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Just after sunrise on April 20, Tammy McMinn got her wish–to find out just how long her endurance could last. After nine years of snowboarding, 31-year-old McMinn climbed aboard a Klondike Heli chopper in Atlin, B.C. en route to set the women’s record for the most vertical feet ridden in a day. No previous record for women existed, only the men’s record of 153,000 set at Mike Wiegele’s in 1995.

Nearly fifteen hours later, exhausted in the fading light, she had not only set a formidable women’s record, but much to her surprise, had also conquered the men’s record–in fact, she nearly doubled it.

Deep in British Columbia’s Sloko Range, McMinn and her partner Jennifer Hughes (on skis) each achieved a total vertical descent of 305,525 feet (232 miles), beating Mark Bennet’s former skiing record of 294,380 feet. Hydrated by Camelbaks beneath their jackets, and fueled by pocketfuls of GU, the two hyper- sped through 101 runs, averaging 40 miles per hour, and 3,025 feet per run. McMinn utilized K2 Clicker step-ins to save all the time she could.

Was it any fun to ride solely for speed and maximum vertical? Is a record worth the effort? McMinn says that testing herself was the important part, not breaking records. "It was just as much a mental challenge as

it was physical," she says. To put her accomplishment in perspective, consider that a typical rider descends only about 7,500 feet in a day–McMinn rode over

40 times that. –S.L.