Scott Simmons hangs it all out in the hopes of catching a shuttle recently on Highway 550. Well-known among the ski-mo crowd and other assorted cardio masochists, Simmons just returned from his third trip to the World Ski Mountaineering Championships, held in Switzerland Feb. 6-12. This weekend, he thumbs it up to C.B. for Nationals./Courtesy photo
Mr. Durango
For Scott Simmons, life’s an uphill battle – just the way he likes it
by Joy Martin
Don’t worry, male reader – you didn’t miss your chance to enter or, bless your heart, get nominated for a sanctioned competition designed to determine which of Durango’s 8,330-ish males embodies all things manly. I’m sure you’d be a front runner, too.
Except this is no beauty contest.
You probably don’t have what it takes; this title can only be granted to one who enjoys pain. Chuck Norris would be a shoe-in if he lived here. But he doesn’t. Scott Simmons does.
“Mr. Durango? I don’t know about that,” laughs Simmons after modestly accepting the good news of his noble title.
Future Mr. Durango-wannabes have a tough fight ahead of them as the soiled doves of Durango know, for our town boasts a spectacular array of one of the West’s grandest characters: the irrepressible mountain man.
Bearded, grizzled and standing straight at 6’3”, the (currently) 180-pound Simmons is the poster child of his kind.
If mountain men had a country, it’d be Alaska, where Simmons was born and raised. His passport from this Mecca of brawn and resilience means he also holds a birthright to suffer stylishly.
Granted, first-world suffering is not the same as the trials a mountain man endured in the mid-1800s. Simmons definitely doesn’t trap beavers or wrestle bears like the hairy-chested explorers of yore (or does he?) But where he falls short in these respectable categories, he makes up for in stride. Long, strong-legged strides.
Strides that took him – again – all the way to this years’ World Ski Mountaineering Championships, held in Switzerland Feb. 6-12.
This elite international ski mountaineering (skimo for short) race is also known as “Worlds” and takes place every other year. At the ripe age of 43, Simmons has now made Team USA three times in a row: 2011, 2013 and 2015.
“I really enjoy trying to see how much I can push myself. It’s kind of easy to do because I enjoy it,” says Simmons regarding his attitude toward seeking out suffer fests.
According to the U.S. Ski Mountaineering Association’s (USSMA) website, anyone can qualify for the U.S. Team so long as they are a U.S. citizen and earn enough points at no less than three USSMA events throughout the racing season.
The 2015 U.S. Team included 13 men and six women (ahem, ladies, the world awaits). Simmons earned his coveted spot by competing at the CS Irwin Race in Crested Butte in early December and at the Grand Targhee and Jackson Hole segments of the Wyoming Rando Roundup (where he placed fourth overall).
His favorite memory thus far at Worlds was during his debut in Italy in 2011.
 Simmons and Pine Needle ski tech Ben Brashear make sure Simmons’ skis are race-day ready./Courtesy Photo |
During the teams race, his teammate crashed and broke his skis, not exactly putting the team in great contention. But rather than back down, Simmons poured it on. “I sprinted anyway on the uphill finish, and as I was going realized the guy from the Norwegian team started sprinting, too,” Simmons recalled. “So I pushed harder. My kids were running beside us with the American flag all the way to the end. When we crossed the line, the Norwegian threw up. Multiple times,” Simmons chuckles. “We didn’t get a great place but I’ll never forget it.”
After launching his custom house-building business, Maple Mountain Builders, in New Hampshire, Simmons and his wife, Holly, moved to Durango in 2000, where their sons, Quinn, 13, and Colby, 11, can now say they were born and raised. Simmons chooses to keep his business low-tech, so you won’t find it on the web.
“Durango’s been good to us. The housing market’s been good to us. We’ve built about 20 homes since we got here,” says Simmons, who breaks tree trunks into 2-by-4s with his bare hands and spits nails en lieu of using a hammer.
Because Holly works with Scott, the whole family was able to take time to fly to Europe at the beginning of February to support Simmons for his last Worlds. Maybe.
“I think I could make it again but I don’t feel like I can be any faster than I was this year. It’s a little less rewarding to make it and not feel I’m as fast as I ever was,” Simmons says reluctantly.
As for his oldest son, Quinn, the next time the Worlds comes around he’ll be 15 – the youngest age to qualify. “He likes the glory of being fast but the jury’s still out on if he has any work ethic,” said Simmons. “He’s definitely talented and has what it takes.”
A strong work ethic and discipline are keys for success in skimo, says Simmons, who’s been skiing for 35 years now.
“There’s a lot of guys who’d be doing better at skimo but skiing is just so much fun that you just go up and ski ... you’ve got to like training, too.”
Which, of course, Simmons does. “I really like training,” he said, adding that he splits up skimo season into three parts. Early season is spent on long, slow ski tours or runs and mid-season is devoted to intervals and racing. And then comes the reward for all that hard work: spring skiing. “Spring skiing is ...
the best. Corn snow’s my favorite kind. I’d take that over powder,” he said. “From now on, I’ll be skiing for fun.”
Except he can’t set intervals entirely aside. After all, Nationals in Crested Butte are this weekend, March 14-15, and the Grand Traverse, a 40-mile backcountry race from Crested Butte to Aspen, is coming up at the end of March.
“I’m trying to stay motivated,” sighs a slightly burnt-out Simmons, saying he’s grateful to have strong training partners, such as ultrarunner Paul Hamilton, his partner for the Grand Traverse. “He’s always up for whatever, and he can keep up.”
Hamilton and Simmons have good company while training in Durango, especially as members of the Hesperus/Pine Needle Mountaineering Uphill Ski Club. Simmons sees the nearby hill as “something real special and a great training ground” for skimo. He’s hopeful that Purgatory will climb on board by allowing uphill ski training someday.
Besides a lack of support for uphill ski policies, Simmons has a couple of other pet peeves in the mountains. One is people who overshoot times when asked “How much longer?”
Mr. Durango prefers to unintentionally torture whoever he’s adventuring with by saying, “It’ll only take 10 minutes” regardless of how far it actually is. Note to self.
His other pet peeve?
“Fat bikes. I mean, we live in Durango. Short winters, you know. Why bother? I think they should be in buying skis from Pine Needle,” says the shameless locally sponsored Scarpa athlete through Julbo goggles “that rock.” Incidentally, during races he only drinks Tailwind energy mix, a Durango-based business. Ba-zing!
It’s not that Simmons doesn’t like bikes. In 1994, he initially moved to Durango for school to race with Fort Lewis College’s mountain bike team. That was the first year mountain biking became a collegiate sport and thus the first year FLC brought home the first of 19 national championship titles.
“It was just so much fun. We didn’t have structure. Just went out and rode our bikes all the time, and if there was a race, we’d race,” recalls Simmons, finding some similarities between the olden days of collegiate mountain biking and the newness of skimo racing.
But skimo already has legitimacy thanks to National Geographic’s 2014 Adventurer of the Year and miniature version of a mountain man, Kilian Jornet.
“I have the fastest ascent record on Mount Hood. But if you have the record, that just means Kilian hasn’t done it yet,” said Simmons.
For a fourth-grade class project, Simmons’ younger son, Colby, had to do a report on his hero. Jornet made the cut; Simmons did not. (This was before Simmons received the Mr. Durango recognition, so things might change in young Colby’s eyes.)
So does this man of the mountains have an Achilles heel?
“I have a sweet tooth. It’s a real battle,” says Simmons with a heavy sigh.
So, male reader, now that you know you have something in common with Simmons (not to diminish this similarity, but what man doesn’t have a sweet tooth?) what’s stopping you from getting out there and living life as well as you can wherever you are?
“That dash between the two dates on the tombstone. That’s what it’s about. It’s a mystery, but it matters what you did between,” offers Simmons.
So what does Simmons win for receiving the esteemed title? Unfortunately, the Mr. Durango committee has decided that the only befitting award for Simmons is impossible to bestow. Because, like Chuck Norris, we’d add Simmons’ face to Mount Rushmore, but the granite isn’t hard enough for his beard.