Mt. Ashland SkiMo Summit

Welcome!

The 2026 race is significanly altered due to lack of snow.  10 am start, 50$ entry, 

Race Course - Caltopo Map - The race will involve multiple laps, there will not be any backcountry sections this year. 

• Rec - Red line - 1800ft, 3 mi

• Medium - Red line + Green - 3500ft, 6 mi

• Full - Red line + Green x3 - 7000ft, 12 mi

Race Day Schedule

• 8 am - set up flags, maybe do some last minute check ins. 

• 9 am - registration will be open for day of sign ups.

• 10 am - race start 

• 2 pm - cutoff

• 2:30 pm - awards

2026 Course Description

• Start - We want an uphill start, so we'll be doing the normal start from base of Sonnet.  Go up to the top of Sonnet, transition, ski down to the base of Windsor (keep your speed to get up to Aisle Two). 

• Skin up Caliban to the top of Aerial (yell our your bib number to the volunteer), ski down Dream

• Transition at the base of Aerial Chair, then skin up to the top of Windsor Chair, 

  • Rec racers will ski to the finish line at the lodge. 

• Med & Full racers will keep skiing down Juliet to the base of Windsor chair.  

• Transition, skin up to the bootpack transition in the bowl (there will be a slight downhill skin necessary as there are bushes in the way).  Strap your skis to your backpack and bootpack up the bowl. At the top, you'll repeat what you did on lap 1, ski down Dream, skin up to Windsor Chair. 

  • Med racers will ski to the finish line at the lodge

  • Full racers will continue to lap 3 skipping the bootpack. 

  • Full racers on lap 4 will do the bootpack for the last time.  

Cutoff

We encourage all skiers to ski for as long as they can. We will cutoff folks at the transitions at 2 pm.  Please make your way back to the finish at that time.  

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Mt. Ashland SkiMo Summit is a celebration of human-powered skiing and snowboarding in the heart of the Siskiyou Mountains. The event will begin near the Mt. Ashland Ski Lodge, and the course will meander through the Mt. Ashland Ski Area and the adjacent Klamath National Forest lands. SkiMo (short for Ski Mountaineering) is now an Olympic sport, and backcountry skiing is the fastest-growing sector of the skiing industry.  Witnessing this rapid growth, we recognized the need for this community. 

You do not need to be a seasoned racer to enjoy all that the Mt Ashland Skimo Summit has to offer! In fact, we are catering this event so that newcomers who want to get more into backcountry skiing can enjoy a fun day out with a group of their peers. Whether you are looking to test your physical limits or want to participate in an organized ski tour, everyone is welcome! Our rec course stays within the ski area boundary and is a terrific way to see if this sport is for you. We welcome participants of all types!  AT, splitboard, and tele are all welcome.  We have courses for all human-powered backcountry enthusiasts. Our full course will highlight some of the best terrain surrounding Mt. Ashland, affording amazing views (weather pending) in all directions through untamed snow. 

Having said that, this is a true backcountry course and the full course is much longer than other races. The winner last year took over 2 hours to finish.  Most other skimo races have the first finishers come in under one hour. You'll also step out of the ski area boundary and into the adjacent national forest, where hazards aren't marked or roped off and you may encounter hazards like cliffs and creeks. The full course doesn't enter areas of high avalanche danger, but we need all the participants to be aware and be backcountry savvy.  

Categories (with a minimum of at least 5 folks that start in that category): 

Full Course - SkiMo (single ski + binding weight <1500 grams), Heavy Metal, and Splitboard

Med Course - Overall, Youth, Masters (over 55)

Rec Course - Overall, Youth, Masters (over 55)

Mt. Ashland Skimo has been created not only to host the Summit, but also to celebrate the human-powered skiing and splitboarding community in Southern Oregon. For you locals, we host Mon Night SkiMo (sign up for the mailing list).

Get ready for a memorable day of racing, engaging the community, and pushing your individual limits at the Mt. Ashland SkiMo Summit!

*This institution is an equal opportunity provider and operates under Special Use Permit on the Klamath National Forest. We will be enforcing Leave No Trace ethics to all the participants, volunteers, and spectators of this event.  Review the 7 principles, and for this event we'll be highlighting a few (Plan ahead and prepare, Dispose of waste properly, Be considerate of others).  

Racer Testimonialss

• Mt Ashland Skimo is now a race on my calendar that gets added very early. It's already one of the best skimo races on the west coast and in a prime location to bring together racers from Oregon and California with a great skimo course. I'm looking forward to it already! - Max King

• Great race, fun atmosphere, capturing the spirit of friendly competition and promoting the sport of skimo whether in cut off jeans or spandex, snow conditions aren’t predictable but the great crowd and fun vibes are - Jason Koster 

• The course is fun and challenging! It was well-marked with lots of volunteers out there to help steer competitors in the right direction. The atmosphere at the start/finish area was so fun and a great reminder of why the backcountry community is so special. Big thanks to Mt. Ashland for hosting and feeding us - what a fun mountain! - Alli Hartz

• The Mt. Ashland Skimo race is the greatest addition to the Southern Oregon snow community that has happened in a very long time! We drove all the way up from Tahoe to race my first skimo race! I ended up winning the heavy metal division and honestly had a smile on my face the entire race...even when I thought, I'll just take it easy and make this a fun experience. The fun was in the racing and the genuinely great competition. I'm grateful for Ryan Ghelfi and his team for making this possible in Southern Oregon and continuing to expand the skimo community to all audiences making accessibility a non-issue! - Megan Sahnow