How to measure skiing?

I've said that skiing owed to be measured in terms of vertical drop and that was by far the best yardstick to use. This afternoon, I returned to the “crime scene,” on Sultan chairlift in Deer Valley, to be precise, to enjoy a foot of new snow that had put an end to a very long and unusual early season drought. I proceeded to ski down by the lift, on skier's left, in the lightly tracked new snow which represented two-third of the way and ended up on a wavy, skiers' packed new snow for the rest of the run.

After 13 non-stop laps, the lifts closed and it was time for me to call it a day. I had logged just over 26,000 feet, but felt totally exhausted compared to the day we broke our 112,750 feet record and skied Sultan Express 60 times non-stop. Of course, that day we had skied a perfectly groomed run. The point to my story is that “vertical” is only telling part of it and snow conditions can make a five-fold difference. This means that, for setting a record and for consistency's sake, the run need to be impeccably groomed. For real merit, however, the measurement is so subjective that I shouldn't lose sleep over the need to reworking the entire formula!