In the spring of 2011 she decided to switch to ski cross from alpine skiing. During the next season she crashed out during a race and broke three vertebrae in her neck and back. She was in an upper body neck brace for seven weeks. She made her breakthrough during the 2013–14 World Cup season, taking seven top ten finishes on the World Cup and rounding out the season with consecutive third places in Åre and La Plagne. Simmerling competed for Canada at the 2014 Winter Olympics in ski cross where she placed 14th overall. The following season she scored second places in World Cup competitions on home snow in Nakiska and in the French resort of Val Thorens, finishing behind teammate Marielle Thompson both times. She started her return to ski cross competition in the 2016–17 World Cup with three ninth places and an eighth, before taking the first podium of her comeback when she finished third in the first of two rounds at Innichen, again behind Thompson.