Joe Demoor wins Vail Mountain Winter Uphill

Joe Demoor won the Vail Mountain Winter Uphill on Sunday in a time of 32 minutes, 47 seconds. He led a field of over 100 athletes who ran, skied or took to their splitboard to tackle the 2,200 vertical feet of groomed trails to reach Eagle’s Nest at the top of the Eagle Bahn Gondola in Lionshead.

Full results can be found on VailDaily.com.

For the past thirteen years, the Vail Mountain Uphill has proven to be a challenging midwinter competition for some, and a fun, non-competitive community hike for others. The 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.

Ellefson was a trailblazer in the sport of mountain running and lost his life in a 1998 accident near the Matterhorn while training for a mountain race in Italy. He was also the foreman for the Lionshead Gondola. 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.

“The Vail Mountain Winter Uphill is a meaningful event for our community. We started it in the memory of Lyndon Ellefson and it has always been a fundraiser and a tribute to the U.S. Mountain Running Team, of which Lyndon was a pioneer,” Miller said in a Vail Recreation District release.

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Miller coaches athletes year-round primarily through the Vail Vitality Center and also serves as the women’s team manager for the U.S. Mountain Running Team. She was first in the 60-69 female ski category on Sunday.