King of the Mountain

Robert Baker uses Peak Skis to ski nearly 5 million vertical feet in one season

For the past 34 years, Robert “Buddah” Baker, who calls Jackson Hole, Wyoming home, has taken an enviable approach to life: “I work really hard all summer so that I earn enough money to not have to work at all during the winter,” Baker, 52, says. “Then I ski all winter. I hardly miss a day.”

Baker doesn’t just head to the mountain and take a few runs. On a typical winter morning, he hops on the first tram at 9 o’clock in the morning at Jackson Hole Mountain Resort and skis until the lifts close at 4. In the process, he’s racked up some impressive stats. He always skis over 100 days a season and, during the 2021/2022 season, Baker skied 4.4 million vertical feet, which impressed his friends.

“But then they told me there was no way I could ski more than that in a season,” says Baker. That’s all the motivation he needed. “I was like, ok, let’s see if I can get 5 million this season.”

In early December, Baker added a pair of skis to his quiver that he says helped him toward his goal of 5 million vertical feet. “I heard about Peak skis and was looking for something around 110 underfoot,” he says. “So I picked up a pair of Peak 110s.”  

With Jackson Hole having a record-setting winter in terms of snowfall—just about every other day was a powder day—Baker found himself grabbing the Peak 110s over and over. “I was impressed right away,” he says. “It skied well at high speeds. And it skied long turns or short turns well—it was really one of the easiest all-around skis I’ve ever skied.” 

But what Baker liked most about his Peaks—and what he thinks allowed to ski hard into the afternoons—was that the forgiving nature of the ski made it easy to ski even as he got tired.  

When the season ended in April, Baker had skied 125 days and nearly 5 million vertical feet. 

Will he go for an even bigger number next year? “I don’t know,” he says. “We’ll just play it out and see how the skiing is. I’ll just go and play and see what happens.”