If you have ever cross-country skied over the past 30 years around Tahoe, there is a good chance Glenn Jobe had a hand in your experience. He spent years coaching skiers, and for the last seven years has run the biathlon program at ASC Training Center run by the Auburn Ski Club. Perhaps his biggest impact was when he started and designed the trail systems for the cross-country ski areas at Tahoe Donner and Kirkwood.
Glenn Jobe helps a student at ASC Training Center. | Courtesy Glenn Jobe
Jobe grew up near Alturas working on the family cattle ranch. At University of Nevada, Reno he was an alpine skier. He did not take up cross-country skiing until his senior year.
“I didn’t know what I wanted to do when I graduated. I was probably going to go back and be a rancher,” says Jobe. Then he went to Kirkwood for a race and discovered that the new resort was keen on getting a Nordic amenity. He started Kirkwood Cross Country that fall.
[blockquote3]“Jobe’s cattle industry background made his conversations with John Euer more comfortable and, on a handshake, the trails in the valley became available to be used by Tahoe Donner.”[/blockquote3]
“While I was there from 1973 to 1984, the Nordic industry really changed. We went from snowshoe-packed trails to snowmobiles to snowcats,” says Jobe. They also went from classic only, to both classic and skate skiing.
While running the ski area, Jobe also raced cross-country. At the National Championships in the spring of 1975, he met the biathlon coach, who invited him to a camp in Jackson Hole, Wyo., that fall. As soon as he tried biathlon, he was hooked.
Growing up on a ranch, Jobe was comfortable with firearms, so the combination of skiing and shooting was right up his alley. Fortunately, by that time he had married his wife, Edith, and she helped run the Nordic center while he was off training.
“It only worked because of her support,” says Jobe.
He raced in the 1978 and 1979 Biathlon World Championships, as well as the 1980 Olympics.
“I did OK. I had a really good year before the Olympics, and I over trained. If I had better coaching, I would have done better. We didn’t really have coaches back then,” says Jobe. After his experience, he would spend much of his life coaching other cross-country skiers.
The following year, Jobe won the 20km biathlon event at the National Championship in Bozeman, Mont. He then decided it was time to focus on the business at Kirkwood, remaining there for four more years. In 1984, he started a new cross-country center at Tahoe Donner. While he loved the beauty of Kirkwood, Truckee certainly had more potential for the growth of a ski area.
Before he would open Tahoe Donner, however, Jobe needed to make sure he could bring Euer Valley into the network of trails. Sitting on private land adjacent to Tahoe Donner, the land was perfect for cross-country skiing, but the Euer family had no obligation to let the ski area use it. Jobe’s cattle industry background made his conversations with John Euer more comfortable and, on a handshake, the trails in the valley became available to be used by Tahoe Donner.
At Tahoe Donner, Jobe went into partnership with Peter Werbil, who did the marketing, while Jobe designed a new trail system from scratch. To design the trails, he says, “I would go out with a snowcat, then try it skiing to see if it works.” The trails were designed to most efficiently use the snowcats and keep the easier trails near the lodge and the harder trails further out.
“I did some trails I had to erase right away because they wouldn’t have worked. It helps if the snowcat drivers are skiers, but it was all new territory,” Jobe says. Werbil left after a year and Jobe took on a new partner, Kenny Stannard.
Passion for coaching
In 1992, Jobe decided that he’d had his fill of running cross-country centers and he became a real estate appraiser — but he still loved coaching. He coached off and on from the 1970s through 2005 for Far West Nordic, primarily out of the ASC Training Center. He still coaches several clinics every winter, but his real passion is coaching biathlon.
In 2008, Northstar’s Nordic center director, Julie Young, decided to start a biathlon program. Jobe was hired to run it under the auspices of the ASC Training Center. After two years, they decided that the Northstar access was too challenging, and the program moved to the ASC Training Center on Donner Summit where it resides today.
Jobe now has 40 to 50 students in the program from youth to masters.
“We have a really strong group right now. We had a skier in the Biathlon World Cup, and two juniors went to the Norway Youth Competition. It is really exciting, the only year-round biathlon program on the West Coast,” says Jobe.
In addition to top athletes, the program is designed for anyone who is interested in trying biathlon.
Now, Jobe’s challenge is to build a more permanent range.
“We need to upgrade the location, put a roof over it and not have to move targets every time it snows,” Jobe says.
A primary goal is to design the range so trails do not have to be closed when the range is in session and the rifles are firing. The Auburn Ski Club is a nonprofit that is looking for financial assistance to build a new biathlon range.
Jobe lives in Sierraville. There he finds the best of both worlds. He gets to ride horses and do some cattle work on a neighbor’s ranch, and then he jumps in the car and takes the beautiful drive to Donner Summit to show the next generation of biathletes how it is done.
For more information on the biathlon program, visit auburnskiclub.com.
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