Dines skied nearly 3.6 million human-powered vertical feet in one year; ‘Still Excited to Ski’ documents gritty journey
By Jack Reaney SENIOR EDITOR
On the evening of Thursday, Oct. 23, skier Noah Dines casually greeted a dozen or so guests at a quiet, shoulder season event in Big Sky. As chatter died down in the small dining room of Gravity Haus Big Sky, Dines introduced his zero-budget documentary film, “Still Excited to Ski,” which documents his journey from “zero athletic resume” to smashing a world record.
“This is big for me, this is the first time I’ve shown this [film] to a big group… We’re really proud of it, I’m really proud of it, and I just hope you enjoy it,” Dines said, and ignited the projector for the 32-minute film.
Originally from Massachusetts but now proudly rooted in Stowe, Vermont, Dines was working as a tutor and part-time teacher in 2023. A hobbyist backcountry skier, he abruptly set out to beat Aaron Rice’s world record of 2.5 million human-powered vertical feet in a year—meaning skinning, climbing and hiking. Dines approached the yearlong challenge with an “I’ll figure it out when I get there” attitude.
He crushed the goal, totaling 3.59 million feet of vert across 348 days that taught him to ignore morning soreness. He said if skinning and skiing is fun, then skiing an incredibly large amount should be incredibly fun. “It’s basic mathematics,” he says in the film’s intro.
He started under midnight fireworks on Jan. 1, 2024, and kept up a fast clip out of the gate, climbing over 12,000 vertical feet per day in January in Stowe.
Diet was simple: carbs. Dines avoided alcohol but drank coffee. He ate 5,000-7,000 calories per day of bread and some protein, and recalls food disappearing at a “shocking” rate.
“Things that should last a week would make it, like, two days. Oops. A thing of Oreos, Haribo [gummies]—two or three bags a day,” he said during Q&A after the film. He added that food depended on location, with vastly different snacks available in foreign lands such as Chile, requiring adaptability.
PHOTO GALLERY COURTESY OF NOAH DINES
Dines skied in relatively few locations: two East Coast and three Western U.S. states, two European countries, and two zones in Chile.
“Because traveling was a waste of time,” he said during Q&A. He skied 348 of 365 days, intentionally stopping after Dec. 30 to account for the leap year, out of respect for previous record holders Greg Hill and Aaron Rice.
His smallest active day was 500 vertical feet, suppressed by suspected food poisoning from a sketchy hot dog at Mt. Hood, Oregon.
He notched his biggest day during his final month, December 2024, climbing roughly 17,000 feet in Stowe during a stretch of 10 days climbing at least 13,000 feet. “There was so much snow,” Dines recalled during Q&A. “The skiing was good, I was with friends again, and it was cold—it had been hot for a very long time—and I was at sea level… That was a bender, in the middle of a bender.”
He reached his first million feet on March 31, in Austria, before a warm, wet spring in the Alps dampened his spirit. Dines persevered, traveling to South America for summer—when he arrived in the southern hemisphere halfway through his year, he was recognized immediately by a Chilean boy. On Sept. 2, he hit the previous record of 2.5 million and almost cried tears of joy on a Chilean slope.
Dines encountered niche fame. Still, he felt the most genuine love from his Vermont community, a theme emphasized throughout the film. Early on, Dines began receiving “truck treats” from community members who would leave snacks in his parked truck as he battled gravity. Plus, he enjoyed the privilege of climbing and skiing 1,000 feet in Stowe with his 64-year-old father, who had never skinned before his son hatched his diabolical plan.
Sponsorships rolled in “slowly and painfully,” Dines said during Q&A. He had no athletic resume—not even a high school varsity letter to his name—and no idea how to pitch sponsorships. Brands were entirely doubtful, and tired of athletes pitching ambitious goals, getting free gear, and falling back on excuses.
Fischer, the brand known for its downhill, ski-mountaineering and cross-country ski racing gear, only got on board after a brand rep’s chance encounter with Dines’ friends at a concert. Fischer provided two pairs of skis, a pair of boots and a pair of poles—gear that Dines broke in quickly, replacing boot liners at least every two months, and requiring three total pairs of boot shells among other constant replacements.
Even after completing the feat, sponsorship continues to evolve, he said. “Getting gear is pretty easy, it’s still hard to get money.”
Toward the end of his yearlong adventure, filmmaker Charlie Hildick-Smith reached out with hopes of a collaboration. Nearly a year later, “Still Excited to Ski” combines casual, smartphone-oriented footage from Dines’ yearlong journey, and cinematic B-roll shots from the snowy end to the mission. In addition, Big Sky drone savant Patrick Conroy contributed dynamic action footage—he happened to be in Chile to capture Dines’ record-breaking lap, after meeting Dines by chance in Mt. Hood, where Dines accompanied a group of pro riders including Jeremy Jones and Parkin Costain for some big missions captured in the film. The film features interviews of Dines and other key sources.
When the hard part was complete, Dines jumped in as assistant director, logging dozens of hours in the editing room. Aside from $50 in graphic design for the poster, the film’s budget has been $0, Dines said.
Gravity Haus, new to Big Sky’s hospitality scene, funded the Oct. 23 premiere. GM Adam Lashinsky said the provider’s brand is about building stoke, and people like Dines with “next-level” ambition can help amplify it.
“There’s nothing better to us than seeing people who value the things we value, and helping them on their journey,” Lashinsky told EBS after the screening. “This is a story of inspiration, it’s a story of grit, it’s a story of the thing that unites all of us, which is the love of the outdoors.”
He added, “To break a world record requires a degree of vision that I think most people can’t comprehend… Noah is just cool.”
Dines said the greatest takeaway is the friends he made while skinning.
“I’m proud that it’s something that I’m proud of,” he told EBS. He doesn’t anticipate doing something so grueling again, but he does look forward to skiing this winter.
“I’m sure the minute I hit snow I’m gonna have a bunch of ideas,” he told the room of captivated Big Sky residents.
“Still Excited to Ski” will be available online after Dines continues his tour with stops in Portland, Maine, Stowe, Vermont, Boston and Salt Lake City.
