What Does It Take to Ski 3 Million Vertical Feet? We Asked Noah Dines.

When skier Noah Dines answered my phone call in late November, he was skinning up a 400-vertical foot stretch of artificial snow at Waterville Valley Resort in central New Hampshire. Anyone who skis uphill at a resort knows the activity is pretty uninspiring, akin to running on a treadmill, but Dines didn’t care—he was chasing a record. If you caught up with the 30-year-old athlete at any particular moment during daylight hours in 2024, the odds were pretty good he was skiing. Setting a new record for the most human-powered vertical feet of skiing done in a single year, which Dines had achieved with the 3 million vertical feet (and counting) he’s logged since January 1, takes a lot of time.

The record had actually been Dines’ for weeks now—he surpassed Aaron Rice’s 2016 record of 2.5 million vertical feet late this summer, and hit his own goal of 3 million on October 24, in Farellones, Chile. Every cold, wet lap that November day in New Hampshire was just extra credit.

“I wanted to see what it feels like to try really hard, to be totally invested in one thing,” said Dines, adding, “I’ll probably do a little bit more today, and then walk down the mountain. They offered to upload and download me [on the chairlift], but I said no thanks.”

Technically, Dines didn’t have to hoof it the extra 600 feet from snowline to the resort’s base—avoiding surface lifts wasn’t one of the initial self-imposed strictures for his 2024 ski season goal, but it became a point of pride.

“I just love skiing,” said Dines. “To do this sort of thing you’ve got to love skiing on a day-to-day basis, and on a grand scale. And I love that day in, day out grind. I love it more now than when I started.”

Prior to the season, Dines calculated that he’d need to ski approximately 9,000 feet per day for 330 days, or around 125,000 feet per month, to hit his goal. He blew past that pace in January, skiing 378,000 feet, and continued to log monster months. He took the year off from working as a tutor in Stowe, Vermont, to ski full-time.

Skiing 3 million vertical feet in one year requires more than free time and an extreme love of the sport. I caught up with Dines to talk about logistics and gear, and to ask about his favorite place to ski.

Location, Location, Location

Dines spent the year globetrotting in search of adequate snow coverage. He skied across the United States, and also in Europe and South America. He started the project at his home mountains in Vermont in January before jetting off to France and Austria in February and March to ski in the Alps.

“I liked the ski culture there a lot, but the skiing itself wasn’t the best,” he said. Dines drank plenty of espressos in mid-mountain chalets while escaping rain and fog.

In May, Dines returned stateside to ski in Colorado and Utah, earning his turns at Winter Park Resort and Alta after they closed for the season. He eked out the last of the spring’s vert on Mount Hood’s Palmer Glacier in Oregon, before flying to Santiago, Chile and the southern hemisphere winter.

“I’ll probably drive back to Stowe tonight,” said Dines when we spoke in November. He’ll spend the rest of 2024 where he began it, lapping the New England mountains around his home. “It’ll be great to see friends again, but it was so cool getting to go to so many places for the first time this year, too.”

What Kind of Gear Does it Take to Ski 3 Million Vertical Feet?

Skis

Dines drew from a two-ski quiver, with snow conditions dictating which pair he’d use. His lightest option, the 690-gram Fischer Transalp RC, are designed for competitive ski mountaineering racing, and feature a narrow shape meant for skiing quickly on firm, groomed snow. When Dines needed more floatation on ungroomed snow, he used the wider Fischer Transalp 86 CTI Pros, which tip the scales at 1240 grams. Dines said the two pairs of fairly narrow skis would have been perfect for all the terrain he encountered the entire year, save for a two-week stretch in Chile when he encountered deep powder.

Bindings

ATK Trofeos, “which I just love,” said Dines. The model is a burly ski mountaineering racing binding that’s frill-free, lightweight, and highly reliable.

Boots

The Fischer Travers CS, a lightweight touring boot, was Dines’ footwear of choice. “I’m in my third pair of shells this year, which is pretty incredible for the amount of skiing that I do,” he said.

Skins

“I’ve probably worn through around a dozen pairs of skins this year,” said Dines, who just used “whatever was on hand” wherever he was traveling. He always brought a spare set in his pack in case his primary pair broke or became too soaked to work effectively.

In the Pack

Preferring to travel light, Dines minimized his time in avalanche terrain, since he usually skied alone. But he still packed a shovel, beacon, and probe when conditions called for it. “If I’m doing laps somewhere in-bounds or not in avy terrain, I leave my pack at the bottom,” said Dines. “I’m not carrying water with me, and only rarely an extra layer. I’ll bring a second pair of skins, and a spare pair of gloves, because wet gloves can be such a day-ruiner. And then you’ve always got to have carbs on hand.”

What About Nutrition?

Dines didn’t obsess over calorie counting. When I asked him about his daily caloric intake, he said, “My watch usually spits out 5,000 to 7,000 so I’d imagine somewhere in that range.” But he believes his nutritional approach helped him surpass the previous record, held by Aaron Rice, who struggled to recover from each effort as the year wore on.

“We know a lot more about sports nutrition than we did a few years ago,” said Dines, who looked to professional cyclists’ fueling regimens to shape his own carb-heavy diet. “When I’m on the hill, it’s just carbs, and afterwards it’s mostly carbs, too.”

“Carbs, carbs, carbs. So many carbs.” he added. “There were times when I didn’t want to keep eating but knew I needed to eat more—I would just be so sick of chewing.”

Dines didn’t have a go-to meal or snack, instead eating the local fare—which included lots of bread, butter, and pastries in Europe, meat in Chile, and plenty of candy wherever he went.

How Do You Train for World-Record Fitness?

Preparation

Dines is a lifelong runner and cyclist, and he believes his cross-training helped prepare his body for the massive yearlong effort on skis. “My background is as an endurance athlete, so I didn’t do anything special to prepare physically for this year,” said Dines. He climbed a combined million vertical feet across skiing, cycling, and running in both 2022 and 2023.

Recovery

Dines said his approach to rest is simple—he gets off his feet. “I don’t have any cold baths, no massage gun, nothing crazy. But just plain old resting is really important to me,” said Dines. “And not fake rest, like hanging out with friends and going out to eat. That’s not rest, that’s almost rest. But just sitting with my legs up. Like, I want my watch to think I was asleep—when my watch tells me I took a nap even though I didn’t, that’s high praise.”

How Did Dines Stave Off Boredom During the Challenge?

“I sort of have a hierarchy,” said Dines when I asked how he occupied himself during the hours on the slope. “Friend vert is free vert—skiing with somebody is best, because then it’s just hanging out.” By his estimate, friends accompanied him for approximately 5 percent of his skiing this year. “After that, the next best thing is talking on the phone. My grandparents have gotten a lot of Noah time this year, because they’re pretty available. Friends back home, friends I haven’t talked to in five years.”

Dines also listened to podcasts and music on shuffle. He dictated text messages and scrolled social media. And oftentimes, Dines simply soaked in the scenery and the sounds of the mountains.

How the Hell Does Anyone Afford to Do this?

Dines covered his expenses for the year with a mix of sponsorships, GoFundMe donations, and personal savings.

Advice for Future Record-Seekers

Anyone wanting to take on the yearlong vert challenge can start by picking up the phone. “My main advice to someone trying to break my record is to call me,” said Dines. “Greg Hill, who skied 2 million feet in 2010, and Aaron Rice have both offered me so much help and support. I plan to do the same for whoever wants to try next.”