About six years ago, Pat Bridges and a crew from Snowboarder Magazine had the hare-brained idea to see just how many ski resorts they could ride in a single day. Their journey, documented in the September 2013 issue, took them to 12 ski areas across Vermont, they would end up making laps at 12 different ski areas.

Their mission inspired me to see what might be possible in Michigan — home to more ski areas than any other state in the union except for New York, and I’ve basically been brainstorming it ever since.

In the years since that original Snowball Run by Bridges’ crew, three Michigan ski areas have unfortunately closed (Hawk Island after the 2014 season, followed by Pando Winter Sports Park most recently Apple Mountain), which would’ve made an easier go of it, but with a little luck and a few favors, we’re optimistic that we can match or beat that number: our final route has 16 planned stops. This falls short of several world record claims, including an official Guinness record of 17 which took place in Japan, and at least one unofficial record of 17 which took place in the 3 Valleys region in France. Not to make light of those efforts, but regions where most or all resorts are interconnected leaves a lot less to chance, our route will involve about 500 miles behind the wheel, so the weather, road conditions, even the vehicle itself are all variables we’ll have to contend with.

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Inspired by Pat Bridges’ original Snowball Run, we’re going to attempt to ride 16 different Michigan ski areas in 24 hours. Crazy? Probably.

We’re excited to have partnered with The Michigan Snowsports Industries Association (without their assistance, we’d still be talking about it instead of doing it) and we’re beyond thankful for all the Michigan ski areas who’ve gone along with this crazy idea.

January 8 2019 – Clarkston, MI – The Michigan Snowsports Industries Association (MSIA) has teamed up with agnarchy.com to go for the North American record for the most ski areas snowboarded in a 24-hour period. “The Guinness record is 17 ski areas and it was set in Japan. No one in the U.S. has ever gotten that far,” stated David Zemens of agnarchy.com. Together with Sabato Caputo they will begin their quest on Friday night, January 11 and finish on Saturday night, January 12. The two will begin at 9:00 p.m. this Friday at Boyne Highlands in Harbor Springs. They’ll continue on to Nub’s Nob that same evening and then head down to Boyne Mountain in Boyne Falls to finish out the night. “This works out well because Boyne Mountain happens to be open for 70 hours straight during this time to celebrate their 70th birthday and raise money for Challenge Mountain, a ski area solely dedicated to assisting people with special needs.” said Mickey MacWilliams, MSIA president. On Saturday, the pair will begin in Gaylord at Treetops Resort, then Otsego Club and Resort. From there it’s on to Schuss Mountain and the Summit slopes at Shanty Creek. After hitting slopes at four more Northern Michigan ski areas, they head downstate, with stops along the way and a finish at Mt. Brighton before 9:00 p.m. The complete list with scheduled times is below. “We planned this over January 11 and 12 because January 11 is the National Learn to Ski and Snowboard Day. We want to draw attention to the fact that Michigan has so many great ski slopes within an easy drive of most metropolitan areas,” says MacWilliams. “In fact, we have more ski areas than any other state except New York. No matter where you live, in either the Upper Peninsula or Lower Peninsula of Michigan, you are within a 2 to 2 ½ -hour drive of a ski area,” she added.

For a visual representation of our route, see below. Google Maps limits you to only 10 stops on a trip, so this route is approximate and omits some of our planned stops, but the gist of it is that we’ll be starting at Boyne Highlands and hopefully finishing before our 24 hours is up, at Mt. Brighton.