Skiing Uphill for a Year: New World Record Holder Finishes 2024 With 3.5 Million Vertical Feet

Noah Dines was skiing uphill when he answered the phone. It was December 20. He was in Stowe, Vermont, and closing in on 3.5 million vertical feet. Every step Dines took as he spoke with GearJunkie pushed the world record higher for the greatest altitude difference ever covered in a single year on skis.

Dines started skiing on January 1, 2024. His “reach goal” for the last 12 months had been around 3.28 million feet. But when he sailed past the previous world record, set by Aaron Rice in 2016, of 2.5 million, Dines still had nearly 4 months left to climb. He celebrated the accomplishment with friends and pressed onward to 3 million and beyond, singlemindedly focused on racking up as much vert as possible before year’s end.

On December 30, 2024, the 30-year-old Bedford, Mass., native reached the top of his last run of the year. He ended his count a day early because it was a leap year, just as Rice had done before him. His final number was 3,590,097 vertical feet — adding more than a million feet to Rice’s previous world record.

That’s over 120 Mount Everests in a year. Even Dines admits it’s hard for him to imagine skiing more. He only took a handful of days off, skied around the world chasing winter across the country and then south of the equator. He lived a monastic existence, eating simply, living out of his truck, staying with friends or in modest accommodations; no alcohol, no time for frivolous diversions. His eyes never left the prize.

Now, he’s about to reenter “reality,” and his life will never be the same. His love for skiing, however, hasn’t changed or faltered at all.

“I still genuinely wake up, and I’m excited to go skiing,” Dines said. “Skiing remains incredibly fun.”

GearJunkie has been covering this story since February, when Dines smashed the record for the greatest altitude difference covered in a month. Then again, when he was skiing in Oregon at Mt. Hood (somewhere around the 2,067,000-foot mark) and was preparing to head to South America. So it was exciting to catch up with Dines again to talk about his journey as a whole, what it’s meant, and what he’s going to do now that it’s over.

“January first, I’m just an unemployed dude who likes to ski a lot,” he said. “But I’m excited about the future.”

Noah Dines: World Record Holder, ‘Dude Who Likes to Ski’

Will Brendza (GearJunkie editor): First, I just want to say congrats. How has this journey been since Mt. Hood?

Noah Dines: It’s spiraled in really awesome ways. It’s gotten really cool. Not that it wasn’t already, but it’s just been awesome. I had my low point … if you remember, this summer, there was that huge IT outage — that was the day I was flying to South America. That ended up costing me about 4 days of skiing and infinite frustration.

I had a lot of time in airport lines, and then I ended up changing my plan. I was originally going to go to Termas de Chillán, but then I ended up in Farellones, which is where El Colorado, Valle Nevado, and La Parva are … They had a huge year. In late July, early August or so, I had probably the best 10-day stretch of powder skiing in my life. We lost power. The road, crazy road from Santiago up to the mountains was out. It was pretty sick.

Some World Tour folks and ski racers were the only people there. So it was all good skiers just teeing off all day.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Noah Dines (@noah.dines)

How long were you down there for?

I ended up being down there for 3 months. I was in Farellones for 2 months — that was August and September, a little bit of July. Then, once it got really hot and melty there, I went down to a town called Malalcahuello and I was there for a month. That was awesome as well.

I just met so many incredible skiers and snowboarders that I’m friends with now. I got to go to the top of the volcano with the United States Snowboard Cross team because I met one of their guys who was training GS farther north in Chile. I met the Slovenian Men’s Speed Skiers. I saw Jeremy Jones again down there. Parkin Costain. It was just the migration.

You blew past the previous world record and past your original goal of 3 million. Did you ever imagine you’d make it beyond 3.5 million?

No. I always had a reach goal of a million meters, which is 3,280,000 feet, and change. So, I always had that number in my head. But 3.5 million is … My original plan had been to ski 9,090 feet a day for 330 days. So it’s like I had two extra months of skiing.

Gear-wise, were there any upgrades you made that had a big impact on your season?

I ended up on ATK Trofeos, which are the best in the world, in my opinion. So, that’s been a big improvement. But, no. Really, the big thing that I’ve learned is, holy smokes, this stuff lasts. I might go to a new pair of boots before the end of the year, I might not, but I’ve only had three pairs of shells — which is pretty darn good. It’s triple that in boot liners, but when you’re rocking thin liners, that’s a consumable.

Right now, I’m on a new pair of skis, and the color difference between these and my [identical] old ones is insane. They’re bright yellow, compared to pastel yellow faded from the sun.

What have been some of the biggest challenges in reaching this goal?

Money. The business side of it has been hard, especially starting out the year and having no idea how things would shake out. That certainly has given me more anxiety than skiing. Skiing, you just put your skis on, then walk.

I’ve also definitely battled a lot of heat with our warming climate.

How is your routine going to change after January 1, 2025?

That’s the big unknown. And it’s exciting, but it’s also scary. It’s really a giant unknown.

I’m excited to keep skiing. I’m excited to finish up a little earlier and go drink coffee. And I’m excited to say ‘Yes’ to things, whether that’s just going out for dinner or a drink or going to go ski something fun, or going to a wedding. There’s been a lot of saying ‘No’ because I’m so focused. And I don’t regret any of it. I think that’s a huge part of doing something like this is that if it was easy and didn’t involve sacrifice, everyone would do it.

I’m also looking forward to looking back on this year. It will be interesting to see how my perspective on it changes over time … You don’t know how something molds you until you have a bit of separation.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Noah Dines (@noah.dines)

Do you have any desire to go back to teaching?

No, I can’t imagine being in a classroom right now. But I don’t think I’ll ever leave the broader idea of education behind — whether that’s speaking about what I’m doing or [running] clinics, I care about education … However, I just can’t imagine sitting in a classroom right now. I imagine that would be a tough thing to go back to. I might end up doing that in a year. But, once again, I just … I need to take a deep breath before anything.

What does this record mean to you, and what do you want people to take away from it?

What it means to me is constantly changing. But it’s certainly a pivotal moment in my life — the coolest one. It’s been a journey. I’ll know more later.

What I want people to take from it, I’ve been saying this a lot, is you could be me. I am not special. I don’t have that deep athletic background. I don’t have a trust fund. I decided I wanted to do something, and I poured my soul into it. So if you want to do something, you can. And it will be hard and trying, but if you want it, you can have it.