Mount Hood Training Camp Gave U.S. Skimo Athletes Key Downhill Coaching Ahead Of Olympic Qualifier

Jessie Young, now 41, never had formal downhill skiing coaching early in her career. 

So, when the U.S. Ski Mountaineering Association held a summer camp in mid-July at Mount Hood, Oregon, Young jumped at the opportunity.

“It was a really cool opportunity to go out to Mount Hood and be there as a team and get to really practice and work on the downhill element of the sport, which I think is a place where our team has some room to gain some seconds,” Young, of Aspen, Colorado, said.

Though Young is in the twilight of her skimo career — not to mention busy as a married mother of two boys who also works full time — she was still eager to hone her downhill skills on snow for five days with other members of the U.S. senior and junior teams.

One big reason for that is what’s coming up in less than six months.

Skimo — a sport where athletes scale up a mountain before skiing down it — will make its Olympic debut at the Milano Cortina Winter Games 2026.

The final opportunity for the U.S. to qualify for the Olympics will come at the 2025-26 world cup opener on Dec. 6-7 at Solitude Mountain Resort in Salt Lake City. To get in, the U.S. needs to finish ahead of Canada in the mixed relay event there.

“I mean, that’s the goal,” said Young, who competes alongside U.S. teammate Cam Smith in the mixed relay. “I think it gave us an opportunity to kind of sit down with the coaching staff and dial in the training plans and really look ahead to how we can optimize for the next couple of months.”

The camp at Mount Hood provided the team its first opportunity to train on snow in the summertime, Young said. 

“I think a lot of us — myself, at least — don’t have like a ton of experience just skiing gates and skiing courses and getting that repetition, especially with the nature of the sport being both uphill and downhill,” she said. “You spend so much time doing your uphill that it’s hard to get the repetition on the downhill skills.”

The U.S. team took full advantage of good weather and great summer glacier conditions on Mount Hood, which Young had never visited before.

“It was gorgeous,” she said. “Super lucky to be able to do this, and the support that’s coming from the (U.S. Ski Mountaineering Association) is pretty awesome, and I hope it continues to grow stronger athletes.”

The Americans got on the snow early in the mornings and were done skiing by noon as the sun hit and softened the snow.

Working with an alpine coach helped Young learn about specific details she can improve to shave some seconds off her downhill times. 

“For me, in particular, really looking ahead toward the next gates and kind of choosing (my) line and putting the turns in the right spot to really generate speed,” she said.

“I have a tendency to take part of the course too fast and then end up scrubbing speed on a turn, which lowers my average speed on the course. So, kind of just trying to really zero in on the technique so that it’s most efficient during the race.”

Young said she welcomed the chance to get together at Mount Hood with team members in a winter sport that finds most team members training and competing individually in other sports during the summer months. 

Ordinarily, she would have been mountain biking, running and working out at the gym.

“That was a definite highlight and benefit of the camp,” she said. “It was a lot of team camaraderie and team building, which is fun. We would get out in afternoons and do some team runs and plyometrics and stretching and all of those kinds of things and get to trade ideas with team members.”

Young said she especially enjoyed the presence of teenage junior national team members.

“They’re better skiers than I am,” she said. “It’s kind of fun to feed on that younger energy. They’re putting in the work. It’ll be fun to see (them in the future).”

Bob Reinert spent 17 years writing sports for The Boston Globe. He also served as a sports information director at Saint Anselm College and Phillips Exeter Academy. He is a contributor to usaskimo.org on behalf of Red Line Editorial, Inc.