#10: Noah Dines: The 2024 Pursuit of Climbing Over 3 Million Vertical Feet on Skis

Join us for an exhilarating interview with the king of uphill skiing Noah Dines. We explore the highs and lows of chasing over 3 million vertical feet in a calendar year across the globe. If you have ever spent any time skinning at Stowe - you have definitely seen Noah - probably passing you on the uphill (or down). Noah broke the world record by spending his year skinning sunrise dawn patrol missions on Nosedive to grueling multi-day journeys out West, in the Alps and in Chile. Noah redefines what it means to test your limits and is closing in on the end of an amazing, quad-busting 2024.

Transcript

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Welcome to the Octagon. This is Mike Carey here with my cohost, Ted Thorndike. The Octagon is a podcast where we celebrate adventurers, and legends of Stowe, Vermont. And today we're honored to have a truly extraordinary guest, Noah Dines. Noah is the man who recently set the all time record for the most uphill vertical feet skied in a single year, an achievement that's mind blowing and inspiring. If you have ever spent any time skinning at Stowe, you have definitely seen Noah, probably passing you on the uphill or even the down. Noah broke the record by spending his days on sunrise dawn patrol missions, on nosedive, all the way to grueling multi day journeys across the world. Noah redefines what it means to test your limits and is closing in on the end of an amazing 2024. Let's get started. Welcome, Noah. Thanks for having me. Happy to be here. So how did you first start skiing? Did you love it right away? Where'd you learn to ski? Give us some background on that. like so many others outside of Boston, and I started relatively young, but not two years old, put on skis. I started skiing at Neshoba Valley, which, a lot of people did. it's the kind of ski hill that I wish there are more of throughout the country and that it's there and it's near where people live and it's accessible and it's a place to learn. It's not. Anything to write home about, but sliding on snow in the perfect place to learn without it being an expedition up north or into the mountains. So was there any family history of skiing? How, how did you get that initial spark? So my dad grew up skiing. My dad grew up in Montreal. and he grew up skiing in the Laurentians at Trombone and all the other little ski hills right near there. so he and his parents, all skiers, recreational, nothing crazy, but certainly skiers. And he felt it was important for me to learn how to ski and to skate. That those were two important skills to learn as a kid, so I learned both of those. Like a Nordic skate scheme. Nope. Like I skate. Oh, nice. Just, yeah, never played hockey or anything, can go skate on a pond. My mom doesn't ski, but she was right there pushing us out the door. So yeah, grew up skiing like five to 10 times a year in Massachusetts and to New Hampshire, I hadn't, didn't ski really It was a thing to do, the recreation department at Bedford Mass where I grew up had Friday night trips to Wachusett. And so I would get on the bus and go ski at Wachusett for a few hours, classic New England night skiing. It wasn't part of my identity, it was just a thing to do sometimes. And then did you, made your way up to Vermont, start skiing up here after learning to ski in the show bus? So not really through college, I was skiing five to 10 times a year. went out, skied at Breck a couple of times in Colorado, but after college, I moved to Maine, I was living in mid coast, Maine, and working at a educational, experiential ed place called Kiev and, that first winter there were people that skied, there were skiers there. And so I skied more. I was in Maine and I skied more. I learned to telly that spring right after college. What year was this? that would have been winter 17, 18, 16, 17 was my first winter in Maine. then the next, Winter I picked up a 100 telemark setup for myself, bought a pair of skins, and that winter 17 18 was my first winter where I learned how to ski tour. I drove myself to the Camden Snowbowl, which is incredible. Another small hill. Gem, local gem. Yeah, it's 900 feet owned by the city of Camden, Maine. And it's super cool because you can see the ocean from it. and it was Monday nights. The hill was open to uphill access. So Monday nights I would go and I learned how to ski tour from that. And that was the beginning of this journey, really, is learning how to walk uphill and being fine walking uphill at night to go ski ice in, the cold May night, right? were you a runner or anything before that? I find, my first skin, The very first time I did it, I was like, what the heck is this? my body had never seen or felt that kind of uphill feeling. that stress on the system. I don't know if Yeah, I really wasn't. I didn't play a varsity sport in college. I didn't play a varsity sport even in high school. Yeah. I was always athletic, generally. Yeah. But not trained, that's for sure. And I don't remember what that first uphill, what it felt like to walk uphill. I do remember say transitioning and it took seven minutes and telling that to my girlfriend at the time. And she said, Oh, that's bad. And I was like, pretty psyched that I didn't take that long to futz around at the top. And as I'm sure, now, One minute is far too long for me to transition from skinning to skiing or skiing to skinning. Yeah, you've done many transitions Thousands and thousands, that's for sure. Yeah, so you mentioned, 16, 17, you go uphill for the first time How did it progress from there? Were you just oh man, I love this I want to do this all the time, what did the next few years look like? That winter, I would ski resort, I'd ski Sunday River at Sugarloaf, Saturday, Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday, I'd ski the Camden Snowball a lap or two. And that was my skiing for the week. I was working in a school, and I don't, I think I, I don't even know if I would exercise the other days, which looking back on it. Could you imagine that now? No, now that's an insane thing. I can't, I just cannot imagine what he, three days a week without exercise. And I barely even, now if I was to go ride lifts, I don't think that I'd have to go exercise after. So then, that next winter, a little more. winter 18 19, skiing a fair amount of, two laps or three laps at most up the Camden Snowbowl. So that would be like, 1, 800 to 2, 700 feet or something, yeah, and I don't think I was doing 2, 700 that much. I would go ski two laps and then go play indoor ultimate frisbee on the way back. Nice. those were some sweet Monday nights. Yeah, that's a good Monday night. I was no longer Spring 2019 was my last spring at the educational, like the outdoor ed place. and then I was working At, like a school and also hanging Christmas lights. It was like long term subbing and hanging Christmas lights on the side and living out of my van, my 2008 Toyota Sienna. sweet van, mini van, still in Maine. And then I had worked summers in Vermont at a girl's sleepaway camp called the Kenia. And, Somebody from there hooked me up with somebody from the Met Mainsville Ski Club at the time and said do you want to work here? and Kept thinking of reasons why not to move from Maine and to start in a new town I just didn't really have any good ones. So fall 2019 like late November. I think after Thanksgiving I moved here and I Was doing a little bit of coaching and Which was interesting since I didn't have a ski racing background. And then I started teaching some science classes at the academy. But about three weeks after I moved here, like early December or mid December, I think it was, I was ice climbing with the one man I knew here, who was a It's like a 50 something year old teacher in, St. Albans, and I took a little fall ice climbing in the notch, which is really not something you're ever meant to do, and I broke my back, which, a compression fracture. It was fine. I walked out. Turns out that unless it's really bad, it's just a bone, it was tough. I wasn't skiing, wasn't coaching. I didn't have friends. And then of course, 2019 spring, 2020, the pandemic hit, but that like for so many other people ended up being key for me because I was skiing. I ended up. getting some online tutoring with a family who I taught and which really saved me in terms of being able to live in Stowe at that time. But then it was like, Oh, wow. You can ski a lot now. Your back's better. It's I guess you'll ski three laps on Spruce. It's Oh, that's weird. And then you can do it again. And people would be like, wow, you ski a lot. I was like, I don't know. Yeah. And then I'd go for a run and then bike. And it was like, wow. This is cool. Exercise is fun and these things are fun. And it's, I was still, it makes me feel good. And I was still so new to Stowe that there was so much exploring. the first time you like run down Sterling Valley, whoa, that was really cool. it was just all so fresh and I had time. So that was when I first started to take things a little more seriously. Use Strava. Know how long I went out for. Certainly didn't have any smartwatch or anything, but. But that's when I started to care and realize oh, I'm, I'm not like crazy, but I'm pretty okay at doing a lot of these things. And then the ramp up really started after there. I became a dorm parent at the academy. And I was around a lot of really motivated athletes and that motivated me even more and I was living really close to the mountain got my first I'd still been on telemark until then. So Oh, wow fall 2020. I got my first Proper touring set up which and it was like, oh, wow I can save time by going faster. And if you can go fast you can fit in a lap between job responsibilities, so that's when things really started to kick off with skiing a lot, skiing faster, exploring the back country and all of that. why do you think you fell in love with it? Is it, the nature, the exercise, the camaraderie, all of that? what do you think really grabbed you? I think, every day is a different reason to fall in love. I think the freedom of it is really awesome. And that. You can do anything, you can go anywhere on your bike, you can go anywhere on your feet, you can go anywhere on your skis. And especially in those early days, the exploring and that freedom was really critical. I think as time has moved on, I'm more interested in it Like on a day to day basis as sport, and pushing myself and getting better. That being said, in Stowe, the Skintrack is our living room. It's like the local bar. Yeah, it's there's Since we lost PK Coffee, there's nowhere else good to go hang out with your friends in the middle of the day or whatever. And what's better than seeing your friends at 6. 30? Yeah. that's such a unique experience. So many people in other places, they'll go weeks without seeing their friends. And I think what makes DOE so special are these friendships that are reinforced because people go do things together all the time. Yeah, there's so many people working in Boston that see their friends once on the weekend. And now it's like I haven't seen a friend 12 hours. That's weird. Yeah. There's You know, that's what we do. We go to our gym, our living room. It's just the mountain. And even if you don't have plans to go with anybody, you'll have somebody there, at least somebody to wave to. You won't feel alone. Except when it's raining. then it's a lot of Noah time. Yeah, no, I fully agree. Being an avid skinner, the freedom, and I'd even, broaden that to just skiing. And I think the cool thing about whether it's skinning or skiing, it is that feeling of freedom. You can go to the backcountry, you can do lift serve that, I can have any experience I want to have. Yeah, whatever's calling to me on that day is a really cool feeling. Yeah. And you can, push that freedom or you can take it gently, but it's up to you. it's not work. I think the speed effect has always been incredible to me. I love the feeling of going fast down a mountain. Yeah. That, that is, that just feels good. Yeah. and there is something about earning that, that turn down the mountain. the last few weeks we've all been doing chin clip. You've got a lift running just next to us, but yet there's something special about, Putting the effort in, seeing your friends, going up Chincliffe, like it's hard to describe to people when they say, why would you do that when there's a lift there that you could just take that and come down? And it's hard to describe to people sometimes. Yeah, something that I say a lot is that it's a much more comprehensive, ski touring versus lift serve. It's a much more comprehensive activity. When I go, I'm doing something the whole time. It's not these discrete runs. When people ask, do you like the up or down more? It's no, I like going out and doing it. The whole thing. I like that fluidity. And when I'm on, and like moving, it gets to the top, skins off, boom. It's just this really fluid movement and experience that feels just so different than oh, wait in line. Oh, this is your run. And you know if I want to go three quarters of the way to the top I can go exactly three quarters of the way to the top and then I can turn around and I love having the That ability no, I think fluid is a really good way to put it because you're not waiting in line anywhere You're moving and doing something the whole time the whole activity, it's a really good point, so we want to know listeners want to know You know, when did you set this 3 million vertical feet goal and maybe even why? Yeah. So I guess we should say to the listeners that don't know what I'm up to this year so far, I've skied over 3, 400, 000 feet of human powered vert. So walking up the mountain, with skis on my back or mostly with skins on my feet Beat the previous world record of 2. 5 million, which was set also by Stowe local Aaron Rice back in 2016. And I've been all over the world. I've skied, all but 18 days this year. But I got this idea, Aaron's around and I was as I said earlier, I was the guy that could ski a lot today and also ski a lot yesterday and then probably will ski a lot tomorrow or bike or whatever. So people have been like, oh, would you ever think of going for Aaron Rice's record? And I always said no. I don't want to be like, beholden to the watch, and that doesn't seem like that much fun. Then, winter 2023, I was doing a little coaching, and working, I was tutoring, working some gig kind of stuff, but I was skiing a lot, and I was having a lot of fun. So the idea was around, And it was like, you can ski a lot and it's still really fun. And then I was driving home from a mediocre bad date in Burlington in 89. You'll have that. Yeah. And I said, what are you doing with your life? It was February 7th or something. 2023 said you should go for Aaron's record. And. The weight was then on my shoulders immediately. It was like, okay, you should go for Aaron's record. And I think the next day I went to Aaron and I said, Hey, what would your thoughts be if I went for this record? And his response was incredible. He was like, yeah, absolutely. you absolutely should. I will be your biggest fan and I'll do anything I can to help you. So that was February, 2023. And then a lot of prep and a lot of not knowing how to prep and a little broken arm in the meantime, broken wrist. And then that, eventually, midnight, right after midnight on January 1st, 2024, I started at Perry Merrill, just to send myself off ceremoniously. And then I went to bed and then I skied 10, 000 feet. the rest of the day, later on. Wow. just for listeners, break down 3. 4 million. We're at day, I don't know, 300 and something. Are you, give us a sense of vertical feet skied per day and how many man's fields that is. Yeah, so the goal, originally, I figured I would ski 330 days. Which, to, my original goal was 3 million per day. feet. And to get there, 330 days, you have to travel. You anticipate getting sick. You anticipate really bad weather because you're in the mountains. And that was 9, 090 feet a day is what I needed. But I started off really hot in January. I was skiing over 12, 000 feet a day, which is six laps from the parking lot to the top of the quad or the gondola. And then some months have been, most months, every month has been lower than January, but usually I ski around 10, 000 feet every day, which is five laps, which, yeah, and that takes anywhere from just under five to eight hours. Yeah. Yeah. I know you mentioned, so going into it, your goal was 330. Days of skiing. Obviously you have travel days. Any rest days? I haven't taken like a pure rest day, where the goal is to rest. there have been days where there's been rest because I don't have to travel, to later or whatever, but generally actually travel days are much, much more tiring than the skiing. no, I have not taken any pure rest days. I really try to capitalize on every other moment to take rest and real deep rest, like doing nothing, not like hanging out in a restaurant kind of rest, like preferably horizontal, real rest, really letting your body recover as much as possible, as often as possible. Do you have a stretching routine, foam rolling, any, physio, stuff like that or just straight up? No. Legs up. Yeah. I don't. and it's been working. Yeah. I'm not to say that other things wouldn't work or work better, but this is what I've done and it's, I just make sure to relax. Yeah. And. I don't feel super tight. I don't feel sore. I don't wake up like this when I wake up. It's not oh this is impossible. Though sometimes you wake up and you're a little But I always, I have a little saying to myself, I say never trust your morning legs. It's true. It's a good point. Yeah. Yeah. It's a really good point. Once, yeah. Once I start walking. You get warm, you get moving. Yeah. And then it's okay, here we are. I'm sore every day when I wake up. I come down the stairs. Yeah. I know. I know not to trust my morning legs. Or, even if, I'm out here for so long, if my first lap is slower, who cares? I've, my, my obligations are to myself to go skiing. so you're spending five to seven, eight hours a day, take us through, are you eating? Are you listening to the Octagon podcast? Are you listening to music? one thing that has been interesting this year, and it's been a skill that I didn't necessarily know I had, is that, is to find new routines in new places. Because I travel, and I've traveled to a lot of places that I've never been to before, or something will happen somewhere where, there's a big, Melt and then you have to change your routine, but find a new routine. Go somewhere new and find your routine. So right now my routine is drink a cup of coffee. I'm staying with my buddy Morrisville currently. Drive to the hill. Eat a cinnamon raisin bagel on each of the first three laps. I'm skiing with people a lot now, so a little bit less music and podcasts, but That's, yeah, what I do. A bagel on each lap. some sort of energy drink usually on the fourth lap. And then, Haribo gummy bears or something on the fifth lap. Recently, I've had friends keep showing up at the fourth or fifth lap, which then pushes me to do more. It's ah, what am I going to do? You just got here. I'll ski another lap with you. So that's, it's you're trying to leave the bar. Just one more Noah. Oh, it's just have one more beer. It's the, lap. Yeah. It's the epitome of the, oh, just one more. What? Yeah. It's just another one. You've done so many. Who cares? That's what a day looks like. Yeah. Stop at the grocery store on the way home. Load up. Yeah. And then scroll, sit there, send some emails. But steak, are you craving steak or protein? No, I don't eat that much protein. I eat some. Yeah. Very little red meat. Yeah. a lot of carbs because you can get them in and get them out really easily. Yeah. Yeah, just a lot of carbs. Nice. So I think what could be cool for our listeners is maybe just give a quick snapshot, you mentioned starting your season in Stowe and then maybe just give a quick little kind of timeline, take us on your journey. Like, where Stowe? And then all that. I'm on Strava, so I've been obsessively following you, but a lot of our listeners haven't been. Yeah. So it's, this is when I set out this year, I had a few goals. I said, I want to ski as hard as I can for a year. In cool places, to meet cool people, and to inspire others. I think it'll be fun. Definitely want to touch on all of those things. But, we've definitely touched on the skiing hard part. I did all of January in Stowe. But as access and snow was starting to become difficult, I Was looking where to go. The West, there was often a persistent weak layer, an avalanche problem. Europe started with an absolute banger of a year last year in terms of snow. And so I booked tickets for two months, February, March, in Europe. Switzerland? No, Switzerland, was not in the No Dimes budget. Unfortunately. Yeah, I'm trying to remember where you were. I was in Saint Germain, France. A nice Stowe family gave me their apartment for a month. Oh, wow. it's right outside of Chamonix. And I was in France for a month in February. It was awesome. The skiing was absolutely terrible. It got warm before I got there and then just kept getting warmer and the snow kept going higher and higher up the mountain. I remember seeing like some jean shorts, there were shorts in February, which was suboptimal. two baguettes a day, croissant, practicing French, The skiing sucked, but the lifestyle was phenomenal. And for March, I moved over to Innsbruck was where I was based out of, which is just a phenomenal place. what a cool city. It's got everything. It's a real city, but then you can hop on the J bus for free to go to Petrokoffel, where they had the Olympic downhills, and you can walk up it whenever you would like. And, oh, if you want to grab a snack, there's a nice restaurant at the top. The bus comes every 15 minutes and it was just awesome. So I got to ski there a bunch. I spent a week with a friend in St. Anton. Yeah. Which is a wild place. That's what I've heard. I went there two years ago. Yeah. Amazing place. It's, just a wild place. It's the mountains there are so tight. The valleys are, is so narrow. That it feels confined and it's cool. And also, the Opry scene there is I've heard it's wild. It's Oktoberfest meets skiing. Yeah, with the best worst Europop. And, this year, I haven't been drinking at all. and just, I've had no interest. And I went out To operate, which I'm very glad I did because it was an experience of a lifetime. The moose were the crazy kangaroo. Yeah. Oh, the place sounds like Mike had quite a trip. Then I bought a beer, took one sip and said, I don't want this and handed it to somebody else. it was worth burning the extra calories to get on the benches and jump up and down. And just like that scene. Yeah. you can say what you want, but it would be fun if we had. A party like that here. Yeah. Like just better than being sulky in the Matterhorn. Yeah. It was true. I've always thought the same. It was like, whoa, this is Midway Lodge, right? With a DJ outside with the sunshine. A true opera scene. Yeah. whoa. Whoa. Pretty everyday a party. Yeah. I lived in Lake Tahoe for a couple years and that was, That they'd be going off right at the base. It's the next level. It's just I don't know, here we go ski, then we go home and there's, that's great. And there's also, in the spring we get some of the tailgating and I love that, but I think that sometimes it feels like we lack. And I think you guys are doing a great job, having a podcast, talking about it, like some ski culture, like everybody goes and does their skiing. But. What does it mean to be a skier? And like in Europe, it means to go do that and then hang out with your friends and have a great meal. Just like you said, it's the whole package. and I don't think the alcohol necessarily needs to play that bigger role in it, but it's to have, Those kind of blow out parties where you remember the whole experience, not just like getting in your car after. it's another way to build community. Yeah, exactly. Music is fun. totally. And I guess we have like infinite Grateful Dead cover bands, so we've got something. So yeah, so that was March Interestingly, and I think about this a lot now, I was very alone in Europe for most of the time. it was the one place really where I haven't had a lot of people. because I didn't really know anybody there and I hadn't gotten a lot of press or a lot of buzz in the ski industry. So I was just head down grinding. So I look back on it that was a really cool experience and very different than any of my experiences elsewhere. That being said, I cannot wait to go back to Europe. I know so many more people now and I, without the pressure of skiing 10, 000 feet a day, there's a lot of cool stuff to ski. In Europe, wow. Endless. And literally endless. A lifetime or ten of skiing. After that came back to Vermont because April in Vermont is the best. It's amazing. Great month. Great month. Put up another big month in April and Enjoyed it, spent time with friends Which was really good because I knew that the next time I go away was going to be a long time away. Yeah, I did do one Noah day. Oh, yeah, you did. I did 10, 000. That was really cool. That was a special experience. Thank you. That was really cool. I was psyched about that. That's inspiring. Yeah, I would not have done that if it wasn't for you. That was a really cool experience. And I did not feel good the next day. I didn't feel good for two days, actually, but, I'll never forget that day. Yeah, that was awesome. That was really cool to see you guys out there doing it. It was super fun. It's yeah. 10 K is a lot if you aren't used to skiing 10 K. Oh yeah. So April, what was actually really cool. My last East coast day before I left was with Aaron Rice. And we went and skied Mount Washington, Tucks, and just ran around there. What was really cool about that was the year before we had gone, so 2023, after I'd already made my intentions clear, and it was like, Aaron, what does it feel like to do this? And how do you go about finding a sponsorship? Or how do You know, how tired were you? All these things and now we got to go and, it was still early in my year, but it's did this happen to you too? Or did you notice this about yourself? So it was really cool to have that same experience, but just so different when I was in the middle of it, then I think I, I packed up my 2003 Toyota Tacoma with the wooden, Window on the cap and drove out. I was headed to Winter Park because it's the closest skiing in Colorado To Vermont, but then at the top of Berthoud Pass on the way out there, I was like, oh, shoot, that's a place where people go skiing. So I pulled into Berthoud Pass at 11, 300 feet after sleeping at the world's largest truck stop on I 80 in Iowa the night before at sea level. And then it snowed half a foot the next day. Didn't move my truck for three or four days. It's just oh, I was. All out of sorts at the altitude. It was, like I do fine at altitude, but when you go to go ski 10, 000 feet a day and you're sleeping at 11, three in the cold in your truck, it was tough. So I spent a couple of weeks in Colorado. that's when I first started getting noticed, which was fun and like weird. It's wow, people know who I am. that's cool. yeah. And then I went to a coffee shop called Moon Frog Coffee out there a bunch and met some people there. And it was, that was really cool to just go into this coffee shop and meet people. They figured out my story eventually and have somewhere to know people every morning. Yeah. It was really cool. Colorado, a few days in Aspen. Then I went to Utah and do that. Skiing at Alta, and then really in many ways, this was a pivotal moment. The American downhiller, Stephen Nyman, also skis Fisher. I'm lucky to be sponsored by Fisher. So early in the year, we had a team call and he took an interest in me. And I did not get it. I was like, why do you care? dude, you are one of the best ski racers that we've had. You had just wrapped up a 20 something year career on the world cup. Why do you care about what I'm doing? We'd gone back and forth on Instagram And then I very anxiously hit him up Hey, It would be really cool if we could go ski a bit while I'm here. And he says actually I'm coming up. Oh, shoot. it's about to rain. This will be good. I'm sitting in my truck. Stephen Nyman shows up, hands me a sandwich and some other food. He's wearing shorts because he knows that I often wear shorts skiing when it's warmer. And we go, we have a nice ski at Alta. Terrible conditions. Just like weird sticky snow. But have a blast and be safe. He's just come stay with me. And I stayed there for two weeks, but just really became close friends with Stephen, which turned out to be a cheat code in the world of skiing because everybody loves Stephen Nyman. Turns out that he's, just the nicest dude, and I talk about it all the time because he's become an incredible friend. that was one of the first, whoa, I'm really lucky to meet these people. that was Utah. Then I went over to Mt. Hood. I had spent a little bit of time in the past, just summer skiing on a volcano, living in your truck, just a weird lawless place. There's always somebody brushing their teeth somewhere random. Everybody lives in their car. Incredible. park skiers are there. and then I was talking with the ranger who is a buddy, and he's I think Jeremy Jones is here. so Jeremy's cousins live in Stowe and I'd ridden bikes with him a few years ago because I taught his cousins and he's I think that's Jeremy. I go, yo, Jer. And it was Jeremy and he knew what I was up to, which was really cool. We ended up. Yeah. Going to the summit of hood with him and, his son Cass and his friend Hayes, and then also, Parking Kosen was there and Kai Jones, who are just some of the best skiers in the country at big mountain skiing and snowboarders. And that was just an insane experience to be at the top of mountain hood, skiing a pretty big for me line off of it with, Ski movie guys, right? Literally. Guys in ski movies. these are the guys, that's a Red Bull helmet. these are the guys. Tim Dershey was in the lot cause he was hurt and was down to greet us and went to a party with him and it's like, what is my life? when I said I wanted to ski with cool people, I couldn't have imagined. Yeah. That's what it would turn into. It's like the TGR boys. So that was really cool. and then I went to Chile after Mount Hood in July. That looked amazing. Chile's incredible. it's first of all, really easy to get there. it's far, but it's not hard. You can, hop on a plane and then an hour outside of Santiago, there's, Skiing. Yeah, and I was there for two months living at 8, 000 feet didn't come down to Santiago once but and then just You know the migration of the ski world was there So everybody was there and we had this a couple storms that stack they had an early like an incredible early season But we had a couple storms that stacked and then pop bluebird And it was only good skiers. the ski Academy was down there at the time training, but they skied powder that day. I was with a bunch of people, skied with a bunch of like free ride world tour on and caliber people. We didn't have power. there was just no power. So people just wander around to find people to hang out with and eat with. And it was this 10 day stretch of heaven. so Chile was really cool, really nice people. Then I ended up going. For October, I went south to a volcano. It was in essence, the Mount Hood of Chile. Just beautiful, long days. And it was sweet. I got to hang out a bunch with the the U. S. snowboard cross team, and we went to the top of the volcano together. So they took the lift to the top of lifts and I skinned up and then, Had just this incredible 4, 000 foot run down, the volcanoes of Lonky Mai with the snowboard cross team. and I had met one of the guys who was training, GS snowboarding, and Up further north in Chile. So in Chile was when I like, just started hanging out and meeting like, more and more of these really cool people. The Slovenian Downhillers. just really, from all different corners of this sport that we get to do. And because everybody knows what it means to try hard. And to care about something. People would ask me, a lot, not Why are you doing this? Or why would somebody do this? Of course, it's a hard thing to do, to be good at something. But they would ask me why are you doing this? And I think that's a important distinction. So that was really cool. I got to see, Mount Mansfield Academy graduate Johnny Kerbaugh down there who is currently on the US ski team on the D team and So that was a really special moment for me because I taught him. I was his darn parent and There he was in his blue ski team jacket, and I was just stoked to see him down there. you know skiing It's such a small world. And just I was so proud of him to see him down there. Cool And yeah flew back First couple days in November, truck was at Mt. Hood, skied Mt. Hood, and then pretty much exactly undid everything I did driving back. and then I got invited up to waterfall Valley to go ski because they had some snow. That was really cool. And what was really cool about that is I hike myself up there and then I knew they were there. The snowboard cross team who I got to hang out with in Chile was there. Oh wow. So it was like me, the snowboard cross team. Big air slope style snowboard team and a wilderness or something occasionally training there. So it's just like this private Island of snow on top of Waterville Valley. That's awesome. And then I've been back here since late November. Just getting after it. Yeah, just out there every day doing my thing. That's an awesome tour. Just listening to it, it almost is you're hearkening back to an old school ski bum enthusiasm. just listening to you. yeah. skiing's changed a lot, right? And people say we've lost that culture and enthusiasm. Just listening to you, it feels like you've captured that. you've touched with all these people and all the skinners. There's all these other people that love being on snow. I've learned a lot of these people that are really good at other aspects of their sport. It's not their thing, but they'll go for a ski tour. all these athletes are athletes. They're not just dudes on the couch that happens to spin around a lot. Like they're serious athletes. Yeah. And at that level, you gotta love what you do. so they're ski culture, like those people love what they're doing. They just, they care about it and they care about the sport as a whole. Yeah. So you touched on it briefly, you mentioned somebody asked you, why are you doing this? Yeah. Yeah. why do you think you're doing this? to see what it feels like. See what's on the other side, Yeah, But that sounds flippant, but it really means, and there's a lot more to it. Yeah. It's, see what it feels like to try to be your best at something. See what it feels like to focus on one thing for a whole year. With the sacrifices. And benefits that come from that. See what it feels like to be outside all day, every day. So it's to see what it feels like this flippant nothing answer, but it really is to see what it feels like. What is life, but to feel things. And so now I'm seeing what it feels like to ski 3 million or 3. 5, hopefully by the end of next week, vertical feet in a year and, If you notice I, I talked about the numbers matter to me and the numbers matter a lot to me, but the numbers have been a framework for all these experiences that I've been talking about. these people. That journey you just took us on. Yeah, these sunsets, two months in Far Yonis, which is the town I was in Chile. Two months of every night, it was either snowing, or more often, and often both, the most incredible, vibrant, mind bending sunsets every night, and if I don't set this goal of three million human powered vertical feet, I don't get to see those sunsets. Yeah, it's a good point. It's a really good point. as we're closing in on the end of the year, any plans for New Year's Eve? what's, how do you end the year? New Year's Eve, not sure. there'll be something. Yeah. I think a big exhale. I actually am gonna stop counting for the year, total vert. On December 30th, because it's a leap year. Aaron also did his in a leap year. So in fairness to whoever comes next so that it, if somebody wants to start next year, bless him, they have the same number of days. it's only fair to whoever comes next. I'll probably ski 10, 000 feet on the 31st, but all right. The 30th, then we did something on the 30th, right? Yeah. So that would be. the end of the, that official counting of the total. Maybe a live broadcast. Oh, I know, Gon b Could be fun. You could do it on the way up. Yeah. Try and do this on the way up. Noah's the only one that would be talking. would just be breathing, heavy breathing. Yeah. So something that's actually really fun that will happen towards the end. my dad, I said is a skier, but he's not once walked up the mountain. but I don't even know how it came up, but sometime before the year began, he said, I will do a lap with you, which, and he will hold true. We're going to go down to mountain ops and get them a set up and he's going to skin a lap. He called me today from the treadmill doing 15%. I was like, that's a good start, dad. It's like for so many of us the first time will be hard, but hopefully he loves it. Yeah, so I'm really excited to share this passion of mine with him. Yeah, that's awesome. Yeah, and the next 15, 16 days, 17 days, just soak it up. Yeah. Is soak in this experience because whatever comes next and I don't really know what's next in my life, but it will not be this. Yeah. It will be different. It can be better. It can be worse, but it won't be this. So I'm really focusing on just Soaking up this wild Cool, incredible year. Love it. So we're just gonna pivot a little bit and talk about your time in Stowe So what do you think makes Stowe unique? what keeps you here? What keeps me here is a very easy answer, and it's friends. and community. It's the community that I have here. And my close friends, my broader friends, everybody I know, people that know me, that's what keeps me here. What makes Stowe special is it's a mountain town on the east coast. I think that is the defining factor of why Stowe is what it is. It is really the only community. Mountain town, North Conway you can make a okay argument for North Conway. The lack of mediocre at best resort skiing there takes down, but Stowe is a resort. It's a ski town. It's a mountain. It's more than a ski town. It's a mountain town. And there is mountain culture and if you go mountain biking, you're going to see people you know. there's a gym or two, you don't hear people talking about going to the gym here. Everybody's outside, everybody's doing something. And because of that, we have close bonds. I think that, it's tough. There's not a lot of young people here, which is constantly tough. Yeah. but. I'm an East Coast kid. I grew up outside of Boston. My parents are there. My grandparents are in New York and Boston. It's a mountain town on the East Coast. I think it's, Got a lot of really smart, interesting people, which I think has a lot to do with the East Coastness of it. Not to say that there aren't smart, interesting people in West Coast, Western mountain towns, but our proximity to the centers of knowledge, makes some really interesting people. So it's not just dumb bro bras trying to go skiing all the time. when you're skinning, you've got a lot of time and if you don't have a lot of thoughts in your head. to talk about with other people. It's gonna get pretty boring. I think that has been really critical. and it's a town where, Everything's close, you can go skiing. Every day, which turns out I really like it. Clearly. Definitely. How would you compare our skin culture to all these other places that you've been to? I think like the nosedive morning is pretty unusual. I think there are definitely places like Alta preseason and postseason was pretty wild. Lots of people out there. Lots and lots of people. there are places, but it's not everywhere. Austria, people are hammering. Yeah, they're going up St. Anton, that's big. They're going up St. Anton, they're going up Patrickhoffel. Thursday night is skin night at Patrickhoffel, where they don't groom until later. And parade of headlights. They rotate which resort outside of Innsbruck, like every night is a different resort. French people seem to, they like good skiing. Austrians don't care. Y'all say it's no bad weather, only bad clothes. It sounds like Vermonters too. Yeah. They came here, right? The connection between Atri and Snow. Good point. Yeah, good point. Yeah. Yeah. They're, it's very funny. Yeah. Chile, they're getting it. Chilean ski culture is cool. It's definitely based on American ski culture rather than European. and there are Chileans out there, backcountry skiing. pushing it in the mountains, and what was really cool down Chile is, so often you go somewhere as a ski tourist and there's ski tourists and the people that live there. And a lot of this was because of some people I knew and groups that I got in with, those barriers didn't exist. it would be, a couple Chileans and a couple Americans going out So that was just really cool to see. There was definitely a lot of love between the Americans, the gringos, and the Chileans. their ski culture and some things is a little behind ours, but there's a lot of crossover. they have their own outdoor brand. Like a, clothing brand, and ski brands, that are really cool. Like cool quality things. And that's, a healthy ski culture, which was really cool. But nothing compared to the parade on Nosedive. on a powder morning. Yeah, but not too much, like a, a five inch stormer. It's best on a groomer, right? Yeah. Just 250 people. It's 645. It's pretty wild. It does always make me laugh when the first person riding the lift, so it's I'm going to go hit Nosedive to catch powder and they get to it and it's completely tracked out. I, I do it. Shot me a text the other day. He said, there's 50 people waiting for the Nosedive rope drop. Then he said, we're going to go poach the lifeline. Nice. What would you say is your hope for Stowe in the next 10 years? a little wonky, actually, like policy wonky. I think that the zone needs to be relaxed. We need to build more housing, so that we can have young people afford to live here. there's less than 500 people between 20 and 35 that live in Stowe. and I think that number, I could check the numbers. It's 280 something. It's somewhere around there, and it's down something like 60 percent in the last 10 years. Stowe's culture will die if we don't have people that can work here. purely economically. along with that, I think the transportation in Stowe is a disaster. I think that the bus system is a farce. I think that we all know that, resort traffic on select days is a problem and the paid parking isn't inherently a bad solution, but the resort has put the cart before the horse and didn't improve the bus system, and I rode the bus recently because my car was in the shop, so I had to go grab it. And, it's mostly J 1s speaking Spanish on the bus. So they don't have anywhere near as much a voice in town politics, these bus stops are just, they're nothing, they're not covered. And how can we expect people to take, how can you ask people to take the bus? I know Vermont morning when they're getting splashed by cars, it's unsafe. transportation. And housing, especially, it's, there's just not enough housing for people that are not in the top 5 percent to live here. it's a battle. I've noticed that a lot of infrastructure at the resort is you know, signs aren't painted, fencing isn't painted. I hope, I that those things get addressed, that it's taken care of. and that Vale acts with some stewardship over the resort. I just, I want it to be a place where people want to come skiing because at the end of the day, we need tourist dollars and we, we're a tourist town, so we need that. And I hope that, more mountain bike trails get built. We have such incredible terrain here. I hope that we don't get in our own way in this. With mountain biking, and we build trails for all abilities. And I also hope we get some better restaurants. I think that our food scene is just frustratingly bad. why can't I get just an awesome bowl of ramen and soup dumplings after coming down from the hill? No, not everything has to be a maple bacon burger. It just it doesn't smash burger It does not everything has to be Me I love maple. Yeah, not everything has to be maple. Not everything has to be a burger I would just love a wider variety different ethnic foods. Oh, yeah, it's a fair request. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah requests So, we'll just wrap up here. So we do ask all of our guests, if Stowe did not exist, there was no such thing as Stowe, Vermont. Now that you've traveled a bit, where do you think he'd live or do you think he'd be living? I'll give you three answers. All right. Maybe four, Innsbruck, Austria. Maybe also Chimney. Flagstaff, Arizona. And Hood River, Oregon are all places that I would absolutely live in. in a second. Nice. Flagstaff skinning. Flagstaff's up. Yeah. I was curious about the flag. I'm trying to think. The Flagstaff, Arizona. Arizona Snowball. Yeah. Is there Yeah. And there's skiing there. Great skiing there. Yeah. I've never skied it, but I've looked at it. Okay. Okay. and there's awesome biking. And you're 70 miles from the Grand Canyon and it's near everything else. Awesome. And Hood River is cool. I've heard that's a cool place. Yeah, it's a cool place. Like everybody's on the river doing, I'd get into wind sports. The mountain biking's incredible there. you're 30, 35 for Mount Hood, you can ski deep into the summer there. Skiing is almost a 12 month a year sport with the glacier, glaciated volcanoes. And there's good food and there's a good amount of people there. Thank you so much, Noah. Such a cool story and journey and, thank you for sharing it with us and inspiring all of us to, get out there and I'll be getting up early tomorrow and climbing up the hill. So thanks again, man. I really appreciate it. Thank you so much for having me. All right. Hope y'all enjoyed that episode with Noah Dines. That was episode 10 of the Octagon podcast. Help us spread the word and remember to like us on Instagram and subscribe on Apple podcasts or Spotify. See you next time.