Abbreviated History of Cartop Skiing

From a poor man’s wind tunnel to insane world records. 

If riding your skis while they’re attached to the roof of a fast car seems like a stupid stunt that could kill you, you’re right. You may be surprised to learn that it’s an actual sport. Kind of.

Canadian downhiller "Jungle Jim" Hunter is credited with the first cartop speed run in the early 1970s. While training for the 1972 Olympics, he built a rack on the roof of his dad’s old pickup, strapped his skis to it and climbed on board, riding on all kinds of roads and reaching a top speed of 62 mph. At Sapporo, he won the FIS bronze in combined.

(Photo above: In 1985, Sean Cridland recruited land-speed racer Rick Vesco as chauffeur and headed to Bonneville Salt Flats. The result: a 162mph world record, which still stands. Wade McCoy photo/Cridland collection.)

Cartop world-record holder Sean Cridland notes, “What Jim was doing was different from what we did later. He liked bouncy dirt roads for downhill training. We were going for speed records.”

When Steve McKinney and Tom Simons went to their first Flying Kilometer speed skiing trials in Cervinia, Italy, in 1974, they knew it would be useful to experience some wind-tunnel time. But wind tunnels are scarce and spendy. So they found a straight stretch of the Italian Autostrada and, along with Finnish speed legend Kalevi Häkkinen, took turns roof-riding “just to feel what it was like going 100 mph.” It may have helped, because McKinney set a new world record of 117 mph (188 kph) on snow later that year.

Häkkinen, considered the father of speed skiing, continued to train on cartops for several years and set a highway speed record in 1978 of 118 mph (190 kph), aboard a rally-equipped Saab as a promotion for his sponsors. Swedish downhiller Benny Lindberg also did an ad, on a Saab 900 Turbo driven by Ingemar Stenmark. A few years later Lasse Nyhlen officially upped Häkkinen’s mark to 122 mph on an Alfa Romeo sedan.

In 1985, British brothers Graham and Stuart Wilkie convinced an English car-racing team to put them aboard a Jaguar for some gear testing. They reached 125 mph. Two years later Graham set a new world record on snow, at 132.1 mph (212 kph).

Around that time, American Sean Cridland, while competing against the Wilkie brothers on snow, decided to try the vehicular version and take it up a notch. The cartop skiers achieving the fastest speeds rode production cars at racetracks and airports, both of which limited their top-end numbers. So Cridland went to the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah. There, land-speed racer Rick Vesco agreed to work with Cridland, and developed a special chassis for his 335 mph "Little Giant 444” car. Kirsten Culver, who held the women’s speed skiing record in 1983 through ’84, had been training on an airport runway near Reno and joined Cridland in Utah. “We really don’t get to train between races because there aren’t any real speed training facilities,” she explained to me at the time. “You end up just sort of training during the race.”

Their first day on the salt flats, in Fall 1985, proved enlightening, “These cars are geared so high they have to get pushed for about half a mile before they’re going fast enough to drop into gear,” says Cridland. Any Bonneville car is timed for a full mile, then coasts a long way to scrub speed and roll to a stop—with the skier still in a tuck for most of it.

Cridland torched his legs on a practice run, so for his official run, “my legs started cramping and I was screaming into my helmet,” he says. He clocked at 148 mph, and Culver went 152. The next morning, September 29, Cridland went back out and turned in a 162-mph run. The Wilkie brothers were some of the first people he informed. His record (for men) and Culver’s (for women) still stand, 37 years later. And Culver’s record also beats all men other than Cridland.

The use of cartops for speed-skiing training has continued sporadically. In 2000, Brazilian Christian Blanco was photographed doing it at São Paulo Interlagos racetrack while training for the 24 Hours of Megève ski race. And in 2018, speed skier Jan Farrell posted video with the caption, “I raced on top of a BMW M2 in the Jarama circuit in Madrid.” He reached 111.85 mph (180 kph) while doing “aerodynamic training.” He observed, “It was really fun!” 

Snapshots in Time

1982 Consider the Correct Comps
The price of lift tickets is up again this season. It costs you $20 [ed: $61 in today's dollars] to ski at Squaw Valley or Vail this year, $21 at Stowe, $22 at Aspen. But before you throw the boards and boots into the back closet, think about this: Where else can you get seven hours of mountain beauty, acres of snow groomed for you, an intense social atmosphere, trained first-aid experts looking after you and unlimited rides up a mountain so you can come flying down? Compare [the cost of skiing] to a night on the town in New York, Los Angeles or London. — Chaco Mohler, “Such a Deal” (Powder Magazine, January 1982)

1990 Alien Life Forms on the Mountain
A 40ish skier in California looked down at some boarders from his lift seat and grumbled, “The ski area built ’em a halfpipe. Why can’t they stay over there?” A ski patrol director at a big Rockies resort confided that some of his staffers considered boarders “an alien life form.” And then there was the lift attendant who muttered, “Here comes another knuckle-dragger” as I scooted up to the loading area. What gives me bad dreams is the possibility, however remote, that ski areas might reexamine their snowboard decision and ban the sport again. I believe that, ultimately, what’s good for snowboarding is good for skiing. — Dana White, “Border Crossing” (Skiing Magazine, October 1990)

1996 The Revolution is Here
The Shaped Ski Revolution is here and it will make skiing more fun. It’s a revolution that will free thousands of skiers from the drudgery of the skidded turn, and thousands more will ski longer, stronger and faster. — Jackson Hogen, “Revolution” (Snow Country, October 1996)

2007 40-Year-Old Hot Dog
It was 25 years ago this winter that a Hollywood crew settled at Squaw Valley, Calif., for 52 days to produce the seminal sex and ski flick. Hot Dog opened in January 1983, finishing No. 2 at the box office. The ’70s ski world plays out on the big screen: mogul hotdogging, riotous downhilling, wet T-shirt contests, gondola nookie, dope smoking, cavorting girls, beer drinking and hot tubbing. Lots of hot tubbing. Shannon Tweed, Playboy Playmate of the Year at the time, in her screen debut, had three minutes (soaking wet) that launched the hot tub industry—and thousands of lifelong skiers. — “A 25-Year-Old Hot Dog?” (SKI Magazine, February 2007)

2014 Skiing v. iPad
“Skis and snowboards are not like an iPad, not intuitive at all. With this new generation, their need is for constant stimulation. They go up to the mountain, and it’s complicated, so they drop out. Skiing doesn't just happen. Instruction is really important.” — Emily Brennan, Q&A with Joe Hession of Snow Operating, “How to Make Skiing Fun for Beginners” (New York Times, December 9, 2014)

2022 The Ultimate Liftie
Peter Landsman started documenting chairlifts when he was 10. Last month, the now 32-year-old lift supervisor at Jackson Hole flew to Saddleback, Maine, to ride its new T-bar. Landsman now has ridden and photographed 2,381 lifts at about 480 resorts in the U.S. That is every chairlift, gondola, tram, platter and T-bar in the country. “Twenty-two years. I can’t believe I’m finished,” he said. — Jason Blevins, “America’s chairlift savant finishes 22-year quest.” (Colorado Sun, March 3, 2022)