Rainer Hertrich, 47, has some bragging rights. On Earth Day, April 22, he marked 2,000 straight days skiing. So when I talked to him on his cellphone Friday, he was riding the No. 1 chair at Loveland, skiing his 2,009th consecutive day.
He says it all started when he was at the Mangy Moose Saloon in Jackson Hole, Wyo., when he saw a plaque celebrating people who skied 6 million vertical feet in a single season. As a groomer at Copper Mountain, he figured he did about 4 million without even trying. So he started skiing more — and he just couldn’t stop himself. That was Nov. 1, 2003.
He logs his downhill days by skiing Copper, A-Basin and Loveland in Colorado and Timberline on Mount Hood in Oregon. Add summer stops in Chile and Argentina.
“I think the longest record before was a year,” says Hertrich. “But my record won’t be official until I quit.”
And it doesn’t sound like that’s anytime soon. What’s one more day after five years, five months and 31 days?
He can afford to do it because he works at Copper and Timberline and, he says, he’s frugal. “My bank-account numbers are holding steady, so that’s no reason to quit.”
Pencil me in
For five years, Denver’s Pen & Podium series has brought the hottest writers to town to read and jawbone — and the sixth season is looking good. P&P opens Oct. 1 with Khaled Hosseini, author of “The Kite Runner” and “A Thousand Splendid Suns.”
The Denver area’s own David Wroblewski, author of the Oprah Book Club pick “The Story of Edgar Sawtelle,” crosses town for the night on Nov. 11.
Wally Lamb (“She’s Come Undone” and “I Know This Much Is True”) is here Feb. 2. Jodi Picoult, author of 15 novels, closes the series on March 24. Subscriptions on sale at 303-871-7720 or penandpodium on Monday. Single sales, if available, come later.
Hey bartender
Guest bartenders and servers were hustling for tips for Project Angel Heart Thursday night — Devany McNeill, Mark Schwartz and Kirk Montgomery at Tambien; Ray Rinaldi, Chris Parente, Chef D and Matthew Morris at Sketch; Patty Calhoun, Lannie Garrett and Stacey Donaldson at Mezcal.
Don’t miss the annual Cinco de Mayo celebrations (mariachis!) at Mezcal and Tambien Tuesday.
City spirit
NY Times reports that a movie titled “Madoff: Made Off With America” is in the works to be shot on location in New York, London and Aspen . . . Sez who: “A common mistake that people make when trying to design something completely foolproof is to underestimate the ingenuity of complete fools.” Douglas Adam
Bill Husted’s column appears Sunday, Tuesday and Friday. You can reach him at 303-954-1486 or at bhusted@denverpost.com. Take a peek at Husted’s next column at .
