Vail and Carbondale skiers hook up to win skimo national team title

John O’Neill and Joe Demoor shouldn’t even be friends, much less teammates.

“Joe grew up in Buena Vista, I grew up in Vail. He went to CU, I went CSU. He lives in Carbondale, I live in Nederland. By every stretch we should be rivals of some sort,” O’Neill, 33, said.

“But instead, we make really good partners in these ski races.”

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A standout runner at Battle Mountain High School and former USA Triathlon star, O’Neill teamed up with Demoor, a professional trail runner, to win the USA Skimo team national championship in Taos on Jan. 28. The pair completed the long course, which included 7,500 feet of climbing, in 2 hours, 43 minutes, 31.7 seconds. Carbondale’s Sean Van Horn and Crested Butte’s Jacob Dewey (2:49:08.0) finished second and C.J. Carter and Ben Peters (2:49:52.9) rounded out the podium.

“I think we pretty much minimized our mistakes and just had a smooth day,” Demoor, 33, said.

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During his Demon days, Demoor, the first American male to win a Skyrunning World Championship, admired the O’Neill-led Battle Mountain dynasty of the late 2000s. The Husky reciprocated similar sentiments towards the Arkansas River Valley talent.

“We were always vaguely aware of the Demoors,” O’Neill said, referring to Joe and his older brother, Seth, a CU standout and Pikes Peak Marathon champion who now runs a running-related YouTube page with 171,000 subscribers.

O’Neill’s CSU track times qualified him for USAT’s college recruitment program. He raced on the national team from 2012-2016, living in Colorado Springs briefly before coming back to Vail to be coached by Josiah Middaugh. His peak: two Continental Cup podiums and finishing eighth on the 2016 Rio Olympics points list.

During his triathlon days, O’Neill’s roommate, Ross Hurr, became a rep for Dynafit, the lightweight touring gear specialist. While working at Alpine Quest Sports, the pair witnessed skimo’s gradual infusion into the ski resort community.

“Dawes Wilson would come in to have his skis tuned,” O’Neill recalled of the well-known local uphiller. “And I looked at his skinny skis and was like, ‘what the hell are these?'”

Looking for an alternative to the pool, bike trainer and slippery running roads, O’Neill picked up skimo. He fell in love.

“There’s so many elements of it for endurance athletes that are so special to opening up the winter for training,” he said.

“You’re outside, you’re climbing mountains, you’re having fun skiing down. If you’re well-versed in the backcountry, you’re able to go really long distances.”

Demoor was in need of an alternative to winter running, too. Watching his Carbondale friends compete convinced the longtime mountain sports athlete to try a race himself three years ago. In his first season, he battled O’Neill at a Vail Recreation District event up Arrowhead.

“After that, he needed a partner for the Power of Four,” Demoor said, referencing the well-known Aspen-area race. The duo finished runner-up to John and Pete Gaston, two of the best skimo athletes in Colorado.

“I’m just super grateful because he kind of took a chance on me,” said Demoor, who ended up breaking a ski in that race.

“It’s an interesting dynamic with team races,” he continued. “You have to find someone you race well with and partner up well with.”

The tightly-knit skimo community seemingly shares partners like teenagers share prom dance dates: if you have a good one, reluctantly. In a sport where you must remain within five seconds of each other on uphills and 10 seconds on descents — which can be technical chutes or ripping groomers — chemistry matters.

“You have to find someone you match up well fitness-wise as well as ski skill-wise. It can be tough,” Demoor said, adding that at the upper end, the U.S. lacks depth.

“All the top people are kind of already partnered up at times.”

When you’re in the pain cave on a mountainside two hours into a race, personality matters, too, Demoor said.

“John’s super level-headed, calm under pressure, and he’s a hell of a skier, so that helps,” he said. “I don’t want to talk him up too much or someone else might try and take him.”

Luck, more than anything, paired up the 33-year-olds in New Mexico. O’Neill’s partner suffered a concussion at a prior event and Demoor’s got sick.

“About a week before the race, I just texted him to see if he was available,” Demoor said. “It was serendipitous for both of us.”

Since picking up the sport, both athletes have gradually pursued ski mountaineering to higher levels. The Taos triumph wasn’t the final summit, but it was a substantial peak.

“Not like (my career) is over, but to win the team national championship with Joe in Taos was kind of a cool way to say like, ‘wow I’ve been working at this for a long time and now we actually won a pretty big and competitive race,” O’Neill said.

Coming into the event, O’Neill knew Van Horn, a former snowboarder, would pull Dewey up every climb and figured Peters and Carter would excel in the hard skinning and kick-turn sections.

“We wanted to be towards the front and not let anybody gap us,” Demoor said. While they dropped Peters and Carter early, Van Horn and Dewey were right there after the first up-down.

“I was kind of worried, thinking, ‘oh, our big chance was to put time into Sean on the descents,'” O’Neill said. O’Neill and Demoor pulled away in the boot-pack section on the next climb, but Van Horn and Dewey motored back on the next groomed ascent. When O’Neill and Demoor left for the fourth climb, the trailing team was coming into the transition. Up the endless switchbacks, the eventual champions could see and hear their pursuers at every turn.

“We knew that if we held on and got to the top, that we’d be able to beat them on the ski down,” O’Neill recalled. “That became the mission.”

Sensing O’Neill’s fatigue, Demoor offered to break trail.

“Even though I was fading, I was on a bit of a mental tow just trying to stay with Joe,” O’Neill said. “And I think ultimately, that’s probably why we got to the top without those guys catching us.”

What’s next?

Fresh off his team title, Demoor jetted out to Utah last weekend for the individual, vertical and sprint championships. Now he’s focused on ramping up his running mileage.

The sport still houses Demoor’s best resume items — he’s qualified for three U.S. world mountain running teams — but it’s starting to even out.

“I think it’s definitely evolved for me,” he said of skimo’s place on his priority list.

“I’d say I pretty much am 50/50 now.”

As he becomes a bonafide trail-running veteran, he’s mimicked former CU teammate, Andy Wacker, in shifting into a leadership role on the U.S. Mountain Trail team. This summer, he’ll lead a group to Spain for a skyrunning competition.

“I definitely have more goals on the trail running side of things, especially on the team side,” he said, adding that he and Seth have also planned out a few summer FKT’s to chase.

O’Neill, the senior manager of business development for Priceline, said his passion for the sport “sits in this adventurous and creative pursuit of spending time in the mountains.”

His big goal right now is to complete La Grande Course, the six premiere ski mountaineering ‘epics’ on the international calendar.

He’s currently in Europe to race the four-day Pierra Menta and the three-day Tour du Ruto. When he’s done, he’ll head to Switzerland to compete in the Patrouille des Glaciers with an Aspen-based team.

“They talk about, you know ‘the joy’s not in the destination. It’s in the journey,'” O’Neill said. “When it comes to skimo, that is truly it.”