STORY BY KAREN BOSSICK

PHOTOS BY MUFFY RITZ

A Ketchum man achieved a milestone this winter.

Roger Mankus skinned up Baldy on skis for the 2000th time.

The retired bicycle mechanic for The Elephant’s Perch didn’t let a spring storm that dumped several inches of snow on Sun Valley’s Bald Mountain deter him on that day.

He started out in the dark of morning at 6 a.m., as he always does, and cut sweeping arc turns through the freshly fallen snow on his way down as others waited for the chairlifts to begin carrying them to the top of the mountain.

“This guy is a machine,” said Mark Balcos, of Wood River Insurance. “It’s such a physically demanding activity, and he does it every day.”

Mankus, 68, made his 2000th trip skinning up Baldy in March, just before the 2025 Audi FIS World Cup Finals hit town. He started the season with 1,942 skin-ups under his skis. And, of course, he has added to the number since his milestone ski.

He started skinning up Baldy in 1999, heading straight up Lower River Run, onto the 42nd Street cat track and up Lower and Upper College. He wears a headlamp to cut through the darkness and a tail light on his backpack so groomers can spot him.

“You get an incredible workout, watch the sunrise, come down and feel good,” he said. “Starting the day off doing something like this puts me in a good frame of mind, a good lookout.”

Mankus didn’t keep track of how many times he climbed Baldy until 2002 when he decided to see how many he could do in a winter. He started with 50, then 85, then 100.

“My best year was 112. And those are just the times I make it to the top. If I don’t go to the top, I don’t count it,” said Mankus, who is apt to hit the Nordic tracks when he’s done with the mountain.

Balcos, who just started skinning up on his split-board snowboard, said Mankus has inspired him.

“He’s everybody’s hero and yet he’s so humble. I start at 5:30 in the morning and get up in two hours. Roger starts at 6 or 6:30 and he’s up in 1.5 hours,” he said. “I get to the top about 7:30, 7:45, in the morning. And, when the sun comes up, it’s just amazing.”

SUN VALLEY WRAPS UP SEASON

Sun Valley Resort will close out the 2024-25 winter season on Sunday, April 20, with 145 days of skiing.

While Bald Mountain only got 180 of the 220 inches of snow, it was a pleasantly warm season with the exception of three frigid days in February. And the mountain resounded with accents from France, Italy, Austria and other European countries as visitors in town for the 2025 Audi FIS World Cup Finals took to the mountain in late March in what approximated Christmas holiday skier numbers.

This last week of the season has offered some wonderful skiing, with Wednesday’s spring skiing being the best day of the year in some skiers’ minds.

Sun Valley Resort will celebrate the end of the season today—Saturday, April 19—with Moonshine Schubert, a Sun Valley band playing hip-hop, reggae and life-inspired folk from 2 to 3:30 p.m. on the Warm Springs Plaza. Cycles, a Denver, Colo., trio, will play an eclectic mix of music from 4 to 5:30 p.m.

Trevor Green, a transplant to Sun Valley from California, will bring his acoustic folk and didgeridoo to the patio from 2 to 5 p.m. on the last day—Sunday, April 20.