VERMONT SPORTS HALL OF FAME

Photo Courtesy of Lenes Family

Shelburne 

Mountain climbing/outdoors

Inducted 2017

A world class innovator in outdoor sports, Helmut Lenes is the David K. Hakins Inductee for his contributions as a business leader in exceptional promotion and development of sports, athletics and recreation in the state of Vermont. This inductee honors Hakins, a founding member of the VSHOF, who passed away in 2013. 

Lenes built a reputation as a mountain guide and ski instructor in his native Austria before he moved to Vermont in 1968. Lenes eventually established Climb High in Shelburne, a company that promoted mountain and rock climbing as well as other outdoor pursuits. Lenes built a 28-foot rock-climbing wall at Climb High and provided free usage and classes. Countless Vermonters began participating in the sport due to his efforts. 

Among his feats as a climber while living in Austria and Vermont are scaling Denali (Mount McKinley) twice, Mount Rainier, the Grant Tetons, the top of the Himalayas, Gasherbrum and the Matterhorn, and the North Face of The Eiger in a record time of one day.