THE FAMOUS AND FAVORITE BERG UND THAL – FACT 10 OF 50
Did you know that the “Berg und Thal” (translates to “Mountain and Valley” in German) originated at GMVS?
When Doug Lewis ‘82 arrived on campus in 1978, the Berg und Thal was already in use as a way to work on power, strength, agility and capacity. It was a great way to ignite competition to see who was the fastest!
At some point in the 90s, GMVS did away with the Berg und Thal. Doug was on campus for ELITEAM when he found it in the dumpster. He rescued it and has used it at ELITEAM ever since. He loves the Berg und Thal so much, he even built a second one ten years ago. As far as he knows, these are the only two such pieces of equipment in existence.
Every ELITEAMer since 1991 (including US Ski Teamers Mikaela Shiffrin, Alice Merryweather, Lauren Macuga, Grace Henderson and Jimmy Krupka) have tested themselves on it and the fastest time for twice around is 9.32 seconds!