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World record for number of people skiing in jeans set in Jackson Hole, Wyo.

ARI SHAPIRO, HOST:

All right. We've got some breaking news from Wyoming now, where a new world record has been set for the number of people skiing in jeans. Hanna Merzbach reports.

HANNA MERZBACH, BYLINE: It's about 20 degrees and super-sunny at the base of Jackson Hole Resort's two gondolas, and it's a sea of denim. Ski instructor Reyn Hoffman is practicing her disco moves near a live band.

REYN HOFFMAN: So we have a full Canadian tux with a disco helmet and a lot of glitter on.

MERZBACH: A Canadian tux is all denim. Some are wearing denim shorts or even the occasional jean Speedo. Others tuck in snow pants under their denim. Dylan Ruder dons a brown cowboy hat, thrift store jeans and rainbow Pit Viper glasses.

DYLAN RUDER: I'm a coastal cowboy just looking to shred some pow (ph).

MERZBACH: He and some friends from Newport Beach, Calif., saw the resort advertising on social media that it was attempting to break the world skiing in jeans record.

RUDER: We all immediately bought tickets and booked a little lodging and came out.

MERZBACH: The resort says skiing in jeans is a way to kick off the winter season, and say a record is something people can latch on to. Colorado's Arapahoe Basin claimed the title in 2020, when 80 people wore denim on the slopes. This year a New Zealand report topped them with just over a hundred.

BLANE GILLILAD: Thirteen-sixty-five, 1,366, 1367. I'm not counting you until you come back in jeans.

MERZBACH: Blane Gillilad is recording the numbers as skiers file in under an inflatable black archway.

GILLILAD: We broke the record like 3 minutes in or like by 8:30, before we even opened.

MERZBACH: The resort was offering lift tickets for $25 and sold out. Day tickets typically go for about 200 bucks here. Kellie Wirth, who's from Jackson, says that can make skiing unattainable.

KELLIE WIRTH: It's kind of becoming an elitist sport, which is sad. So it's fun to get back to the jeans and remember the good old days.

MERZBACH: In a group of women wearing bright pink boas, Wirth says people wear jeans when they can't afford snow pants. The latest high-tech brands can go for hundreds of dollars. Nowadays, many see skiing in jeans as a joke, something you do on April Fool's or Closing Day. But according to Reuter, the coastal cowboy...

RUDER: Skiing in jeans is freedom. That's what it is. Skiing in jeans is freedom.

MERZBACH: The final tally of skiers in jeans - 3,114. For NPR News, I'm Hanna Merzbach in Jackson, Wyo. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.

NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.

Hannah Merzbach
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