Tag: Elks Traverse

This coverage is made possible through the generous support of Marty and Kathy Hall and A Hall Mark of Excellence Award. Learn more about A Hall Mark of Excellence Award—or about supporting FasterSkier coverage—by contacting info@fasterskier.com. 

Simi Hamilton was still in top condition when he retired from his World Cup competitive career in 2021. Lucky for him that he was: he still needs that level of fitness for his day-job. Not one to kick back or to rest on his laurels, Hamilton remains constantly in motion among the peaks and slopes of Colorado’s Roaring Fork Valley. Whether as a professional guide, or as a mountain traversing record-setter, Hamilton is busy learning these mountains. Not a job for the faint of heart, or weak of leg.

To fans and observers of Nordic skiing, it may have appeared a bit surprising when Simi Hamilton and his wife, Sophie Caldwell Hamilton, both chose to step away from international competition less than a year before the 2022 Olympics. To so many of us who follow winter sports—and Nordic skiing, in particular—participating in the Olympic Games may seem like the be-all and end-all of athletic competition. So many athletes grow up hearing the Olympic theme music resonating in their ears, watching heroes they hope to emulate performing on this Olympic stage, basing their goals, dreams and aspirations on this Olympic accomplishment . . . but Simi and Sophie had other goals in mind: home, family, and time to spend with both. Leaving behind the opportunity to pack their suitcases with another supply of USA uniforms, they turned instead toward Simi’s lifelong home on the Western Slope of the Rocky Mountains. There, they are finally at home.

These days, Hamilton is enjoying the numerous “reliefs” he feels at having put behind him the challenges of the World Cup Tour. He shared some of his revelations with FasterSkier:

“I used to get sick on the road quite a bit,” he said. “And that was always incredibly stressful. Whether you were sick or just doing everything in your power not to get sick, the pressure and stress related to what sickness meant for your training and racing was miserable . . . I think I actually stay healthier now because I’m just not so consumed by that stress anymore.”

Even so, an athlete doesn’t compete at the top level of their sport for so many years without becoming attached to it:

“There are so many things I miss about our life as ski racers,” Hamilton said. “Not being around my teammates, coaches, and friends from other countries has left a huge gap in out lives. Fortunately, Sophie and I are close enough to a lot of them to stay in relatively good touch, and we are even lucky enough to see them in person from time to time. For example, one of my good friends from Germany, Sebi Eisenlauer came over to visit last spring, and Sophie and I are hoping to get over to see Federico Pellegrino and his wife Greta at some point in the next year or two. And as for our U.S. teammates, they just come and keep bothering us in Colorado because we  have the best mountains and best snow, so we just can’t get rid of them!”

“I think my coach Matt Whitcomb will laugh at this if he reads it,” Hamilton admitted, “But I kind of miss doing hard Level 4 skate workouts, especially at camps with a bunch of other strong guys around. There was always something super cool about pushing really hard in a group of guys, it was almost like you could feel all of  them making you objectively faster at that exact moment, and vice-versa with you making them faster. That made the pain worth it. And conversely, I definitely don’t miss level 3 double pole intervals, especially trying to do them alone. Nowadays when I cross-country ski, I avoid double poling at all costs. I think I just never cracked the mechanics of it and nothing felt smooth or efficient to me about it.”

As the season turns toward winter, Hamilton is eager to be back on his skis. Making plans is as simple as looking up at the nearest ridgeline, memorable couloir, or distant peak. We asked Simi what’s next:

“Not totally sure what’s next in terms of adventures/challenges,” he admitted. “I want to ski the same route (the Elks Traverse) next spring, but that won’t really be for speed or anything. I just want to do that because it’s a cool route and has some pretty awesome ski lines on some steep faces. In the meantime I will be working as much as possible this winter to try to make some money. Getting all of my guiding certifications (my ultimate goal is to get my IFMGA certification) is expensive and time consuming, so all of that is my priority right now. When it works to get out for some long, fun adventures I’ll try to do those, but hanging with Lilly, Sophie, and trying to provide for my family comes first right now.”

This coverage is made possible through the generous support of Marty and Kathy Hall and A Hall Mark of Excellence Award. Learn more about A Hall Mark of Excellence Award—or about supporting FasterSkier coverage—by contacting info@fasterskier.com. 

Quintessential retirement: feet up, reclining chair reclined, beverage in one hand, remote control in the other, satisfied grin. And the more challenging and stressful the career, the sweeter the “rest” that follows it. But that’s just not the way Simi Hamilton is put together.

On trails, on ridgelines, on summits all up and down the perimeter of the Roaring Fork Valley: that’s where you’ll often find Simi Hamilton. A lifelong resident, he’s been exploring these mountains his whole life. Now, he happily re-traces the adventurous climbs and descents of his youth, and plans for the new adventures to undertake in this, his retirement. Simi Hamilton may be retired from the world of international ski racing, but his long and challenging trail continues.

The Elks Traverse

Someone should tell Simi Hamilton that the world considers him to be a sprinter: explosive, powerful, intense, fast-twitch. But if that narrow characterization were true, Hamilton would not also be such a force in endurance events. For a number FIS World Cup of seasons, he was the top American male competitor in most distance races as well as sprints. To put things in simple terms, this is a guy with a serious engine, and he just loves taking it out for a spin.

Recently, Hamilton’s Strava account confirmed his accomplishment of the Fastest Known Time (FKT) on the Elks Traverse, a hair-raising, high altitude route stretching from Capitol Peak to Castle Peak (and touching the summits of seven 14,000 foot peaks along the way). The stats on his accomplishment: 45.03 miles, 22,562 feet of elevation gain, 16:46.49 hours. A serious engine, indeed…

“[The Traverse] went well,” Hamilton said. “I’m very comfortable on technical terrain, especially where there’s exposure and risk, so I was lucky to move well through the many miles of that found on the route… I think that was my biggest asset because I was able to kind of turn my brain off for that. I ate well and stayed pretty hydrated, and I had probably the nicest day of the summer for it, so that was huge. I don’t think I did anything that special, there were just a lot of things that lined up perfectly and I was lucky enough to do it on that day when everything came together.

Hamilton routinely travels where other less-experienced climbers and skiers might not necessarily be safe. He attributes his abilities to a lifetime of observing these mountains, and following the examples of those who went before him.

“The Elks Traverse summits all seven of the “14ers” (peaks whose summits are over 14,000’),” he said. “The route is through wilderness, so you have to be on foot the whole time, and it’s generally done starting with Capitol Peak and ending with Castle Peak. You can take any route you want, but the route I took—and the one that is generally considered the fastest—is 50 miles with 23,000’ of elevation gain. About 22 miles of that is on well established hiking trails, and the rest is on third, fourth, and fifth class terrain, much of which is very, exposed and considered fairly technical and dangerous. There have been quite a few people who have done it, but until recently it hadn’t been done in under 24 hours. Some incredible athletes from the Roaring Fork Valley did it before me and I give them full credit for figuring out the best route. I just kind of took what they had learned and applied it to my own effort, so really they did all the hard work.”

At Home

Between 2010 and 2021, Simi Hamilton logged 144 World Cup race starts as a Team USA mainstay. Four World Cup sprint podiums distinguish his palmarés (including a victory in Stage 3 of the 2013–14 FIS Tour de Ski), along with three Olympiads (2010, 2014, 2018) and six World Championships (2011-2021). Hamilton is a skier who wore his team’s colors proudly, and much of the success being enjoyed by younger generations of American skiers is attributable to his attitude and example.

Hamilton is married to two-time Olympian—and two-time World Cup sprint winner—Sophie Caldwell Hamilton. together, they raise and care for their year-old daughter, Lilly. During their skiing careers, they trotted the World Cup globe together. Now, it’s now the act of staying home that brings Hamilton joy and purpose.

“Being at home (mostly) full time is incredible,” Hamilton said. “Obviously I miss our teammates and traveling through some of the most beautiful places in the world, but to not be living out of a duffel bag—and to feel more ‘grounded’ on a day-to-day basis—is such a nice and welcome change. Most of my immediate family still  lives in the Roaring Fork Valley, so to see them on a fairly regular basis is pretty incredible. And lastly, to be back adventuring in my home mountains is  the best feeling in the world. You could spend a lifetime exploring all the nooks and crannies of the Elk Mountains and never see everything, so it’s really  cool to feel like I’m always getting to know my backyard better and better even though I’ve been running, riding, and skiing those mountains for 36 years.”

Many of the “local adventures” in which Hamilton engages would be adventures of a lifetime for mere mortals, few of whom could begin to match the fitness required to do what he does every day. But, for Hamilton, all this is more about lifestyle and less about training. He laughed as he describes his relationship to training and performance:

“Ha! I feel like the last thing I do right now is train,” Hamilton said. “I’m  climbing and ski guiding full time now, so just being out there for work allows me to feel like I’m staying healthy and getting the time outside that my mind  needs. Maybe that’s why I’ve taken a liking to challenges and adventures that are 10+ hours. I certainly don’t have the time or flexibility to do any sort of structured training, but I can work and be outside, and when I have time to adventure on my own, with Sophie and/or Lilly, or with buddies I try to make that happen. I think if I were trying to plan out training and do specific workouts, I’d have a different relationship with the mountains and  fitness that would ultimately not allow me to enjoy just being outside and doing cool stuff with great people.”

Hamilton mentioned in his Instagram feed that he’d originally planned to ski the Elks Traverse last May, but snow conditions and weather windows didn’t cooperate. Having changed plans to accomplish the traverse in summer rather than winter, he still considers his record-setting run to be more of a reconnaissance mission toward another on-skis attempt next spring. Needless to say, FasterSkier reporters would never be fast enough to accompany him on that adventure, but we’ll do our best to report on it when Simi Hamilton, once again, comes home.