Team Summit launches ski mountaineering program with local athlete, trainer Jaime Brede
Photo by US Ski Mountaineering Association
DILLON – One of the most accomplished and respected members of the Summit County winter sports community is teaming up with Team Summit to launch a program for an increasingly popular sport.
Jaime Brede of Breckenridge, a member of the U.S. National Team at the 2019 International Ski Mountaineering Federation World Championships, has been hired by Team Summit as the club’s first ski mountaineering head coach.
In addition to racing for the United States at the 2019 International Ski Mountaineering Federation World Championship in Switzerland, Brede has competed as a professional athlete in Xterra triathlons and cross-country mountain biking. In the Summit County community, his coaching resume includes ski mountaineering for the Summit Endurance Academy, mountain biking with the Summit Tigers, and master swimming for the town of Breckenridge, among others.
Brede in 2014 also set up the Summit County branch of The Cycle Effect, a non-profit organization using mountain bikes to educate and empower young women. She also sits on the Athlete Advisory Board of the US Ski Mountaineering Association.
Team Summit executive director CB Bechtel said the club has had discussions about adding a ski mountaineering program for the past two or three years as the sport has grown in popularity. Bechtel described Summit County as the competitive epicenter of the sport and said with the sport potentially becoming an Olympic sport over the next several years, it made sense to add skimo to the club’s lineup.
“It was about when we launch a new program and want to launch it,” Bechtel said. “It was all about timing, putting all the pieces together with our resort partners and finding the right leader for the program, because there is enough enthusiasm for that from the youth in our community. “
Bechtel described Team Summit’s skimo program as “to design and lead”. Brede said the program will be U-19, for athletes between the ages of 12 and 18. She said there will be programming for athletes who are introduced to the sport as well as programming for more experienced and older runners looking to continue their development and training.
Brede said she expects Team Summit’s skimo season to consist of regional Cosmic Race Series events as well as the US Ski Mountaineering Cup and other higher level events, including some in Summit County.
The new coach highlighted her enthusiasm for working with other Team Summit coaches, especially in disciplines like alpine skiing, to help improve ski mountaineers in Team Summit programming. Brede said the program will call Copper Mountain Resort his primary residence and that he will also train and train at Breckenridge Ski Resort, Keystone Resort and Arapahoe Basin Ski Area.
Bechtel and Brede said that although skimo is primarily aimed at younger athletes aged 12 and up, club members will have the opportunity to train and compete in skimo and other sports disciplines. Winter Team Summit.
“From a skimo’s point of view,” said Brede, “I’m quite familiar with endurance training, aerobic fitness, muscle endurance, climbing, cycling, running, but I’m really looking forward to glean more training information on the downhill part of this, to see what the coach’s methodologies are.