Want to try to set the world record for most consecutive days ever skied? It might cost you an ankle or two, as well as a hip.
That’s the sacrifice made by Rainer Hertrich, a longtime snow groomer for Colorado’s Copper Mountain, who skied a whopping 2,993 straight days in a row—and is now paying the price in appendages.
“The injuries just came from skiing too much,” says Hertrich, 59. “I wore out the cartilage in my ankle and got Charcot foot. The bones were grinding together so I had to get it amputated.”