The Crested Butte News Serving the Gunnison Valley since 1999
Return with podium showing
The Crested Butte Mountain Sports Team (CBMST) telemark ski athletes hit the road last week for their first junior telemark comp of the season, held at Alpine Meadows Resort in California.
CBMST telemark freeride coach Mark Robbins rallied two of his four athletes, 14-year-old Grant Johnson and 16-year-old Klara Wohlers, to compete in the 2010 Alpine Meadows Telemark and Freeride Festival February 18-22.
It was the second competition of the season for Wohlers, but the first true telemark event. Wohlers took third place in the Canadian Open Junior Freeskiing Championships at Red Mountain held on January 16. Wohlers was the lone telemark skier at the alpine comp and still stepped up to the podium.
It was the first competition ever for the young Johnson, a reliably aggressive skier who pushes the envelope every time he drops the knee.
Coach Robbins has worked extensively with the crew all season to prepare them for the upcoming event schedule.
“This whole year when we’re out freeskiing we’re always talking about the five categories that are judged at these events,” says Robbins. “I tell them to pick a line that they know they can ski fluidly, show aggressiveness and show good telemark technique.”
The team hit the road last Wednesday and drove all day to get there in time for a day of inspection runs and warm-up before the start of the competition.
What they found was a bit unnerving as the venue choice was still up in the air and the conditions were firm.
“It was rock-hard and sun-affected,” explains Robbins. “It was definitely firm conditions, scary even.”
Robbins laid out a game plan for his athletes and they followed it almost to a tee.
“The big focus for Grant has been controlling his aggressiveness so he stays on his feet and gets it done in style,” says Robbins. “We picked a pretty aggressive line for him, which he flashed both runs.”
Johnson finished the two-day, two-run competition in second place overall in the junior men class ages 12-17.
Wohlers finished day one in fourth place and then laid down the second highest score of day two to remain in fourth place, one point out of third.
“She stepped it up on day two and laid down an aggressive fall line run,” says Robbins. “I couldn’t be more proud of how Klara and Grant skied this weekend. Both of those guys are totally dedicated to the telemark turn.”
Asher Broady and Conrad “Conradical” Truettner will join Johnson and Wohlers for the next event, the 14th Annual Extreme Telemark Freeskiing Championships here in Crested Butte March 18-20.
“We’ve got four weeks to learn from our experiences at Alpine Meadows,” says Robbins.
