10th Annual U.S. Extreme Freeskiing Telemark Championships at Crested Butte

Above: Second-place finisher Will Cardamone launching Burger Rock..

Putting The Extreme Back In Freeskiing Story & photos by Mitch Weber

March 27, 2006-- For years promoters of big mountain telemark competitions have tried to come up with a name for their event that describes what the comps are about. After all, with everything from Gatorade to Doritos bearing the word "extreme," that word had lost a lot of meaning and become, well, kind of embarrassing. Unfortunately, alternative terms like "freeskiing" and "big mountain" leave all but avid devotees scratching their heads and wondering, "huh, what's that?" But tell someone that you are going to compete or attend an extreme skiing competition and just about everybody will know what you are talking about.... including potential sponsors. So it was probably a good idea when Crested Butte officials moved to reclaim the word "extreme" by calling their annual event the U.S. Extreme Freeskiing Telemark Championships.

Day 2 venue: Deadend Chutes (left) and Bodybag in the trees at right

This past weekend, athletes and spectators alike were reminded that these comps are indeed all about extreme skiing. Two always challenging venues, Headwall and Staircase, were made even more difficult by conditions that can best be described as firm and boney. Stomping landings and hanging on at high speed after straight runs was problematic, and as a result the two days of competition will probably be remembered more for its many spectacular wipeouts than anything else. That's too bad, because these freeheel athletes put on an equally spectacular show while on their feet.

During Friday's day 1 qualifier at Headwall, there were many long slides for life, including a harrowing tumble taken by Silverthorne Colorado's Erin Young, who basically slid more than half way down the enormous bowl. "I hit a rock when I landed my last and largest air," Young explained later. "My skis stopped and I went down without warning, then I just couldn't get turned around enough to get my skis below me so that I could stop." A favorite to end up on the podium going into the comp, Young escaped serious injury but was crushed by the almost certain knowledge that she would probably not make the cut. "I want to ski in the finals so bad," she said, with a tear in her eye. But when the points were tallied Young's score left her 6 places below the cut, meaning the comp was over for her. Still, the two time junior women's champion who only started competing as an adult last year (she took third at CB in '05) should take some comfort in the fact that she went out while going for it... her air was one of the biggest we have seen taken by a female competitor in years.

On the men's side of things, Alpine Meadows comp second-place finisher Nick Devore skied a rowdy line in the qualifier, but also fell hard and slid for a good distance before making an impressive and athletic recovery, allowing the Aspen local to earn and keep enough points to make the final. Fortunately, despite the many long slides, there were no serious injuries during Friday's qualifier. Sadly, the same cannot be sad of Saturday's finals, especially the "Super Final," a last run for the top 5 women and top 10 men. With so many competitors in the finals (65 of the 118 athletes registered made the cut) this Super Final was run quite late in the afternoon, as a result the already firm snow began to glaze a bit, making it even faster and more challenging. The very large Crested Butte crowd watched in shocked horror as local Karen Reader tripped at the top of one of the dead ends that gives the Deadend Chutes their name. Reader rode down the rocks (far left in the venue photo above) on her back, finally coming to a stop on the apron below. Competition was stopped while the ski patrol attended to Karen, who tweaked her neck but otherwise seemed to have had luck with her in avoiding a more serious injury. Next to go down was eventual third-place finisher Sarah Light, of Whitefish, MT. The 2004 Women's Division champion was almost home free when near the end of her Super Final run, in the area between Deadend and Bodybag, she fell onto her back and starfished down the rocks, ending up with a dislocated elbow. A tough competitor, Light got up and skied down to the finish line before being evacuated off the mountain in a sled by ski patrollers. Despite the mishap, Light scored enough points on her last run, that when combined with her very high scoring earlier runs, gave her third place in the final tally.

Above: Sarah Light goes down heavily.

As horrific as these two bad falls were, the most serious injury of the comp was still to come. With just three competitors to go, E.J. Poplawski, a crowd favorite in recent comps, took the mandatory big air at the bottom of Bodybag with a lot of speed, barely making the needed hard right turn and narrowly missing a head-on collision with a large tree.

Those of us with a good view of the Salt Lake City local were momentarily relieved, believing that E.J. had dodged a bullet, but then we were shocked to see Poplawski inexplicably lose control. He smashed into a smaller tree, breaking one ski in half and ejecting out of his other ski before coming to rest 20 yards downslope. Reports from those who rushed to attend to E.J. (including Couloir's John Atkinson, in the blue parka at right) indicted that the popular athlete who began the day in eleventh place, suffered a tib-fib fracture, a shoulder separation, a possibly broken humorous bone in his arm and an apparent concussion. At the awards ceremony that evening the word was passed that E.J.'s condition had deteriorated to the point that medical personnel had made the decision to fly him out of Crested Butte for immediate medical care rather than take the time to get E.J. to a hospital by ambulance.

After waiting at the top for well more than an hour due to the breaks made necessary by these mishaps , Mark Robbins and Dylan Crossman had to pull it together for their Super Final runs. Both skied runs that scored far below their earlier efforts. Crossman's 33.4 was 7 full points below his earlier finals run. The perennial tele comp champion who now calls Alta home, uncharacteristically fell and slid on his side. Unable to stop his slide immediately, the former Mad River local ended up too low to make the traverse over to Burger Rock where he had planned to launch one of his trademark stylie airs. In spite of this, Crossman finished with a total of 110.4 points, to second-place winner Will Cardamone's 107.6, giving Dylan yet another comp victory, extending a winning streak that goes back to when he first burst onto the scene in 2003.

As bad as the carnage was last weekend, there were many memorable highlights and very positive stories that can be told. For instance, the 118 entrants, including some 40 juniors, was the most impressive turnout ever for a telemark competition. Beautiful weather encouraged folks to come out and watch the competition as well, with an estimated 200 enthusiastic spectators in attendance for the finals. When we first started covering these comps six years ago, typically there would be half as many competitors and the "crowd" would consist of maybe a dozen friends and parents. Things have definitely changed at the tele comps and much of the credit for this must be given to Gina Kroft, Crested Butte's VP of marketing and communications, and event coordinator Jeff Moffet. Through their efforts, and in partnership with Tough Guy Productions, the U.S. Extreme Freeskiing Telemark Championships have become the event of the year in freeheel skiing. With thousands of dollars in cash prizes, including $1,200 going to both the men's and women's division winners, as well as tons of gear, Club Med vacations, and more, the organizers of the Crested Butte comp are leading the ski industry in recognizing the growth and booming interest in telemark skiing.

We'll have more coverage of the comp coming up this week, but for now I think I'll close this report by letting the extreme smiles on the faces of these competitors speak for themselves. Putting the extreme back in freeskiing, indeed!

The top three men, from left, third place finisher Seaton MacMillan, taking second is Will Cardamone, and holding his first place trophy is Dylan Crossman.

The top five women, in order of their finish beginning with fifth place winner (left) Karen Reader, Rather Hosch, Sarah Light, Martha Burley, and repeat champion Janae Pritchett (formerly Janae Deverell).

Left: Frank Clause, Zach Marquis, Mark Robbins and Ben Morello. Right: Junior Women's winners (from left) third place finisher Jozy Gessner, second place winner Francesca Pavillard-Cain and first place finisher Mackenzie Mailly.

The Junior Men winners: in seventh (on left) is Brian Burger, Rob Wear, Max Shefte-Jacobs, Kjell Ellefson, Adrian Pougiales, Tony Ryerson, and first place winner Taylor Wisner

Meanwhile... for some the after party was a little different... and even the arrival of this very friendly gendarme didn't totally spoil the fun. I don't often wish I could go back to being a kid again but...