Boulder is renowned for being a breeding ground for Olympians. From triathlon to running, from climbing to cycling, athletes are drawn to our town from its high altitude, supportive athletic culture, like-minded community, fair weather, and sporting infrastructure. Just CU Boulder alone has produced over 100 Olympians through the years.
Although the Boulder sports scene is much more sought after and world-renowned for summer sports, longtime locals know that the area is quite a hidden gem for winter sports that often gets outshined by neighboring Colorado ski towns.
While winter sports don’t exactly come to mind when thinking of Boulder, there are teams and clubs for skiers of every type, from Nordic to alpine skiing and everything in between (freestyle, snowboarding, biathlon, etc.). As a matter of fact, just at the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics, CU Boulder had 10 student-athletes representing in alpine, nordic, biathlon, snowboarding, and halfpipe.
A small, passionate group of local ski professionals and endurance athletes has a vision to contribute to this statistic soon through a new sport recently added to the upcoming 2026 Winter Olympics in Milano-Cortina (Italy): ski mountaineering (often shortened as skimo). At its core, the sport represents the competitive form of backcountry skiing, traveling both uphill and downhill on skis within avalanche-mitigated terrain.
Through a joint partnership between Boulder Skimo, Eldora Mountain Ski & Snowboard Club, and Eldora Mountain Ski Resort, youth ages 12 to 19 will now have the chance to enroll in a new nation-leading Youth Skimo Program from December to April, meeting twice weekly after-school at Eldora, on a specially dedicated ski run lit up with artificial lights.
Italian-born Davide Giardini, founder of Boulder Skimo, and Matt Tomasko, executive director of Eldora Mountain Ski & Snowboard Club, are both savvy endurance athletes, skiers, and backcountry skiers. They first met while skiing at Eldora a few years ago, and they have since had ambitions to develop a competitive youth skimo team that could one day represent the US internationally and even be a pipeline into the Olympics.
“This is the program I wish I had growing up as a ski racer, freestyle skier, and swimmer! Skimo is the perfect winter sport for active, outdoorsy kids, combining uphill endurance, downhill skiing, and beautiful mountains: for runners, cyclists, and triathletes in the off-season and for alpine, nordic, and freeride skiers to cross-train. It’s quick to learn but hard to master.” says Davide Giardini.
Giardini is not only one of the top skimo racers in the country, a USA National Team qualifier, and helped coach the USA National Skimo Team, but is also a former FIS youth alpine ski racer and professional triathlete representing the USA at the World Championships (where he was top 10).
“We teach kids a lot more than how to smash gates. Our EMSC programs have something that the faux Bavarian villages of resorts on the I-70 corridor don’t—something they will take with them well beyond the ski slopes. Eldora is safe (in-bounds) and accessible (a quick 30’ drive from Boulder). The elements—tough work, tenacity, and character—that skimo builds will help kids be successful everywhere. Kids who work hard always improve. We’re giving them confidence to go out into adulthood and do whatever they choose, and that really gives me purpose,” says Matt Tomasko.
Tomasko has been running EMSC for over 30 years and has built it into one of the best race and freestyle programs in Colorado. EMSC’s junior race program has been in the top three of all the clubs in Colorado, with six kids from the U16 division and five from U14 racing in the junior championships.
Through Giardini’s and Tomasko’s vision, leadership, and expertise, and Eldora Mountain’s infrastructure just a quick 30’ drive away, the Boulder Youth Skimo Program is well poised to become a top contender for US representation in skimo at the Olympics, mirroring the success of Boulder’s elite climbing infrastructure, which has produced three US Olympians since the sport’s Olympic inclusion in 2021.
To learn more, visit BoulderSkimo.org