CANNON TOWNSHIP, Mich. (WOOD) — A West Michigan skier and snowboarder have likely broken the world record for most ski areas skied in 24 hours.
Although their feat still has to be verified by Guinness World Records, Kyle Kelly and Brad Dykstra said they skied at 23 resorts in 24 hours.
“It’s been a whirlwind,” Dykstra, of Hopkins, said. “It was just a crazy adventure.”
The clock started at noon Saturday, when the two friends completed their first run at Nubs Nob in Harbor Springs.
“We started in Northern Michigan at Nubs Nub and then we finally s’d our way through the state and ended up at Cannonsburg,” Dykstra said.
Spending more time in the car than they did on the slopes, the friends set out to beat the previous record of 17 ski areas completed in 2017 by Terri Moore in Japan.
The friends carefully documented their journey and are in the process of submitting the evidence to Guinness World Records.
“The hardest thing has been the stipulations set by Guinness to prove that you actually broke it,” Kelly of Caledonia said. “We have to send them lift tickets, photos. We had to film for 24 hours straight.”
All the ski resorts were in Michigan, and many of them opened early to help the pair break the record.
“The record-breaking run, when we beat the previous record, that was over at Alpine Valley (and) that was probably at 4 or 5 in the morning,” Dykstra said.
Circling back to the west side of the state for their final runs, they said Michigan was the perfect place to challenge this record.
“The proximity of all these resorts in Michigan, it’s got a higher density of resorts than most other places in the country or the world even,” Dykstra said.
The pair said they didn’t just break one record, but two.
“What’s cool is this isn’t just one record. I broke the skiing record. Brad broke the snowboarding record,” said Kelly. “We set two different records.”
The marathon day ended just before noon on Sunday with a celebration at Cannonsburg Ski Area.