Athletes

CLAIRE CHALLEN

HUDSON BAY MOUNTAIN

Arriving to Hudson Bay Mountain from the U.K., Claire began her relationship with the mountains at  the age of two. In the early years, time on the slopes wasn’t a priority as she preferred lounging in the cozy family cabin, playing underneath the HBM Day Lodge, or seeking out a quiet hiding spot in the prairie trees to nibble snacks. However after gradual exposure to the world of competitive ski racing, she fell into a rhythm of training with the Smithers Ski Club. Claire developed skills that took her to race all over the world and ultimately led to a diverse ski career of coaching, action modelling, writing, and work in the media industry. She has been featured on countless magazine covers and  advertising campaigns as well as in motion as a host for Ski TV. Her Ski Fit programs have also been published in print and online. Though Claire loves to travel and ski new places, there will always be a special place in her heart for the mountain where it all began.

“Hudson Bay Mountain has always been somewhere I can go to find peace. I don’t have to look far to find a quiet spot, where it’s just me and the mountain. When the snow falls, it’s light and dry, and you’ll find pockets of fresh powder for days after a snowstorm. HBM has retained it’s unpretentious charm throughout the years and I’m grateful this is where my love of the mountains began.”

CLAIRE'S CAMPS

Claire offers Claire’s Ski Camps at Hudson Bay Mountain and further afield. She is a Rossignol athlete.

GEORGIA SIMMERLING

HUDSON BAY MOUNTAIN

Georgia Simmerling made history at Rio 2016 by becoming the first Canadian athlete to compete in a different sport at each of three different Olympic Games. Competing in track cycling’s team pursuit, she helped Canada win its second straight Olympic bronze medal in the event for her first Olympic podium finish. It was just her fourth ever team pursuit race.
Simmerling made her Olympic debut in alpine skiing at Vancouver 2010 before switching over to ski cross in 2011. After proving her potential during summer training camps, she earned a spot on the national ski cross team. In February 2012, she caught an edge during a race and fell, breaking three vertebrae (C7, T2 and T3) in her neck and back. She was in an upper body and neck brace for seven weeks but did not require surgery. She returned to competition in December 2012 and earned her the first World Cup podium of her career later in the month.
Simmerling competed at her first ski cross world championships in 2013 and advanced to the 1/8 finals at Sochi 2014. But after breaking her wrist at the world championships in late January 2015, she decided to start her summer Olympic journey. Simmerling had already done a couple of camps with the track cycling development program and knew that she would be a better fit for endurance racing than sprint racing. With plates and screws in her wrist, she started training on her bike within a week of undergoing surgery. She made her UCI World Cup debut as a track cyclist in Hong Kong in January 2016, winning team pursuit gold. She went on to win team pursuit silver at the 2016 UCI World Championships.

Immediately after Rio 2016, Simmerling resumed her ski cross training and returned to the FIS World Cup circuit. She posted two podium finishes in 2016-17 and advanced to the Small Final at the 2017 FIS World Championships. She earned two more World Cup podium finishes in December 2017, bringing her career ski cross total to nine. In January 2018, just days before she would have been named to the Olympic team for PyeongChang 2018, Simmerling crashed during a World Cup race in Nakiska, breaking both of her legs in three places and tearing multiple ligaments, requiring four surgeries. She announced her retirement from ski cross in May 2018, but still wasn’t done with elite sport. By September 2018, despite not being fully recovered, she was back on her bike. She returned to the track cycling World Cup in January 2019, helping Canada win team pursuit silver in New Zealand.

TOSH KRAUSKOPF

Tosh Krauskopf has been snowboarding at Hudson Bay Mountain since the age of two, on a harness and leash with his parents Jason and Joscelyn. As the owners of Local Supply Company, snowboarding in the mountains was always a family sport, and it sparked a passion in Tosh from an early age. As a member of Smithers Ski and Snowboard Club By the age of 8 Tosh was sponsored by Burton Snowboards when the local sales representative saw the potential for his talent. Tosh was on the podium from an early age, taking medals at local competitions before his first international competition in 2018/2019 Men’s Slopestyle at Canada Olympic Park. In 2019/2020 he competed in three North American Cups, earning a top ten position in the Men’s Big Air. Tosh resides in Pemberton BC and trains with the Whistler Valley Snowboard Club.