We’re excited to once again be able to hold our popular Red Bench Speaker Series in-person. To kick off our 2022/23 season we’ll be hosting Vermonter Hillary Girardi, an acclaimed high mountain athlete who now lives in Chamonix, France.
With French ski mountaineering partner Valentine Fabre, Hillary set the first women’s speed record for skiing the legendary high alpine route, La Haute Route, between Chamonix and Zermatt, Switzerland in 2021. (No lifts allowed!) They covered 26,000 feet of mountainous terrain and 66 miles of glaciers in just over 26 hours, a feat that takes the average skier five or six days.
In a casual back-and-forth interview format with moderator Peggy Shinn, Hillary will discuss how a kid growing up in St. Johnsbury, VT and Middlebury College graduate, ended up living in Chamonix and becoming a pre-eminent skyrunning champion. A Q&A with the audience will follow. This is an event that will interest skiers, runners and climbers.
Skyrunners practice a sport that pushes their limits where the earth meets the sky, running in mountains above 6,500 feet in altitude, with an incline over 30% and the difficulty of climbing is not more than a II° grade. This month, she again set a record winning time for the prestigious Italian Trofeo Kima skyrunning race.
When not racing, she holds down a day job at the Research Center for Alpine Ecosystems (CREA Mont-Blanc) in Chamonix, France, where she keeps getting after other mountain passions as a skier and alpine climber. She's a sponsored Black Diamond Equipment athlete.
Peggy is a senior contributor to TeamUSA.org and has covered seven Olympic Games. An award-winning writer, she has contributed to just about every North American ski magazine that’s been published in the last 25 years. er second book, World Class: The Making of the U.S. Women’s Cross-Country Ski Team (2018) delved into how the current U.S. women’s cross-country ski team began finishing on the podium and is a look at what it can take to build an effective team. She lives in Rutland with her husband and daughter (when she’s home from college) and a full quiver of skis.
Doors to the Museum will open at 6:00 and guests are invited to enjoy the exhibits and socialize. The discussion begins at 6:30. A $10 admission donation helps support the museum's mission to "Collect, Preserve and Celebrate Vermont's rich skiing and snowboarding history". New this year is our Red Bench Season Pass.
Series sponsors include Schoeller Textil, r.k. Miles, AJ’s Ski & Sports, Sisler Builders, and Vermont Ski + Ride. This event is supported by Trapp Family Lodge and Stowe Cider.
Support the Red Bench Speaker Series by making a donation today!
