TR - U.S. Extreme Freeskiing Tele Championships
Or: How I blew my ACL.
The short version with pics – for standard TGR attention spans ;)
I drove down to Crested Butte to compete in the Master (Baiter) Division.
Yes. I fully realize that "Extreme Telemarking" sounds oxymoronic, and that "Freeskiing Telemark Championships" are somewhat akin to the Special Olympics - I mean, even if you win, you're still a retard on broken bindings, eh?
Add to that I was in the geezers division, and I was all set.
http://home.comcast.net/%7Elaunceg/i...07roadtrip.jpg
The venue for both days was the Headwall. Crappy snow abounded, with lotsa rocks.
The terrain was suitably steep.
http://home.comcast.net/%7Elaunceg/i...CB07bgoat2.jpg
Due to marginal conditions, big air was not as feasible as, say, the Snowbird comp.
Instead, billygoating was the rule of the day.
http://home.comcast.net/%7Elaunceg/images/CB07bgoat.jpg
Although the pics are of other skiers, the following 4 pics describe a line similar to my runs.
Steepness is similar to the above shots.
1) Entrance skiers left/center into Angle Gully.
http://home.comcast.net/%7Elaunceg/i...CB07dropin.jpg
2) Deceptively easy looking crux in the Angle Gully midsection.
http://home.comcast.net/%7Elaunceg/i...midsection.jpg
This was a bad place to fall, although many of the competitors blew up here.
It was difficult to scrub speed due to the coral reef snow and hidden rocks on the steep landing.
Arrr, Me Mateys - Chocolate Chips Ahoy!
3) Once the crux was negotiated, one was faced with several choices of exit chutes, generally with mandatory air.
http://home.comcast.net/%7Elaunceg/images/CB07exit.jpg
I did this line on my second run.
4) This alternate exit is skier's right.
http://home.comcast.net/%7Elaunceg/i...B07altexit.jpg
I did this line first run, but had a worse landing than the skier pictured.
On my superfinal run I wiped out just above here and blew my knee.
I managed to limp down the rest of the course before the time limit and scored barely enough to take the win.
Dylan Crossman won the Open Men division by going gnarlier and bigger than anybody else.
http://home.comcast.net/%7Elaunceg/i...CB07dylan2.jpg
This was one of his lower scoring efforts.
Although it looks like he's doing a double stager in the pic, the snow is actually some 10 feet beneath his skis.
He's taken off from the triangular slot of snow behind him and will touch down in about another 25 vf, far below the rocks.
Icy moguls await below in the runout.
http://home.comcast.net/%7Elaunceg/i...CB07dylan1.jpg
For his superfinal run he did a flawless 360 off this feature.
For those of you who are more prose-oriented, don't get bored easily, and don't mind crossposts, here is my much longer description of the weekend.
Also, here are the news articles of Day 1 and Day 2 of the event.
Final results in this post
