“Skins are like sticky carpets that give you traction only on the up. They don’t allow you to slide down. Its amazing, we can climb 40-50 degree slopes and not slide back at all.”

As ski mountaineering aka skimo will make its Olympic return in 2026 for the first time since 1946, we should all start familiarize ourselves with this physically demanding brand of uphill/downhill skiing. It’s been super popular competitive sport in Europe for a long time but is just starting to trend stateside. Whether or not that translates to podiums in Italy is yet to be determined but it will be fun over the next couple of years to see how our teams shape up. Here’s an introductory course: