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Human pyramid gets high in Vail

Melanie Wong
Vail correspondent
Aspen, CO Colorado
Sarah Mickalson, of Boulder, stands atop a human pyramid at Belle's Camp in Blue Sky Basin in Vail on Saturday. Mickalson was part of a group attempting to set the Guinness World Record for the highest-altitude human pyramid. (Theo Stroomer/Vail Daily)
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VAIL. Colo. ” What began as a beer-inspired idea may now land a group of Vail skiers in the Guinness Book of World Records.

A group of 25 Denver and Boulder residents met at Belle’s Camp in Vail’s Blue Sky Basin to set the world record for “Highest Elevation Human Pyramid.”

Didn’t know there was such a record? Well, there wasn’t one ” until the Blue Sky Basin group set theirs on Saturday. The pyramid had five tiers made up of 18 people at roughly 11,450 feet.



“Hurry, it’s going down!” someone yelled, as the last few people scrambled to the top.

“Light as a feather!” the bottom people grunted, and the middle stacks nearly buckled under the weight.




The tradition started two years ago at the group’s annual party on Vail Mountain.

“We usually bring some beer, which makes for some goofy times,” said organizer Abby Radbill, of Boulder. “I said, ‘Guys, we should make a human pyramid,’ and we’ve done it since.”

Not that beer wasn’t involved this time around. With Tecates in hand and ski boots on, the group tried several times to get the pyramid intact, cheered on by onlookers.

“We should start a club where we just set crazy world records,” Boulder resident Jack Fredregill said.

The key was staying low and for the bottom layer of people to lock arms, he explained.

“You’ve got to get close, like cheek to cheek,” he said, grinning.

Last year the group only got up to six people, but this year, with the world record at stake, Radbill said she really rallied the troops. She sent out invitations to all her friends, and the group tried to pull in onlookers.

Kevin O’Malley even came from Chicago to be in the middle tiers.

“I just came to hang out, and when I heard about this, I was like, ‘I’m in!'” he said.

Radbill said she wants to get an even bigger group together next year to top their own record.

To be recognized by Guinness, the group needs to send in their feat documented by a photograph.

“It feels fantastic,” said Boulder resident Sarah Mickalson of being a soon-to-be world-record holder. “I always knew it would happen, I just didn’t know in what.”

mwong@vaildaily.com