USA retiree skis seven million feet downhill in half a year to break record

A retiree from Utah, USA, used his newfound free time to pursue his favourite hobby, as well as a world record.

63-year-old Thomas Hart, better known as “Racer Tom” to his friends and other skiers, achieved the greatest vertical distance skiing downhill in one year, covering a total of 2.13 million metres (7 million ft).

He skied 300,000 metres (nearly 1 million ft) further than the previous record, set in 2015 by Canadian Pierre Marc Jette.

Although Tom was permitted an entire year to rack up as many metres as possible, he chose to stop at the end of the 2023/24 skiing season, after skiing almost non-stop for half a year.

He hit the slopes at Utah’s Snowbasin Resort (which hosted the 2002 Olympic downhill skiing events) every day between November and the end of April, missing only one day due to an extreme windstorm.

Tom skied from open to close on most of those days, averaging over 14,000 metres (45,000 ft) every day.

“It was so much fun,” he told the Utah Standard-Examiner.

“I don't know how else to describe it. It was kind of like being a kid and told by your parents that you can ride your bike all day long outside, just please return home at the end of the day.”

Tom is a longtime fan of Guinness World Records and decided to finally chase a record of his own after retiring last year.

He’s overjoyed to have broken the record by such a significant margin, but he’s not resting on his laurels – he’s already planning to attempt it again later this year.

He said: “I’ve got a bullseye on my back, and I know that – there will be other Big Vertical skiers going after my record.”

Tom isn’t the only person to have set a downhill skiing world record recently – Norwegian pro skier Anders Backe registered the fastest speed downhill skiing backwards, 133.46 km/h (82.92 mph).

And Englishman Josh Bregmen combined the sports of skiing and BASE jumping  to perform the world’s highest altitude ski-BASE jump, which saw him fly off an 18,753-ft cliff in the Himalayas.

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