Dag Aabye

Early life Dag was born in 1941 in Nazi-occupied Norway, then lived in Argentina before moving to British Columbia. and appearing in a number of ski movies by filmmaker Jim Rice. Pelletier and Maruniak assert that "Dag is widely regarded as the founding father of freeskiing." He has been described as "the Father of Free Ride" and "The Last Ski Bum". He last finished a Death Race within the 24-hour cutoff in 2009. He was consistently the oldest competitor in the Death Race, and has completed it a record-setting seven times. He continued participating in the Death Race every year; though he failed to finish the full 125-kilometre 24-hour race in those later years, he continued to complete the starting segment, the Near Death Marathon, which has a cutoff of 9.5 hours.

Aabye cites centenarian marathoner Fauja Singh as an inspiration. Aabye describes running as a way to push his limitations and mortality; though he has slowed with age, he has attempted to maintain his total yearly running distance, about , by spending longer doing so, stating that "If it's difficult, I'll do it right away. If it's impossible, it will take a little longer." in a paraphrase of his childhood hero, Fridtjof Nansen. Journalist Charlotte Helston spent months. A portable garden shed, which he carried to the site in pieces, serves as the sleeping shelter in his campsite, which is located halfway up a mountain along a secret trail roughly an hour's hike from the nearest highway.