2019-10-8 | Chevy New Roads Magazine

Skier Greg Hill loves pushing the limits. Like the time in 2014 when he broke his leg during an avalanche in the remote mountain ranges of Pakistan, spending 24 hours on an icy peak before being rescued by a medevac team. Then there was 2010, when he climbed and skied a total of 2 million vertical feet in 365 days at various locales in North and South America—the equivalent of ascending the Empire State Building four times every day. “At the end, I broke down crying,” Hill says of his then world-record feat. “I learned so much about myself, just having the confidence and ability to achieve something no one else thought possible.”

You might think Hill would have nothing more to prove, having conquered mountains and set skiing records. But in early 2019, the restless Canadian added yet another pioneering achievement when he embarked on a trek from his home in southeastern British Columbia to Teton County, Wyoming, in Chevrolet’s all-electric Bolt EV. For Hill, the winter jaunt would put North America’s EV-charging infrastructure to the test, while allowing for an honest appraisal of Bolt EV’s tour readiness. Sure, Bolt EV has earned plaudits from the automotive media and praise from customers, but how would it hold up on the rangy terrain on Hill’s snowy route?

The road trip was just the latest exploration for Hill, who has made a career of barreling headlong into the unknown. Born in 1975 to an airplane pilot and a teacher, he was raised in quaint Sutton, Quebec, a town that would stoke his snow sporting passions. “It had a little hill where I skied with my family,” the 43-year-old adventurer recalls. “I would skip school for skiing.”

As his skills improved, Hill began testing his physical and mental limits. He gravitated to backcountry skiing. Equal parts mountain climbing and downhill skiing, backcountry skiing attracts adventure seekers who forgo the ease of chairlifts and helicopters, opting instead to hike up rugged mountains, then ski down in a celebratory banzai blitz. It’s an audacious sport, yet skiers insist the life-affirming rush they receive is worth the effort. “After six hours of climbing the mountain, to finally get to the top,” Hill says. “There’s something about being in the mountains, abiding by nature’s rules while pushing your limits at the same time. There’s nothing quite like it.”

Informally launching his skiing career in the early ’90s, Hill immediately displayed a flair for grand gestures—one of his very first climbs was the 14,410-foot volcanic peak of Mt. Rainier. It wasn’t long before his exploits were earning him acclaim. He won Canada’s Whistler Randonnée race three years in a row, from 2002 to 2004. He pioneered the Northern Monashee traverse, a 21-day ski expedition where he summitted 21 peaks along the way, just one of many first descents throughout the continental Columbia Mountains. He was the first North American to climb and ski 40,000 feet in 24 hours, setting a world record at the time of 50,100 feet in 24 hours.

Whether skiing the storied Norwegian mountains of Lofoten, scaling Nepal’s colossal Mount Manaslu, or negotiating the cliffs of Argentina’s Las Leñas, Hill is obsessive about his sport, as revealed in his independently produced 2008 documentary The Unbearable Lightness of Skiing. “I need to prove to myself that I’m living life to its fullest,” he says of his hard-driving personality. “I’m happy because I’ve learned who I am through my hardships.”

Planning a long journey in your Bolt EV is simpler with the Energy Assist feature in the myChevrolet Mobile App.^† Here’s how it can help.