On Dec. 19, 2025, Guinness officially certified Hart’s latest attempt to break the Guinness World Record for “Greatest vertical distance skiing downhill in one year (male),” the fourth time he’s accomplished this feat and third time beating his own record.

Hart told the Standard-Examiner on Friday he anticipates this will be the last time he breaks the record.

“I genuinely believe that I can’t break this record,” he said. “That’s the big difference between this record and the previous three. I always knew I could break the previous records, but this one, I don’t think I can — and I’m not planning to try.”

Between Nov. 30, 2024, and Nov. 30, 2025, Hart skied a vertical distance downhill of 4,888,497 meters, or 16,038,376 feet. This dwarfs his first record-setting attempt in which he skied a documented vertical distance of 2,133,742 meters, or 7,000,468 feet, between Nov. 30, 2023, and April 30, 2024, at Snowbasin Resort.

Photo supplied, Thomas Hart

“If I take a run and it’s 2,000 vertical feet, it’s usually about 2 miles,” Hart said in 2024. “The vertical feet isn’t straight down — it’s at an angle — and certain resorts are steeper than others. Snowbasin is about almost exactly 1,000 vertical feet per mile.”

On Friday, Hart said that the latest attempt wasn’t just his most successful — it was also his most fun.

“The first year, I thought it was going to be kind of an arduous, difficult task, but it was so fun,” he said. “This year, it’s been even more fun because I’ve met so many likeminded people and avid skiers, not only at Snowbasin, but the other resorts.”

While Hart has primarily utilized the slopes of Snowbasin Resort in his record attempts, he also travels to other resorts prior to Snowbasin’s opening or after its closing for the season to keep up with his record pace. This past year, this included visits to Snowbird, Brighton and Mammoth Mountain Ski Resort in California.

“At Mammoth, I have a couple of friends from there, but I met up with more people there,” he said. “I thought I was going to stay a little over a week and I ended up staying over a month and I skied 32 days at Mammoth. It was just so much fun. A bunch of us were in a big condo there that one of the fellows had rented right at the base of Mammoth Mountain.”

Photo supplied, Thomas Hart

This trip to Mammoth Mountain would eventually lead him to another part of the world.

“The last week or so there is when that group said, ‘Let’s go to Chile,'” he said.

Friends from Snowbasin and Mammoth Mountain as well as his girlfriend whom he met at Mammoth Mountain would accompany Hart as he went to Chile for two months to continue skiing during the Southern Hemisphere’s winter.

While he had a goal to cross the 16 million vertical feet mark, one other goal remained elusive.

“My goal was to start at Snowbasin on Nov. 30 and end at Snowbasin on Nov. 30,” he said. “I went to Colorado at the end of October and started skiing. I was in Colorado for 40 days and skied 36 days consecutive, open to close, and that was the end of my record attempt. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to end at Snowbasin.”

Photo supplied, Thomas Hart

Snowbasin Resort had been slated to kick off its 85th season Nov. 28, 2025, but was forced to push its opening into December due to unfavorably warm conditions — a delay that actually allowed Hart to cross a major milestone.

“The silver lining to the gray cloud was that I would not have reached 16 million (vertical feet) if I made the drive home because I reached 16 million on the last day in Colorado,” he said.

Hart said it still amazes him that all of this has happened so smoothly.

“Sometimes I have to pinch myself to make sure that this is really happening,” he said. “It was like a dream come true, at first, and then this amazing dream that continued on. I’ve been very fortunate, blessed or lucky — maybe all three of those — with no injury or illness. The previous two years have had really good snowfall, which has been great for big vertical, otherwise known as endurance skiing.”

He added that he’s happy he’s been able to accomplish this in his retirement years.

Photo supplied, Thomas Hart

“I’m surprised that I’ve been able to break the record four times, but in my heart of hearts, I always thought that there was something in the skiing world I would be able to do and be good at,” he said. “It surprises me it took me this long to figure out what it was, but I’m very happy I can do it at this age.”

While Hart doesn’t anticipate being able to beat — or even attempt — the greatest vertical distance skiing downhill in one year record again, he is holding the door open a tiny bit on pursuing other skiing world records. But just a tiny bit.

“I know what the others are — the 12-hour and the 24-hour — and, potentially, if I saw a window where I could attempt it, I would go for it,” he said. “But I don’t see it being, for me, as important as the full year.”

In the meantime, when asked if he would pursue some more casual skiing during the present season, Hart answered, “Yes.”

“I will continue skiing after Snowbasin closes and I should be back at Snowbird for a while and then, definitely, I will be going to Mammoth Mountain and returning to Chile,” he said. “I’m working with a helicopter skiing operation in Chile with some very good friends there that I’ve met. Then my girlfriend who’s from Mammoth Mountain is part of this helicopter skiing operation, so we will be in Chile quite a bit next summer. For me, it’s awesome to have discovered the “endless winter” and that’s what South America is. It’s wonderful to go down there and escape the heat of the summer here.”

Photo supplied, Snowbasin Resort

He added that he goes forth with an additional nickname.

“One of the, I would call it, sports enthusiast websites had called me, ‘The Final Boss,'” he said. “My friends liked that and I liked it. I joked that I’ve been called worse. That’s why it says, ‘The Final Boss’ on the 16 million foot sign, because I’ve set the mark for everyone else to try to beat.”