By David Goodman
Noah Dines leaned into a howling wind and skied steadily higher on the Chilean volcano. Raindrops sounded like a snare drum as they strafed his parka. For most people, a day like this would be a fine excuse to lay around in bed, go shopping, or do anything besides hit the slopes. For Dines, it was the capstone moment in his quixotic crusade to ski 3 million human-powered vertical feet in a year, without setting foot in a chairlift.
Dines inhaled and looked up to savor the views, but received only a face full of wind and rain. He was in heaven. “It was a moment of joy and relief,” he told us on October 24, an hour after his Strava app confirmed that he had crossed the 3 million foot mark, the culmination of ten grueling yet exhilarating months on the snow.
“Today and the past two days have been overwhelming,” Dines says, his tussle of sun bleached hair framing his weathered face. “I’ve never worked this hard for something. There has been so much anticipation and effort, trials and tribulations. To have it finally come together on a windy volcano in southern Chile feels otherworldly.”
Rather than resting on his laurels, Dines is now charging hard for a new goal: skiing one million meters (3.3 million feet) in a calendar year through self-powered climbs.
The raffish 30 year old with an unruly mop of curls began his journey on New Year’s Day in 2024 at Stowe Mountain Resort. As the clock struck midnight, most people around the base of Vermont’s highest mountain were celebrating in the traditional fashion with friends, food, and frivolity.
Dines looked at his watch, confirmed that midnight had passed, took in the fireworks overhead, and stepped onto his skis. The reassuring click of his alpine touring bindings would serve as his starter’s gun in his improbable race against himself. By the light of his headlamp, he crossed under the gondola and made his steadily way up the Perry Merrill trail. So began a year of skiing uphill.
