Vail Hill Climb 50th interview series: Greg Birk

Vail Daily feature click HEREIf you ask any of Greg Birk’s friends, they’ll probably say something similar: The man simply loves running.“More than anyone else I’ve ever met,” stated Wyatt Smith. The Vail Recreation District race director admitted the Vail Hill Climb’s 50th anniversary wouldn’t have been acknowledged if not for Birk.“There was a period where both the recreation district and newspapers got confused with the anniversary,” Smith continued. “Identifying that this year is the 50th wouldn’t be possible without his love of this race.”“No one loves the hill climb more than Greg Birk does,” added longtime Eagle County resident Brendan White, one of several athletes who migrated to the mountains from the Midwest because of Birk. “Certainly no one has come close to traveling as many miles each year to run it.”Whether he was living in Breckenridge, Indiana, Tennessee, Texas or Switzerland, Birk almost always found a way back to Vail for the iconic uphill. Along the way, he’s collected all of the shirts between 1991 and 2026 and several from prior editions, too. All are currently on display as part of a hill climb exhibit running the next couple of weeks at the Colorado Snowsports Museum. Birk’s obsession with the race — and running in general — is directly linked to his appreciation for what it’s taught him and where it’s brought him.