By the standard of most mere mortals, Noah Dines' accomplishment sounds almost superhuman. In January, he set out to break the world record for the most uphill skiing in a calendar year. Eight months and two days into a pursuit that took him to three continents, the 30-year-old from Stowe reached his goal — 2,506,500 feet — at the summit of El Colorado, a ski resort in the Chilean Andes. With several months left in the year, Dines kept going. Seven weeks later, on October 24, he reached a new milestone on Chile's Lonquimay Volcano: 3 million human-powered vertical feet. And he's not done yet. Particularly noteworthy about Dines' achievement is that he broke the previous world record, set in 2016 by his friend and fellow Stowe resident Aaron Rice, as a relative newcomer to the sport, with no prior experience as an endurance athlete. In fact, the Bedford, Mass., native didn't get serious about uphilling, aka ski touring, until the pandemic, when the sport exploded internationally. Since then, Dines has become an international celebrity, of sorts. He now gets recognized by fellow skiers in the Alps, the Rockies and the Andes, including by Olympic and professional athletes with many more years of experience. For the uninitiated, ski touring involves putting skins on the bottom of one's skis for traction, then trekking up a mountain and skiing back down, either on groomed trails (called on-piste skiing) or on ungroomed (off-piste) snow. The equipment is generally much lighter and more flexible than Alpine gear, enabling the skier to cover more terrain faster and with less effort. Still, Dines typically spends five to eight hours a day skiing, making trips that vary from multiple "laps" up and down a ski resort's slopes to one or two long climbs in the backcountry. For the average ski-touring enthusiast, a big day on the mountain might involve an ascent of 6,000 to 8,000 feet. This year, Dines has been averaging 10,000 feet of elevation gain per day, which is equivalent to climbing to the top of Mount Mansfield more than three times. "Doing north of 10,000 [feet], day in and day out, is a staggering feat — and a mental feat as much as a physical one," said Adam "Howie" Howard, editor and publisher of Height of Land Publications in Jeffersonville, which produces Alpinist, Backcountry, Cross Country Skier and Mountain Flyer magazines. "It makes…