The Crested Butte News Serving the Gunnison Valley since 1999
CBMST telemark team closes season strong
According the Crested Butte Mountain Sports Team (CBMST) coach Mark Robbins, a switch flipped inside the head of 16-year-old CBMST athlete Klara Wohlers.
Wohlers finished in third place skiing telemark at a junior alpine freeskiing event held at Red Mountain Resort in Canada back in January.
Then, she fell off the podium, taking fourth place last month at a telemark freeskiing competition at Alpine Meadows Resort in California.
“She was hoping for a better finish,” says Robbins. “This last month she’s come a long way. She was super motivated and stepped up her aggressiveness.”
The change in attitude paid off for Wohlers as she defended her 2009 U.S. Extreme Telemark Freeskiing junior title, winning it again this past weekend in Crested Butte.
Wohlers had the title pretty much sealed after the first day on the Headwall, building a 14-point lead on her closest competitor.
“She was the only junior woman to ski angle gully top to bottom,” says Robbins.
In fact, Wohlers’ scores after day one would have placed her second among the adult women.
With a sizable lead in place, a skier has the option to play it safe on their final run. Wohlers opted not to as she took the opportunity to rise to her coach’s challenge, firing telemark turns all the way down Cesspool in the finals.
“What I wanted to see out of her was no pausing, linking telemark turns and no hesitation at the crux,” says Robbins. “She could have played it safe but she charged it. She’s in a league of her own right now.”
Up and coming CBMST telemark athlete Grant Johnson closed his inaugural season of competing taking third place among the junior men.
Johnson is just 14 years old and following his no-holds-barred style of skiing, matched wits with the returning junior men competitors.
“He has a very impressive ability to keep it together,” says Robbins.
Case in point: his run on the Headwall on day one.
Johnson shot out across the top of Headwall looking for his line down Angle Gully but missed it completely and was left to ski where few competitors dare, adults or juniors.
“He skied a line completely by mistake and just improvised,” says Robbins.
His effort on Headwall paid off in the long run as Johnson flashed Cesspool to hold his spot and finish the weekend in third place.
“He’s right up in there and he still has a couple of years to go,” says Robbins.
