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February 28, 2013

Crested Butte Telemarkers Ski Comp POW at Targhee

group shot targhee

Last week the Crested Butte Mountain Sports Team’s telemarkers headed up to Grand Targhee, Wyoming for the first of the two big mountain telemark events of the 2013 season. Mountain Sports athletes Conrad Truettner and Asher Coady were joined by their coach, Mark Robbins. CBMR athletes Colin and Seaton MacMillan also made the trek.

Words and Photos: Mark Robbins

Seaton McMillan finding some soft landings. Always a nice thing in competition.

Seaton MacMillan finding some soft landings. Always a nice thing in competition.

It seems like it always snows at the ‘Ghee, and this year was no exception. The crew arrived early to enjoy a Thursday of freeskiing and had a great time remembering how to jump off of things into soft snow. Friday brought a handful of inches of fresh snow and day one of the 2013 Grand Targhee Big Mountain Telemark Comp. Conrad laid down two fluid and aggressive runs with small airs, a strategy that proved successful as many juniors succumbed at some point to the choppy powder landings. Asher chose a more technical line, but after a strong first run he tumbled on his second run due to a deeper than expected landing. With a storm on the way and anticipating weather delays, the judges cut the junior field in half after day one. Asher found himself just on the wrong side of the cut line while Conrad’s scores put him solidly in second place with several points between himself and the third place junior. On the adult side of things Colin MacMillan had the strongest showing amongst the Buttians, while Seaton and Mark were each at least happy with one of our two runs. Day one scores put Colin in eighth place, Mark in twelth, and Seaton in fourteenth.

Saturday morning brought nine inches of fresh with white out conditions at the base area. We gathered for the competitors’ meeting anticipating a weather delay day, but fortunately visibility was reported to be better up high. Conditions in the day two venue were unfathomably good. Bobcat is technically open to the public, but the half-hour hike apparently deters most who ski Grand Targhee. And while the day one venue had been host to a competition two weeks prior, Saturday’s venue had had no traffic to speak of and was untracked and deep. Conrad again skied an aggressive and fluid line, and spiced it up with a sizeable bottom air, which he stomped. Unfortunately a snow gremlin snagged his rear ski at the bottom of the venue, but his efforts kept him on the podium. Conrad took third place, his first podium performance while on the road.

Asher Coady catching air time.

Asher Coady catching air time.

Seaton was the first Crested Butte adult to drop in, and had the most successful run. Taking a big entrance air and stomping two 360’s, he ended the day in eighth place. Mark dropped next and “kind-of-sort-of” landed his airs, staying in twelfth place for the day. Colin set his sights on the podium, and after stomping a huge entrance air lined himself up for a big double at the bottom of the venue. After fighting with some treetops and extricating himself from the crater of powder in which he flopped, Colin didn’t quite cross the finish line in the allotted time and unfortunately earned a DNF.

With so much amazing snow and terrain the crew couldn’t help themselves and stayed an extra day, romping around through more fresh snow and big airs on Sunday while Colin iced a swollen knee and picked pine needles out of his outerwear. Asher and Conrad confirmed that it was the best skiing of their young lives, and Seaton and I didn’t think it was too shabby either. The crew now sets their sites on the Crested Butte Big Mountain Telemark Comp slated for March 22nd and 23rd.



About the Author

2. Will Dujardin
Will Dujardin is our content editor at West Elk Project. He competes in big mountain competitions and coaches the Crested Butte Mountain Sports Team. Skiing is his life and he likes to mix it with other fun things like DH mountain biking and traveling.




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