The Longest Run

Book excerpt: From November 1, 2003 until January 10, 2012, Rainer Hertrich, a middle-aged snowcat groomer from Copper Mountain, Colorado, skied every day for 2,993 consecutive days. Before his streak, the longest run on record was 365 days by a British journalist and his French girlfriend. Hertrich's wild, globe-trotting journey captured the heart of Olympians and ski bums alike, many of whom say his streak will never be matched. It only ended when doctors discovered a near-fatal heart arrhythmia and ordered Hertrich to stop skiing. In this memoir, coauthored with ski writer Devon O'Neil, Hertrich tells of his family's emigration from Germany, his unlikely rise to fame by way of a now-defunct ski area in Estes Park, Colorado, and story after hilarious story from a life lived on motorcycles, in tents, aboard sinking boats, and, of course, on big mountains worldwide, always chasing adventure. By turns heartwarming, inspiring, and laugh-out-loud funny, Hertrich's commitment to skiing transcends the snowy lifestyle and shows what is possible when someone devotes his life to a simple, liberating pursuit: strapping skis to his feet and schussing downhill on snow.