his series, which was made possible by carefully planned logistics, which enabled him to drive from Colorado to Oregon to South America and never miss a day on the snow.

He would recruit friends to drive his motorcycle from copper to Oregon so that he could fly there and drive on the same day of his trip near Timberline. To get the trip to South America, Hertrich hit the slopes on his telemarks on Mount Hood shortly after midnight before driving to the airport.

“I would maintain a path up a new day right after the clock, and I would have Rainer shut down,” said Jake Ingle, the director for slope maintenance director at Steamboat Springs, who worked with Hertrich to Timberline and Copper. “So he would get skiing for this day, and that would give him almost 48 hours to travel to South America to find snow.”

In the middle of the strip, Hertrich drove through injuries such as broken ribs and a separate shoulder and even in extreme weather that even the die -hard shredder would shake. He lived in a tent most of his term in Oregon to save money. He sacrificed relationships for a mission that consumed him and that he was too persistent to give up.

Even in rare cases, in which he selected people via powder, he had it worked to keep his stripes alive. When one day he went to a family reunion in Whidbey Island, Washington, he bought ice cream about a hundred sacks, which he spread over a small dune so that he could ski.

“I met him at Timberline for a year after driving his motorcycle on him and drove with him for a day with him,” Rich Rapp, Hertrich's long -time copper neighbor. “It was a sidevays rending, only absolutely ice cold and misery.

“I was like 'screw it), I go to the bar.' But he stayed out there for hours.