Skier Sets Vertical Skiing Record with Garmin Smartwatch

Equipped with a Garmin fēnix^® 7X Sapphire Solar, this athlete skied more than 3.5 million feet across three continents in 1 year.

Fog rolled in while Noah Dines skied above the tree line in Chile, turning his surroundings the same shade of white.

The educator and endurance skier, equipped with a Garmin fēnix 7X Sapphire Solar smartwatch, was on his third continent in his quest to ski more than 3 million vertical feet and break the record for the number of human-powered vertical feet skied in 1 year.

But on that mountain in Chile in whiteout conditions, he couldn’t see where he was going.

“It’s scary; it’s disorienting,” Dines told Garmin while skiing back home in Vermont. “You have no idea where you are.”

Falling in love with skiing

On a Friday afternoon in December, Dines skied uphill past a frozen waterfall and snow-coated pine trees on 12” of fresh powder on his home mountain in Vermont. It was an “uphill skier’s paradise,” he said. Sunshine peaked through the clouds on a 10-degree day.

Dines skied between 5 and 10 days a year through high school and college. He became an avid skier after college, he said, when he moved to Maine. In 2019, he moved to Stowe, Vermont. That’s when he really started hitting the slopes. And when the pandemic struck in 2020, Dines found himself with a lot more free time. Why not fill it with backcountry skiing?

He said he loves skiing with friends and the fluidity of the sport’s constant movement. With different terrain, there’s always a new way to challenge himself. And with that new terrain comes access to places you couldn’t otherwise enjoy.

“The whole mountain and woods are your domain, not just where somebody has a permit to operate a ski lift,” Dines said. “There’s a sense of freedom.”

While driving home from a boring date in February 2023, Dines found himself in need of a goal. Then it hit him: He would beat the record for the number of vertical feet skied in a year, set by Aaron Rice at 2.5 million vertical feet.

“When you have that profound thought, it’s on your shoulders, and there’s exactly one way to get it off,” Dines said. “And it’s to do it.”

Dines went to Rice, who is his friend, to share his goal. Rice told him to go for it and offered to support Dines in any way.

On Dec. 31, 2023, Dines left a New Year’s Eve party early. At midnight, he started the backcountry skiing activity on his Garmin watch.

A record-setting year

Since that first day, Dines has taken fewer than 20 days off from skiing — all to travel.

Dines skied in four U.S. states — Vermont, Colorado, Utah and Oregon (where Dines met Greg Hill, who held vertical skiing record at 2 million feet before Rice) — before leaving the country to ski in France, Austria and Chile, then hitting the same states on a return trip. He averaged 10,000 vertical feet daily.

Waking before 7 a.m., Dines would drink a cup of coffee, eat a banana and a bagel, and hit the slopes by 8 a.m. for the next 7 to 8 hours — all without chairlifts. He would spend the rest of the day conserving his energy, letting his muscles heal and fueling up on carbs (and gummy bears).

In the mountain village Farellones, Chile, just outside Santiago, Dines watched “magnificent” sunsets.

“Even if it was gray all day, the sun would get beneath the clouds, and the sky would explode in a light show,” Dines said. “I will never ever forget that.”

Dines reached the 3 million vertical feet mark in Chile. By the end of the year, Dines reached 3,590,097 vertical feet. That’s nearly 124 times the elevation of Mount Everest.

The support from Rice, Hill and the rest of the skiing community has meant “everything,” Dines said.

“They’re people who know what it’s like to take a year of your life to do this,” Dines said.

How his Garmin smartwatch helped

Throughout the year, Dines monitored the metrics on his fēnix so he could avoid overtraining and prioritize recovery off the slopes.

That included heart rate variability (HRV), the always-changing length of time between heartbeats. Dines said if he was pushing himself and his HRV declined, he knew he should probably take a step back.

Monitoring his Body Battery™ energy helped Dines figure out what worked for recovery.

“Even things that are worth it,” Dines said, such as going out with friends, “have a cost.”

While skiing, Dines used his watch to check the time and timer, his heart rate, ascent, descent, distance, elevation and average ascent per hour, paying especially close attention to his ascent and how much time he had before sunset. The average ascent per hour helped him compare his performance to other days, ensuring he could understand how different terrain affected him or if he just couldn’t push himself further.

In the whiteout conditions in Chile (which he also dealt with in Europe), Dines held his fēnix in front of his face. He knew he could get back. That’s because of the TracBack routing.

Dines followed the line on his watch, skiing along his GPS track from his backcountry ski activity. Having that resource helped him feel more comfortable and allowed him to ski more.

As the year wrapped up, Dines was still having fun and not slowing down — though he admitted he was a little nervous about what’s next for him. But at more than 3.5 million vertical feet, he exceeded one of his 2024 goals.

“I’m here because I put myself here,” Dines said. “It wasn’t in front of me with a red carpet. Just because the red carpet isn’t there for you doesn’t mean you can’t get there.”

His other goals? Inspire others, see beautiful sights and meet cool people. Check, check and check.

He wanted to be proud of his last few weeks skiing on his home mountain, surrounded by the Stowe skiing community that supported him all year.

On that December Friday morning, a skier Dines talked to said he was going to “do a Noah day today.” When they passed each other later that afternoon, Dines told him to grab a cup of coffee.

“There’s an incredible sense of community … it’s why I’m here,” Dines said. “There are bigger mountains that get more snow in other places. But this is where my friends are. And there’s nothing more special.”