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P.G. ultra marathoner breaks record

Prince George's Jeff Hunter, one of the top ultra-marathon runners in Canada, set a new kind of endurance record last weekend.
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HUNTER

Prince George's Jeff Hunter, one of the top ultra-marathon runners in Canada, set a new kind of endurance record last weekend.

Competing in the Smithers-based Extreme Everest Challenge, Hunter climbed Hudson Bay Mountain on skis, which had removable grippy skins on the bottom, and then skied back down 18 times, the equivalent height of climbing up and skiing down Mount Everest, in a 24-hour time frame.

Hunter, 37, did his 18 laps in an unprecedented 12 hours and 45 minutes. To put that time in perspective, the previous record was 21 hours.

The race started at noon on Saturday. After Hunter finished his 18 laps, he went to bed, got up the next morning, and did two more repetitions to establish another record of 20 laps in 24 hours.

And yes, even for a superhuman guy like Hunter, there was pain involved.

"You're dealing with high heart rate and fatigue on the way up, and your legs getting sore and cramping -- hips and legs and calves and arms too," he said. "But you know what was really hard? The skiing down. Because you're so tired and sore from [skinning] up, and then you've got to kind of ski down in the dark with snow in your face and a limited headlamp when you're going fast. It was tough. By the time I got to the bottom of each run, it would take me three or four minutes of going up again just to recover. It was very strange."

This was the third year for the Extreme Everest Challenge, where participants can tackle the mountain as individuals or in teams. Hunter was told about it by Dave Lee of Prince George's Cycle Logic and was immediately intrigued. He was the only P.G. resident to compete in the event.

As an ultra-marathoner, Hunter routinely runs trail or mountain races that exceed 42.195 kilometres in distance. His longest event last season was the 125-kilometre Canadian Death Race in Grand Cache, Alta. In that torturous affair, he placed second overall in a time of 13:35:25.

For inspiration during the Extreme Everest Challenge, Hunter needed to look no further than Dr. Rod Leighton, a Smithers resident who was the first to skin up and ski down the mountain those 18 times. Shortly after the first Extreme Everest Challenge was held to build on Leighton's idea, he was injured while riding a mountain bike and is now partially paralyzed.

Last year, Leighton still managed to compete 460 metres of the race and, this year, he was back on the slopes again.

"It was absolutely astonishing to see a guy climb all night like that," Hunter said. "Here you are, working really hard and thinking it's really tough, and then I'd watch this guy and I'm thinking, 'I've got nothing on this guy.'

"I'd pass him on the way up and he was working unbelievably hard. He would move 100 feet from where I passed him on the last lap and he climbed all the way to the top of this mountain, with help. But he moved on his own every step. I've never seen anything like it."