{"id":801225,"date":"2019-11-11T09:00:38","date_gmt":"2019-11-11T16:00:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.summitdaily.com\/?p=374327"},"modified":"2019-11-11T09:00:38","modified_gmt":"2019-11-11T16:00:38","slug":"olivero-from-sisters-cabin-to-french-chalet-summit-ski-mountaineers-grow-sisterhood","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/local-news\/olivero-from-sisters-cabin-to-french-chalet-summit-ski-mountaineers-grow-sisterhood\/","title":{"rendered":"Olivero: From Sisters Cabin to French chalet, Summit ski mountaineers grow sisterhood"},"content":{"rendered":"
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From left to right, Summit County ski mountaineer Sierra Anderson, ‘Sisters of Skimo’ director Ben Gadberry of Howard Head Sports Medicine and ski mountaineers Grace Staberg, Kate Zander and Jaime Brede take part in the Q&A session following the film premiere of “Sisters of Skimo” at 10 Mile Music Hall in Frisco on Wednesday.<\/strong>
Courtesy Memry Anderson<\/em><\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

FRISCO \u2014 Of the 450 people \u2014 well, the one\u2019s officially accounted for, at least \u2014 who piled into 10 Mile Music Hall, Sharon Crawford posted up in a corner adjacent to the stage. The eldest female finisher at the Imperial Challenge cycling and ski mountaineering race, Crawford looked on with a smile as her fellow Summit County skiing sisters premiered and then chatted about a movie simply titled \u201cSisters of Skimo.\u201d<\/p>\n

From Crawford to elementary-school-aged skiers, many of Summit County\u2019s skiing sisterhood gathered at the sold-out Frisco music venue on Wednesday to watch the 20-minute documentary. It told the tale of Summit local Sierra Anderson and her fellow Team USA teammates\u2019 pursuit last winter of the International Ski Mountaineering Federation World Championships in Switzerland.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s amazing to see so many different women from different reaches of life and different generations coming together over this one film,\u201d Summit High School senior and Team USA youth ski mountaineer Grace Staberg said, \u201ccoming together over the sport and community we are building here.\u201d<\/p>\n

After the film was complete, during a Q&A session on stage, Anderson and Staberg shared that they both will spend this winter in Europe. There, Anderson and Staberg will live with the LeBron James of women\u2019s ski mountaineering, recently-retired French star Laetitia Roux, in a French chalet.<\/p>\n

A year after Anderson and Staberg joined their Team USA Summit County sisters \u2014 Kate Zander, Nikki LaRochelle, Jaime Brede and others \u2014 at a team-bonding backcountry ski tour trip to Sisters Cabin on Bald Mountain in Breckenridge, Anderson and Staberg will continue the growth of the Summit County skimo sisterhood at a similar place in the French Alps.<\/p>\n

For Staberg, it\u2019ll mean finishing up her Summit High School education remotely via online courses while continuing to strive to become the kind of American talent that can compete for Team USA if and when skimo debuts at the 2026 Winter Olympics. For Anderson, who in the past year has become like a big sister and mentor to Staberg, it\u2019ll mean continuing to grow the camaraderie and team energy of some of the country\u2019s best female ski mountaineers.<\/p>\n

It\u2019ll also give her a buddy to train and compete with. Last season after the World Championships in Switzerland, Anderson was the lone Team USA ski mountaineer to stick around Europe, competing at subsequent World Cup events. Though taking to the circuit for the first time was a great experience for Anderson, it was something she knew she\u2019d need a teammate for the next time around.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was often the only American at these races,\u201d Anderson said. \u201cAnd that really kind of triggered in me the longing for team. I came back, I met with my coach, and I was like, \u2018Gosh, that was so hard, I don\u2019t want to do that again, but I want to do that again.\u2019 And I just started putting my goals out there, and my goal of wanting to come back and do the whole World Cup circuit, something we\u2019re unsure if any American has been able to do, just because of geographical challenges. And so Grace got wind of my goals, and she\u2019s a brave ambitious cookie, and she was like, \u2018Yeah, Sierra, if you\u2019re going, I want to go with you.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2018Alright,\u2019\u201d Anderson remembers she thought. \u201c\u2018We\u2019ve got a team! All it takes is two.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

This winter Anderson and Staberg will provide a Team USA contingent on the European circuit. Though they\u2019ll don the red, white and blue, the duo joked that they\u2019ll be \u201cTeam Laetitia\u201d this winter, undertaking their own Rocky Balboa-like training camp in a foreign place under the tutelage of a skimo Mr. \u2014 rather, Mrs. Miyagi.<\/p>\n

The duo connected with Roux thanks in part to Summit County locals Ram Mikulas and Joe Howdyshell, the U.S. Ski Mountaineering Federation\u2019s president and head coach, respectively. In viewing the past, present and future of U.S. women\u2019s skimo, Anderson compares the situation to that of U.S. cross-country skiing and 2018 Olympic gold medalist Kikkan Randall. Anderson admires how Randall believes she\u2019s at her best as an athlete when helping others to be at their best. Ultimately, Anderson is inspired by how Randall took the women\u2019s cross country team from obscurity to Olympic champions over 15-or-so years.<\/p>\n

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LIVE: Q and A with Summit County ski mountaineering star Sierra Anderson and her fellow Team USA teammates and coaches at the premiere of Howard Head Sports Medicine\u2019s documentary \u201cSisters of Skimo\u201d at 10 Mile Music Hall in Frisco\u2026<\/p>\n

Posted by Summit Daily News<\/a> on Wednesday, November 6, 2019<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

Anderson would like to do the same for U.S. women\u2019s skimo. Both she and Staberg are not only hopeful, they are confident their beloved sport will be added to the Winter Olympic program come 2026. The recently-awarded Milan-Cortina, Italy, location for the Olympics is perfect for skimo, as Italy is one of the sport\u2019s hotbeds. It just makes sense.<\/p>\n

If and when it does occur, whether Anderson and Staberg are on the team or not, they\u2019ll simply be proud that they not only helped themselves prepare for an opportunity that might one day become a reality. They\u2019ll also be proud that they prepared their country for the opportunity of an Olympic dream.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are growing the sisterhood,\u201d Anderson said, \u201cas we speak.\u201d<\/p>\n

via:: Summit Daily<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

From left to right, Summit County ski mountaineer Sierra Anderson, ‘Sisters of Skimo’ director Ben Gadberry of Howard Head Sports Medicine and ski mountaineers Grace Staberg, Kate Zander and Jaime Brede take part in the Q&A session following the film premiere of “Sisters of Skimo” at 10 Mile Music Hall in Frisco on Wednesday.Courtesy Memry […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[99],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-801225","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-local-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-08-01 13:59:43","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSMT The Mountain","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/801225","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=801225"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/801225\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=801225"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=801225"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=801225"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}