24 Dec Big Mountain Jr Coach of the Week: Jake O’Brien

Jake has been a skier and mountain dweller for most of his life.He was born in Heber City, UT and had the privilege of skiing some of the best snow on earth as a child in Little Cottonwood Canyon and Park City area. As a youngster he moved with his family to New Hampshire where he honed his skills on the steeps and the ice of Northern New England. Most notably skiing Tuckerman’s at age seven.

He attended Colorado College and received a BA in Philosophy in 2008. In 2007 he received the Ritt Kellogg annual grant to go ski mountaineering in Alaska. He has worked in numerous ski tune shops,  Wagner Custom Skis and San Juan Hut Systems. Jake holds a Wilderness First Responder certification and worked for one season with the Snowbird ski patrol before moving back to Colorado. In that season he also helped coach with the Wasatch Freestyle team (which was started and directed by his uncle Jon O’Brien). Some larger accomplishments are multiple heli ski hut trips in Alaska and Golden, BC, skiing numerous 14’ers  as well as hundreds of backcountry ski days.This will be Jake’s ninth season coaching with Big Mountain Jrs and TSSC, he will also be helping with the freestyle program. Jake is SafeSport certified,  and a licensed USSA coach. He has taken the CDC concussion in youth sport training.