South Dearborn High School grad breaks skiing world record

DEARBORN COUNTY, Ind. (WXIX) - A southeast Indiana native is now in the Guinness Book of World Records after a grand skiing adventure last weekend.

Kyle Kelly successfully skied down ski slopes at 23 ski resorts in only 24 hours with his friend Brad Dykstra

Kelly is originally from southeast Indiana, graduating from South Dearborn High School in 2012. His grandfather first introduced him to skiing at the age of 7.

“He took me by perfects [Perfect North] and he said, ‘Do you want to go here or here?’ and he was pointing at the tubing and the skiing,” remembers Kelly, “And at the time I was living in Muncie with my parents because they were going to Ball State. I had no idea what skiing or tubing was, so I pointed at the bigger one, so he took me over there to go skiing.”

Kelly couldn’t wait for a skiing lesson that day and taught himself to ski.

It’s easy to see he’s pretty good at it. So good that he’s now in the Guinness Book of World Records.

In 2019, Kelly had the idea to break the record for most resorts skied in 24 hours. At that time, the record was 17 set in Japan.

Kelly started to map it out across the state of Michigan, where he now lives.

He and Dykstra succeeded last weekend between noon on Feb. 26 ending just before 12 p.m. on Feb. 27.

Kelly says the logistics weren’t difficult but meeting the Guinness standards was tough. That included recording all 24 hours and finding an independent observer. And when they say independent, they mean it.

“They [the Guinness observer] can’t be friends or family, they can’t be from the venue,” explains Kelly, “They can’t be helping us setting the thing up. So, we had to get complete - oh they can’t benefit at all from the attempt. So, we had to find random people and the worst of it is they could only work in four hours shifts.”

Kelly was also forced to ski after and before hours at several resorts.

He says the people working at the reports were very helpful allowing them to ski as early as 4 a.m. Kelly says he knows not everyone enjoys skiing, but he hopes they find some joy in the great outdoors.

“It’s a good exercise, it’s a good way to socialize with people, and get outside and enjoy the outdoors,” says Kelly. “So, I think that would be my biggest thing to take away from it is get outside. There’s lots of opportunities for people to get outside and enjoy the outdoors.”

After the 24-hour adventure, Kelly and Dykstra did a little bit of celebrating by popping champagne on the final run.

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