"I started cross country skiing in the Rockies with my family when I was three or four", says Jamie as he reminisces about his first mountain experiences. "I didn't start competing until after I saw the 1980 Winter Olympic cross-country ski races on TV. I figured that looked like fun and entered the Alberta Winter Games when I was thirteen."

Jamie traded the traditional knickers he wore when skiing with his family for one piece racing suits. Hungry to become a recognized skier, he embraced a demanding training program similar to that used by many top Russian and European juniors. Training in the parks around Calgary, Jamie would often challenge himself by sprinting after wild deer. While other teenage boys were more interested in girls and parties, Jamie went to bed early and focused his energy instead on his Olympic dreams.

Jamie's sacrifices began to pay off when at 15 he won gold in the juvenile boy's category of the Canada Cup. At 17, Jamie became a junior member of the Alberta team and was named as Calgary's primary male hope for its 1988 Olympic Games.

He soon discovered that his hometown of Calgary did not have enough snow for him and decided to move to a specialized Vermont ski school to train with other athletes. Although he enjoyed Vermont, Jamie soon left school altogether, deciding instead to focus on training. Living in Canmore with 3 other competitive skiers, Jamie became a full-time athlete.

When Jamie was 19, the 1988 Olympics were only a year away. He began to train harder than he ever had before. He told a newspaper reporter, "all my life I've dreamed about being world champion or Olympic champion. I can't imagine doing anything else. I can always go back to school. I can't always train and ski." Jamie was quoted shortly before he fell ill in late 1987 and was bed-ridden for six months suffering from illness due to over-training. His illness removed Jamie from the Olympic running. Upon recovery Jamie decided to retire from skiing. His passion for the sport had become obsessive, costing him his health. Instead Jamie began to focus on another goal. He had learned important lessons from his ski career and the training and mental discipline that Jamie fostered in the Rocky Mountains became the foundation of his new pursuit…Mount Everest's summit.