About

My name is Scott Semple. I coach mountain sports at Uphill Athlete.

I've been involved in one sport or another since I was nine years old. First, it was gymnastics, some motocross, and then squash.

In gymnastics and squash, I did well provincially, and got crushed when the pond got deeper. In motocross, I just tried to hang on and not get killed.

In my 20s, I started climbing and, in my 40s, skimo racing.

Skimo Racing

Since 2014, I've been skimo racing and studying endurance training with Scott Johnston. Using the Uphill Athlete method, I qualified for the Canadian National Development Team three times and competed at the 2019 World Championships.

Climbing

Before skimo, I was a sponsored climber, supported by Black Diamond, SCARPA, Grivel, Metolius, Clif Bar, and Adidas Eyewear. But that was all before Instagram, so it’s hard to tell if it ever really happened…

Coaching

I coach mountain sports (climbing, ski mountaineering, mountain running, etc) at Uphill Athlete. I'm a regular contributor to the UA website and the moderator of the UA forum.

Writing

When I was climbing a lot, I wrote for several climbing journals and magazines: Alpinist, Climbing, Rock & Ice, Gripped, the Canadian Alpine Journal, and the American Alpine Journal.