Born in North Conway, New Hampshire, Smith attended A. Crosby Kennett High School. She spent her skiing time on the local mountain, Cranmore, where the founder of the first skiing school in the United States, Hannes Schneider, arrived from Austria. Following Cranmore, she trained with the Mount Washington Valley Ski Team, coached by Kurt Simard. Smith graduated from high school in 2005, and then attended the University of New Hampshire in Durham and raced for the Wildcats in 2006.