Several Summit County ski mountaineering athletes traveled to New Mexico at the end of January to compete in a series of races. From Jan. 27-28 the Fireball Rando Race at Ski Santa Fe took place.
From Feb. 25-27, several Summit based ski mountaineering athletes competed across three events as part of Vail’s 2022 Winter Mountain Games. The competition served as the USA Skimo National Championships for the Senior, U23, and.
Team Summit Skimo racer Delilah Staberg is following in her older sister’s footsteps as the freshman at Summit High School attended her first international ski mountaineering race over the winter holidays. Delilah Staberg, who is.
Local athlete and coach Kate Chapman Zander led a group of several Summit locals who shined at this season’s virtual Rise and Shine Rando ski mountaineering race series at Arapahoe Basin Ski Area.
To comply with event regulations, individual skiers logged into the Strava application and recorded their times while being tracked on the course. Skiers had four days to complete each course for the four races, with two each in January and February.
In the Jan. 12-15 race that featured two top-to-bottom laps 3,240 vertical feet of elevation gain and 6.25 miles in total the top men’s skiers in the 36-athlete race were Jason Killgore (59 minutes and 35 seconds), Brent Herring (1:04:13) and Mark Koob (1:08:00). In the nine-athlete women’s race, podium placers were Kate Chapman Zander (1:18:57), Katherine Siegerst (1:40:12) and Team Summit skier Delilah Staberg (1:41:46).
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).