The plunge to greatness

On Valentine’s Day, some people scurried up and down Colorado Avenue, making last-minute preparations for an evening with a sweetheart. Not 19-year-old Jerry Mark, a Telluride local attending school at Western Washington University.

He was standing in the wind and fog at the top of Crystal Mountain’s 7,012-foot Silver King face. His goal: To drop 1,000 feet through a series of cliffs and rocky chutes as quickly as possible, and with more style and grace than all the other competitors.