Vail Mountain Winter Uphill Race

This event honors the memory of Vail local, Lyndon Ellefson, who was instrumental in starting the U.S. Men’s Mountain Running Program, with some of the entry fees supporting the U.S. Mountain Running Team.

For the past nineteen years, the Vail Mountain Winter Uphill has proven to be a challenging midwinter competition for some, and a fun, non-competitive community hike for others. It presents an opportunity to support a worthy organization, while also paying tribute to Ellefson, a trailblazer in the sport of mountain running who lost his life in 1998, due to an accident near the Matterhorn while training for a mountain race in Italy. Ellefson was the foreman for the Lionshead Gondolda, the same gondola the race begins and finishes next to. Ellen Miller, along with fellow mountain runner and Vail local, Hooker Lowe, started the race in 2008 to spread their passion for mountain running and uphill skiing (skinning) and to pay homage to Ellefson.