I had just completed one of the steeper portions of the 1,200 foot climb to the beginning of Moxie, a backcountry area that started where the chairlift stopped.
My sunglasses were fogged up, my legs were burning, and I was questioning just why I signed up for Last Skier Standing in the first place. Then I looked to my right, and there was Jack Murphy.
Jack, if you didn’t know, is one of the toughest son-of-a-guns north of Dorchester. He lives in the Boston suburb of Arlington, is 25 years old, and holds the record for the most laps held by a splitboarder during Last Skier Standing. As I’d fallen toward the back of the pack on lap one, there he was, wearing his black Helly Hanson pants, black Bern helmet, and gray jacket, trudging uphill way less sweaty than I was.
“Oh sh*t, you’re Jack,” I said to him.
“Uh…Yeah. Hey?” he responded.
“I was hoping I’d bump into you,” I said in a way that was not intended to be weird, but definitely weird. I was sweating, huffing, and puffing when I said it. Because he’s one of the nicest dudes I’ve ever met, Jack didn’t seemed too weirded out. He simply asked me my name, and how long I had been splitboarding for.
Then we skinned together for the majority of that first lap. We talked about work and living in Boston. Jack told me he wanted to try splitting with his golden retriever, and I told him about the laps I’ve taken at Pats Peak with my dog, Ollie.
We figured out that I bartended at the same yacht club that he used to sail at. We talked about riding terrain parks in New Hampshire. After he pulled away for the last 200’, he cheered me on as he descended past my final climb.
Then he transitioned to stone cold killer mode.
Last Skier Standing is an event organized by the folks at White Mountains Ski Company. The format is simple. Skin up 1,200 feet. Ski or snowboard down 1,200 feet. Do that once per hour.
The last person who is able to skin up and down within an hour, is the winner…no matter how many times it takes. This year’s winner overall winner was skier Lukas Janulaitis, who got in 71 laps.
I was dropped from the contest after four-plus hours when I failed to make the one hour time cutoff on my fourth lap. I went to my hotel, showered, went to a bar, drank two beers and ate a sandwich, and then I slept for more than eight hours.
Then I woke up, ate breakfast, drove back to Black Mountain of Maine with my dad, and rode a chairlift for the next six hours. While I did all of that, Jack simply hauled himself uphill and back downhill over and over and over again.
When I chatted with him during our first lap, I was curious if Jack wanted to break his previous splitboard record of 45 laps. He set the record the year before, breaking his previous record of 37 laps. That had broken the previous record form 2022, of 36 laps. Yes, he set that record as well.
“Nah, I’m just trying to not get sick this year,” he told me.
“You got sick last year?” I answered.
“I get sick every year,” he told me.
The next time I saw Jack, the group was on hour 29. His hood on his jacket was up, his balaclava was covering his face, and he was much less cheery than the man who was emphatically cheering me on 27 hours earlier. Jack didn’t drop out for another seven hours.
For context, Noah Dines, the record holder for the most human-powered vertical feet in a calendar year, was also competing. Jack dropped out just three laps before he did.
Dropout board at Last Skier Standing.
Photo: Josh Sullivan/Snowboarder
There have been dozens of stories written about the tremendous fete that is Last Skier Standing. There have been podcast episodes and documentaries made, but none of them can capture the actual absurdity of the event.
On top of that, none of these forms of media have been able to capture just how difficult the event is for splitboarders. There are two reasons for that:
1. Our transitions are more complex.
2. Splitboards are heavy, long, and typically fat. Skimo skis are the opposite of all of those things.
A few days ago, I wrote a story that dubbed skimo and splitmo “uncool.” That was partly a joke, but I was throwing a little bit of shade their way. The spandex, the skinny skis. All of that is counter-counter culture, which of course, is what snowboarding is based upon. Seeing Jack and the other splitboarders that lasted deep into the contest was very cool though.
The sleep deprivation is certainly one thing, but you have to be able to eat and drink the right amount at the right time, and force yourself to rest for just a short while, only to stand back up and do it all over again.
Most of them do that all with a smile on their face at the end.
Original Post from this site