Attempt 127 was the keeper. Olympic bronze medalist Jesper Tjäder and a massive crew made history grinding down 154.49 meters (506-feet) of a giant rail built in Åre, Sweden. While the record is something to celebrate on its own, seeing the behind-the-scenes work that went into making a World Record attempt even possible can bring a whole new level of appreciation to the accomplishment.
“I have done a lot of tricks on rails before, but never near such a long rail as this,” Tjäder says. “I felt like that would be a good mission to have, and when Tom Wallisch set the record it looked insane to me. So I thought, ‘I have to try and do that.'”
The previous record he’s speaking of was set by American freeskier Tom Wallisch, who rode 129.2 meters (424 feet) several years ago. And to break and set a new world record for the world’s longest grind on skis, you need to build the world’s longest rail. That’s the enormous undertaking by an entire crew of folks, who had to add the additional 108 feet somehow, someway. So, take a 50-story building, lay it down on its side, and that’s how much rail Jesper needed for a new world record. The final product came out to 162 meters and 49 centimeters.
Three days and all 127 attempts later and they got it done.
“Being the official Guinness World Record holder feels pretty cool,” Jesper said. “I have dreamt about it since I was a kid. This rail was a hard challenge, and my guess was that it would take about 525 attempts, but it went way easier than I expected.”
