Industry News
Thomas Hart, better known on the mountain as “Racer Tom,” has spent the past few years pushing the limits of what anyone thought was possible on skis. Last season, he crushed his own world record with more than 11 million vertical feet, a number so huge it was hard for most people to even picture. This year, he kept going. In 2025, he has now skied more than fifteen million vertical feet, a milestone that cements him as one of the most relentless skiers the sport has ever seen.
Hart is a retired real estate broker from North Ogden, Utah, who decided a while back that he wanted to chase big goals while he still could. He already held the Guinness World Record at just over 11.4 million feet, set between late October 2024 and June 15, 2025. That stretch included more than 6,000 lift rides, 208 ski days, and only three missed days across the entire season. He spent most mornings on the mountain before sunrise, fueled by two hard boiled eggs and a peanut butter and honey sandwich, skiing run after run until the lifts stopped spinning.
Even after wrapping up at Mammoth, California, in June with a season that seemed impossible to top, Hart never really stopped thinking about what might still be out there. He talked openly about heading to Chile in August. He kept skiing through fall. And by the time he showed up at Copper Mountain, Colorado this week, he had stacked his total for 2025 to 15 million vertical feet.
Copper treated the whole thing like a celebration. Staff and skiers recognized him as he loaded the lifts, and Ikon Pass shouted him out on social media again as his name climbed to the top of their season leaderboard. He kept his now familiar million-foot ritual of kissing the snow each time he crossed another milestone. He even traded chairlift stories with longtime locals and a few legends who wanted to congratulate him in person.
Whether Guinness will count the full 15 million toward a new world record is still unclear, since their current tally ends in mid-June. But the raw numbers speak for themselves. This year alone Racer Tom has already skied 11 days of the new season, ridden more than 500 lifts, and notched another half million vertical feet. All of it continues the same story he has been writing for years: he simply loves to ski, and he refuses to leave anything on the table.
What makes Hart so compelling is that none of this is about fame or numbers for him. He skis because it makes him happy, he likes the routine, the challenge, and the people he meets along the way. That joy shows in every stat he logs and every day he clicks into his skis.
15 million vertical feet is more than an achievement. It is a testament to what happens when someone leans fully into something they love and refuses to let age or convention slow them down. Racer Tom has already changed the way people think about what a single skier can do in one year.
