There are three ski mountaineering events slated for the next week, meant to help community members learn more about the sport and welcome in the 2021-22 ski season. A social event put on by Team.
Photo by Curtis DeVore / Copper Mountain Resort
When Copper Mountain Resort President and General Manager Dustin Lyman saw the level of demand for uphill and backcountry skiing last March, he knew Copper needed to add an uphill race series to the resort’s lineup.
Since Lyman began leading the resort at the start of the 2018-19 winter season, the Boulder native and former National Football League player has leaned into the resort’s niche as “The Athlete’s Mountain.” Along with serving as the U.S. Alpine Ski Team’s official training site and as the elite training and competition venue via Woodward Copper Mountain Park for park and pipe sports, Lyman believes uphill is a part of Copper’s athlete-first brand.
Photo from Jaime Brede
The inaugural ski mountaineering season for Team Summit and head coach Jaime Brede has focused primarily on training, but the team hopes to head to its first in-person competition next month.
Brede and Team Summit ski mountaineers Olivia Lyman and Delilah Staberg have trained weekly on Copper Mountain Resort’s new designated uphill routes.
The endurance training, interval training and ski mountaineering fundamentals such as bootpacking, downhill skiing on skinny skis and transitions led up to Lyman and Staberg’s first race of the season the virtual Arapahoe Basin Ski Area Rise and Shine Rando series. On an unmarked course where they recorded their personal times via the Strava application, Staberg (1 hour, 41 minutes and 46 seconds) and Lyman (1:41:47) finished third and fourth in the nine-skier women’s race behind winner Kate Chapman (1:18:57) and runner-up Katherine Sigerst (1:40:12).