King of vert: Retired teacher logs 10 million feet in resort's vertical challenge

The beauty of having a season pass is skiing as much as you want. If conditions are good, an epic day on the slopes for an average skier might include a dozen runs, or about 27,000 vertical feet.  

Michael Donnay is not an average skier. 

Whitefish Mountain Resort has been tracking vertical feet by scanning season passes at chairlifts since 2003 and finding a vertical champion each year. This season, previous champ Donnay, a retired middle school teacher, shattered the all-time record by skiing more than 10 million vertical feet. That’s nearly 2,000 miles. 

The previous record for most vertical skied in a season, a little over 8 million feet, was held by Ken Jones for the last nine years. It was a record widely considered to be unbeatable. 

For the last three seasons, Donnay, skiing with only his personal best in mind, has been the top vert earner on the Big. In the 2021-22 season, he skied 6.8 million feet. The following year, he “took it easy” and collected 5.7 million feet.  

He decided to see what he could do if he skied every day last season, and he racked up 7.7 million feet. That's when he started considering the record. 

“I never thought that Ken Jones' record was attainable,” Donnay said. “When I did my 7.7, I decided to use my average and make projections to see, what if I skied every day on a good year with good snow from the beginning? It's totally attainable.” 

Donnay’s wife, Kerith, and a passel of friends greeted him with a large banner as he completed his 10-million-foot goal on Wednesday, April 2. He continued to ski through April 6, closing day, for a total of 10,347,920 vertical feet. 

The question Donnay fields frequently is simple: Why? 

"I love to add an endurance challenge to things I love to do,” Donnay said. “I've always been amazed at the resiliency of the human body and how some good food and a good night's sleep and the next day you're ready to go again.” 

He and Kerith enjoy the outdoors vigorously – skiing, hiking and biking. They have backpacked from Mexico to Canada twice, hiking at least 25 miles a day, every day.  

"We love backpacking. We love being outdoors. We love the wilderness, and we love traversing such distances under human power,” he said. “It's activities I love to do and adding that endurance challenge is something that I find very motivating and gratifying.” 

Belgium born Donnay skied every day of the 123-day season, from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., or until 8:30 p.m. when night skiing was available. His standard was to ski as long as the lifts were spinning. 

The desire to pursue a lofty goal is one thing, but to chase it down often requires a support system. Friends skied with him, often in shifts, and Kerith, who typically ranks in the top 30 on the vertical leader list, championed his attempt. 

"She was super supportive about it,” Donnay said of Kerith. “She's like, if that's your dream, if that's what you want to do, do it. Do it before you get any older.” 

His 53-year-old body held up admirably, and while it may be accustomed to extreme athletic endeavors, the scope of this accomplishment dealt out some pains, especially to his joints and ligaments of his knees, one of which suffered a meniscus tear in the past. 

“They're hot and on fire every day, and my feet are in terrible shape,” he said. "I've had to do a recovery routine every night to be able to go the next day, because there's definitely a toll on the body, not giving it any rest day for four months.” 

The nightly recovery routine involves lots of ice – ice baths for his feet and ice wraps for the knees. The routine is sometimes repeated in the morning to reduce inflammation, prior to another day on the slopes. 

He said his body has plateaued in terms of the pain and recovery cycle. Donnay did have one more shock in store for it -- sleeping in on April 7.  

“I can't wait to sleep in and then do nothing. Walk around barefooted, get out of these boots,” he said. “I've had to get my boots blown out four times. My pinky toes are just getting crushed, and all my toes are like fat red sausages. Lost a couple toenails, got a couple blisters. It's all part of it.” 

Yet, despite the pain, wind, rain, rime and crowds, Donnay still thinks skiing is fun. 

“I was just thinking this morning, ‘Does gliding on snow ever get old?’ No.” he said. “It's just the most amazing sensation and so you're always looking for that smooth line.” 

He stuck to Chair 4 for his record-breaking attempt and had safety in mind when he formulated his method for amassing vert.  

“What I do in my first couple few laps is find the safest, quickest, smoothest, least crowded line that I can, and then I rinse and repeat,” he explained. “I get to know that line really well and I find that safer than going all over the place, which is what I did other seasons.” 

Because he rides the same chair and skis the same route repeatedly, many have asked Donnay about boredom. Wouldn’t he like to ski a different run? He said he understands that way of thinking but that’s not how he rolls. 

“For me to just do the same lap 38 times a day, that doesn't detract from the enjoyment for me at all,” he said with a big smile. “To me, it's the turns, it's the G-force, it's the speed, it's the being outside. It's the views which I get even doing the same run.” 

However, when he’d ridden the last chair each day and no longer felt a sense of urgency, Donnay would opt to enjoy a run on Inspiration or Hogan’s East. 

Friends gathered near Chair 4 to congratulate Michael Donnay on accomplishing his 10-million-foot vertical goal and give props to his wife, Kerith, who ranked 34th on the vert tracker. (Howie Nordstrom photo)