Ski Mountaineering - 2024/25 Season Wrap
Published Sun 01 Jun 2025
Australia’s ski mountaineering athletes set records and delivered personal bests during the 2024/25 northern hemisphere season, with standout performances coming in both individual and team events. Joining the six returning athletes from the previous season, five new Australians made their World Cup debuts.
Early in the season Ava McCann became the first ever Australia to compete in an ISMF Youth World Cup, where she made the Sprint finals in Forni di Sopra (ITA) and raced to a top nine result. The Winter Youth Olympic Games athlete (in Biathlon) proving she is an athlete to watch in seasons to come.
A record 10 athletes competed across the Mixed Relay and Sprint events at the Bormio (ITA) World Cup, which also doubled as a test event for the Milano Cortina 2026 Olympic Winter Games. With ski mountaineering set to make its Games debut, this was an important stop on the road for hopefuls. Competing against a world class field, the Australians delivered, with all female athletes achieving season-best results while cross country skiing Olympian Phil Bellingham narrowly missed finals qualification by a slender five seconds. Bellingham combined with Lara Hamilton to contest the Mixed Relay, and the pair finished 29th out of 63 teams while Ava McCann achieved a career best result, continuing on her breakout season.
At the ISMF World Championships in Morgins (SUI), Australian athletes dug deep across a demanding week of racing. This year’s World Championships also served as an Olympic qualifier, thereby attracting the best of the best.
In the Olympic Sprint and Mixed Relay events Australia fielded a full contingent, four female and four male athletes in the Sprint, and three Mixed Relay teams. The highlight of the Mixed Relay was Hamilton and Bellingham making the B-final, where they finished 9th in the head-to-head racing to end up 21st overall.
In the Sprint Hamilton and Bellingham were again the stand-out athletes finishing in 41st and 48th place respectively. Both were top 60% of field results, putting the athletes into Snow Australia’s Tier 3 for Olympic nomination.
In the non-Olympic events Hamilton led the way for Australia placing 19th in the Vertical, while Kate Zander secured 33rd position in the Individual event. Making Australia’s first ever entry into the World Championships Team event, Bastien Missud and Daniel Trevena battled the conditions and fatigue to finish a commendable 25th position.
Missud was the glutton for punishment of the team, competing in all five events – Mixed Relay, Vertical, Sprint, Individual and Team. Other athletes making their World Championship debut included Innika de Rosa (Mixed Relay and Vertical), Brian Lichi (Mixed Relay, Sprint and Vertical), McCann (Mixed Relay), and Isaac Thompson (Vertical).
After the World Championships a small Aussie contingent headed to the Schladming (AUT) World Cup where Hamilton was again the standout, delivering a season best 13th overall result in the vertical and a new benchmark for Australian SkiMo athletes posting our best-ever result in an ISMF World Cup.
Overall this was an amazing season for Australian SkiMo, with a record 11 athletes competing at eight out of nine World Cup stops. The team ended the season with two men and three women fully meeting the Milano-Cortina 2026 Olympic qualifying requirements, with another two athletes partially meeting the standard. With these results Australia is on course to represent in both the Mixed Relay and Sprint at the inaugural Olympic SkiMo events in Bormio next February.
