Revelstoke, B.C.-based Greg Hill has logged hundreds of first descents around the world. He is perhaps best known for climbing and skiing 2 million vertical feet in 2010. This feat required him to ascend (and then descend) 71 mountains in North and South America in one calendar year—and he did about half of them solo.
He has summited and skied over 200 peaks, including in Scandinavia, the Alps, Nepal and Pakistan.
Hill is the first known North American to climb and ski Mont Blanc in a day (11 hours) and has pioneered many B.C. traverses, including the Monashee Range in three weeks, at an incredible one-peak-per-day pace.
Today Greg is mostly snowboarding (always up for new challenges) and is continuing to promote a more environmental approach in the mountains. We talk about his beginnings in the ski world and where he’s going in the future.
Here are some highlights from Greg’s conversation with Colin Field:
Beginnings
“At my school in Lennoxville, Quebec they had a climbing wall and I started climbing when I was 16 and got hooked. I skied a bunch but climbing took over from age 16 to 23 and it was all I thought about. I was Greg Hill The Climber. And I loved the challenge. I loved the rewards. But I was young and dumb and didn’t train enough or warm up enough. And one day I dislocated my shoulder and that changed my life. And in a lot of ways it was a shitty thing to happen, but it’s also what put me on this ski-touring trajectory.
Climbing is one of those sports that’s really hard, but then when you succeed, it feels really good. And so I looked for those challenges and rewards in other things. And luckily I’d started ski touring a bit in Banff.
And so I thought, ‘Let’s get into this—it doesn’t use my shoulder.’ But I never, ever thought about being a pro. I was living in a van in Whistler that winter (1999-2000) with some Australians. If we had a really good day, we’d say, ‘The sponsors are happy!’ And that was a total joke. It wasn’t anything I even imagined…”
“It’s tough to prove to somebody that you’re doing much with your life, if you’re just skiing every day.”
Backcountry Energy
“Initially, I was trying to get fit so I could be the guy who could help you if anything ever happened. You know: ‘Hey Greg, we need you to go over three ridges. There’s somebody in trouble!’ And I started pushing myself just to be fit so I could be a really strong partner. And then I realized that I had more energy than people around me and it’d be the end of a big day and everybody would be tired and I’d still be jazzed and excited. And in retrospect, I saw that what powers me is this incredible sense of wonder. A lot of my energy comes from this wonder at the amazingness of the backcountry. We’re so lucky to be doing what we’re doing. There’s endless potential there. If you dream and have the skills and pay attention, you can pretty much do anything…
It’s tough to prove to somebody that you’re doing much with your life, if you’re just skiing every day. So I started to make little goals that were fun for me to accomplish, though in a way I’m sure it was based on a bit of insecurity and wanting to prove to my dad and my brother and my family that I’m doing something of value here and that I’m not just smoking pot and hanging out…”
Listen to Greg and Colin’s conversation here.
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