MOUNT CRESTED BUTTE — Everything changed for Cam Smith and Anna Gibson at the first-ever World Cup Ski Mountaineering mixed relay race in the U.S. last month at Solitude ski area in Utah.
After the first of four laps, Gibson was about 10 seconds behind Canada. She and Smith — as well as other members of the U.S. Ski Mountaineering Team — needed to beat Canada to secure an American presence in the Olympic debut of ski mountaineering, or skimo, next month in Italy.
“We are in the middle of the race. We are behind where we want to be. If the race ended there, we would not be in the Olympics. Anna yells at me, ‘You got this!’ as I’m yelling back at her, ‘That was awesome!’ We were just having fun racing even though we were in that high-pressure moment and I think we were the only team actually having fun,” says the 30-year-old Smith from Crested Butte.
And then over the next couple of laps, Smith and Gibson stormed out to the front of the pack and won the Dec. 6 World Cup race with a more than 50-second lead, securing the first-ever mixed relay World Cup gold medal for the U.S. and clinching their spot in the ski mountaineering Olympic races.
“When we were behind Canada, Anna and I were having fun. And when we got ahead of them, you could see the strain and concern on their faces and then the lead just exploded at the end of the race,” Smith says while riding chairlifts in a snowstorm at his home hill in Crested Butte.
“They were focused on us and we were focused on ourselves and that’s literally why the race played out like it did. Everything changed that day. And I think it was because we were having fun.”
Team USA’s skimo plans accelerated
The U.S. has never been a skimo powerhouse. The Euros, who birthed the funky blend of downhill skiing, Nordic racing and backcountry mountaineering, are the dominant forces in the sport. The nascent U.S. Ski Mountaineering team had a long-range plan to make noise in the 2026 Olympics, maybe push for a podium in 2030 and then aim for a medal at the Utah Winter Games in 2034.
The win in Utah in December was the first time Gibson had ever skied in a World Cup and a first World Cup gold for Smith.
“That timeline accelerated eight years based on that one day last month. The athletes, the coaches, the administrators and the fans, everyone is so excited just because of what happened on that one day,” Smith says as snow cakes his bushy red beard. “Life changed on that day for sure.”
Smith got his start in ski mountaineering a dozen years ago when he left home in Rockford, Illinois, to attend Western Colorado University in Gunnison with his older sister. On a whim the siblings signed up for the Grand Traverse, the historic race from Crested Butte to Aspen.
“And I was hooked,” Smith says.
He joined Western’s Mountain Sports program and started Alpine and Nordic skiing in the winter and trail running and mountain biking in the summer. He called it “the most accelerated way to learn mountain sports.”
“This valley really did raise me as an athlete, as a skier and as a person in a lot of ways,” he says. “I was skiing chairlifts every day. I was learning how to Nordic ski. I was going on backcountry tours and working with coaches every day.”
Smith has won the U.S. Ski Mountaineering national championships five times. He has course records for the Power of Four race in Aspen, the Grand Traverse and the Gothic Mountain Tour. He’s also won the North American Ski Mountaineering championships five times.
Learning to downhill ski at Crested Butte Mountain Resort has made him immune to intimidation by gnarly terrain or thin snow. He charges hard, even on skinny, lightweight touring skis. He passes a lot of racers on the downhill. (So does Gibson, who grew up Nordic skiing and riding chairlifts at Jackson Hole Mountain Resort in Wyoming.)
“This place has some of the best steep skiing in the world. The mountain kind of made me the skimo athlete I am today,” says Smith, who skins up Crested Butte Mountain Resort nearly every morning and evening when he is in the valley.
Skimo wins demand focus in the transition zone
The Olympic debut of ski mountaineering Feb. 19-21 will feature the same four-lap mixed relay as the World Cup race in Solitude. The athletes will skin up a slope and then run up a steeper climb before skiing downhill. The Olympic competition also will include a much shorter sprint race with male and female athletes skinning, bootpacking and downhill skiing in a lap that typically lasts less than 3 minutes.
The relay and sprint races may not reflect the long-day-in-the-mountains roots of ski mountaineering, but they are exciting, Smith said. Some skimo athletes excel at uphill. Others are best at the downhill. The mix of male and female athletes in the relay adds a dynamic aspect with lots of lead changes as exhausted skiers tap in their fresh teammates.
But it’s the transitions where skimo races can be won and lost. Especially in short sprint and relay races.
Skiers ripping off skins and switching bindings and boots to downhill mode can be tricky and cause delays. Same for when skinning skiers switching from skinning to bootpacking up a steep slope, and strapping their skis to backpacks. And in the relay, skiers will need to switch from skinning to skiing and must hastily attach the sticky skins to their ski bases.
“When a transition goes really well or goes poorly, the race gets turned on its head,” Smith says. “So it can be super dynamic and I think people will see a lot of lead changes at the Olympics.”
Smith has spent hours repeating the frenzied transitions. He works his gear-shifting movements every day heading into winter. That means hauling his skis along to cities so he can practice during family vacations . He’s performed each of the transitions “thousands and thousands of times,” he says.
“We might have similar abilities on the snow but when you do those transitions, when your heart rate is at 200 and the wind is blowing and there’s snow everywhere and and the person next to you is stepping all over your stuff, being able to do all these things under pressure is the difference between gold, silver, bronze and being off the podium,” he says.
Smith is in Europe right now, prepping for three World Cup skimo races in France and Spain heading into the Olympic races. The U.S. Ski Mountaineering Team — he and Gibson — are heading into the Olympic season as the top relay team in the world.
Smith works at the Crested Butte Adaptive Sports Center, bringing people with disabilities skiing, cycling, climbing, rafting, camping and on other outdoor adventures. Just about everyone in Crested Butte has a story about Smith that involves his unflappably happy demeanor and consistent laughter.
Smith says his work with the Adaptive Sports Center fuels his stoke.
“I think, coming from Rockford, Illinois, the shock and awe and mystique of this place never really wore off. It’s still kind of unbelievable to be here riding a chairlift on a snowy Monday,” he says. “I get so much out of the outdoors here: a lot of really strong relationships, great memories and lifelong skills, and working with the adaptive center has given me lessons personally. I want other people to have that opportunity and when it’s harder for certain people to get outside, I want to help them and make sure they can have these same enriching opportunities.”